CHAPTER 6: THE FATHER WHO CAME ARMED
My mother was alive.
Not on a recording.
Not inside an old photograph.
She stood twenty feet below me in the loading bay.
Her wrists were bound.
There was blood near the collar of her white blouse, but she remained upright.
Gideon Holloway stood beside her.
Unlike Grant, Gideon did not need to raise his voice.
Real power rarely shouted.
“Release my son,” he said through the speakers.
Grant approached the nearest camera.
“Father, what is happening?”
Gideon looked at him through the feed.
“You failed.”
Grant flinched.
“You told me to make Mara sign the transfer.”
“I told you to solve a problem.”
“I did what you asked.”
“You created witnesses, video evidence and a sealed crime scene.”
Gideon’s expression did not change.
“You were careless.”
Something inside Grant broke.
For the first time, I did not see the arrogant heir who had struck me.
I saw a frightened son who had spent his entire life trying to earn the approval of a man incapable of love.
It did not excuse him.
But it explained the desperation beneath his cruelty.
“What do you want with my mother?” I asked.
“She has information that belongs to me.”
“The ledger belongs to the victims of your network.”
“Everyone inside that building has benefited from the network.”
Several guests turned toward one another.
Gideon continued.
“Judges accepted appointments. Politicians accepted campaign funds. Corporations received favorable contracts. Museums increased their collections.”
He looked directly into the camera.
“Do not pretend you are surrounded by innocent people.”
He was right about that.
But guilt did not make him judge and executioner.
“Where is the Meridian drive?” I asked.
My mother answered before Gideon could.
“Rebecca moved it.”
Gideon struck her across the face.
Grant stepped closer to the screen.
“Don’t touch her.”
His father looked almost amused.
“You have become protective of the woman who raised Mara?”
Grant stared at him.
“What did you say?”
The gallery fell silent.
Gideon realized his mistake.
My mother closed her eyes.
Grant turned toward me.
“She raised you?”
“My mother raised me.”
“No,” Gideon said. “She raised both of you.”
Grant looked back at the screen.
“That’s impossible.”
My mother lifted her face.
“I was there when you were born.”
Grant shook his head.
“My mother was Evelyn Holloway.”
“Evelyn gave birth to you,” my mother said. “But she disappeared when you were six months old.”
Grant’s breathing changed.
“My mother died.”
“That is what Gideon told you.”
Grant looked at his father.
“You said she died in France.”
Gideon said nothing.
My mother continued.
“You lived at the Vale estate for almost a year while Gideon searched for Evelyn. Mara was three. The two of you slept in rooms across the hall from each other.”
A memory surfaced.
A little boy sitting beneath the piano in our old family home.
Dark hair.
A wooden toy horse.
I had believed he was an imaginary friend created by a lonely child.
“Gray,” I whispered.
Grant stared at me.
No one had called him that in public.
His childhood middle name was Grayson.
“You used to hide beneath the piano,” I said.
He stepped backward.
Gideon raised his gun toward my mother.
“Enough.”
Elias studied the loading bay layout.
“We can reach them through the freight shaft.”
“They have six armed men.”
“We have surprise.”
“No,” my mother said through the speaker. “Gideon wants you to attack.”
She looked toward one of the loading cameras.
“There are explosives inside the vehicle.”
Elias enlarged the image.
Wires ran beneath the armored chassis.
Gideon smiled.
“If your security team enters this bay, the museum loses its foundation.”
The guests began shouting.
A billionaire pushed toward the officers.
“Give him what he wants!”
Others joined him.
“Release Grant!”
“Open the building!”
“Save us!”
They had ignored me when Grant attacked.
Now they expected me to protect them.
I faced the crowd.
“The museum’s foundation can withstand a controlled blast.”
Elias looked at me sharply.
“But the underground vault cannot,” I continued.
Gideon’s smile disappeared.
The Meridian Ledger was not in the vault.
But he did not know that.
“I will destroy the entire lower collection before I give it to you.”
“You would destroy four billion dollars in art?”
“I would destroy four billion dollars in stolen evidence.”
The guests fell silent.
Gideon lowered the gun slightly.
“You are Arthur’s daughter.”
“No.”
I looked at my mother.
“I am hers.”
A new voice entered the loading bay.
“Then prove it.”
Rebecca Shaw stepped from behind the armored vehicle.
She was no longer wearing the blood-covered curator’s uniform.
The woman attacked in the laboratory had been a decoy.
Rebecca held a metal case in one hand.
The Meridian drive.
And a detonator in the other.
She smiled at Gideon.
“Everyone wants the ledger.”
May you like
Then she turned toward the camera.
“But only one family gets to survive tonight.”
