If Vivian realizes we know, she’ll use the boy to protect herself.”
Marcus stopped breathing for a moment.
His father’s voice had survived twenty-four years inside a small silver drive.
The recording continued.
Adrian said, “Vincent can be ruthless, but he does not steal from family.
He needs to know before Vivian destroys all of us.”
Vivian crossed the room so quickly that even Tony flinched.
She reached for Elena’s phone.
Elena stepped back and raised her pistol.
“Don’t.”
Vivian froze.
The mask slipped then.
Her lips tightened.
The calm socialite who hosted charity dinners and smiled beside me at political fundraisers vanished.
“Your father should have minded his own business,” she said.
Elena’s arm remained steady, but tears brightened her eyes.
“He tried to warn Vincent.”
“He tried to ruin me.”
The admission hung in the room.
Tony looked toward the hallway.
Vivian realized what she had said and recovered quickly.
“That is not a confession.
Everyone here heard her threaten me.”
“Everyone outside heard you too,” Elena said.
She turned the phone so Vivian could see a red symbol pulsing in the corner.
LIVE.
“The videos, your statement, and everything happening in this room are being transmitted to Elias Ward and a federal financial-crimes investigator.”
Vivian looked at me.
“You let a servant put cameras in our home?”
“No,” I said.
“You made her necessary.”
Tony raised his pistol again.
Marcus saw it.
“Don’t,” he warned.
Tony ignored him.
“Give me the phone, Elena.
Nobody has to make this worse.”
“You killed my father,” she said.
“Your father made a bad decision.”
“He made an honest one.”
Tony’s finger tightened.
Marcus moved first.
He struck Tony’s arm as the gun fired.
The bullet shattered the mirror above my dresser, spraying glass across the carpet.
Elena ducked.
I crossed the space between Tony and me before he could recover, drove his wrist against the safe door, and forced the weapon loose.
Age had slowed me, but anger remembered every lesson I had ever learned.
The gun hit the floor.
One of the other men kicked it beneath the bed and lifted both hands.
“I was paid to stand watch,” he said.
“I didn’t agree to murder anyone.”
The third man followed, placing his pistol on the carpet.
Tony lunged toward the hallway.
Marcus blocked him.
For one uncertain second, uncle and nephew stood on the same side again.
