Chapter 9 - The Room That Watched Them.
Owen smashed the hidden camera with the butt of a flashlight.
Daniel crossed the room and opened the steel cabinet.
It was empty.
For the first time, he looked genuinely frightened.
“The amendment was here this morning.”
Eleanor turned toward Owen again.
He raised both hands.
“I have had access to these rooms for twelve years, and I have never betrayed you.”
Daniel studied him.
Willa remembered something from the drive to the penthouse.
Owen had not been surprised when Daniel mentioned the archive theft.
But he had been shocked by Julian Cross’s name.
She believed that shock.
“Someone else has access.”
Daniel nodded slowly.
“My assistant.”
“Marissa?”
Marissa Vale had worked for Daniel for six years and knew every schedule, code, lawyer, and courier he used.
Willa’s stomach tightened.
Three days earlier, Marissa had personally delivered the blue envelope to Willa’s apartment.
“She knew I had the photograph.”
Daniel called her.
No answer.
Then Willa’s phone buzzed.
A message from Marissa appeared.
I am sorry.
A second message followed.
I thought he only wanted the document.
Then a photograph arrived.
Marissa was sitting in the back seat of a car with a bruise across her mouth.
Beside her was Grant.
He was smiling.
Willa felt the blood drain from her face.
Grant sent a voice note.
“Bring me the flash drive and come alone.”
Daniel reached for the phone.
Willa pulled it away.
Grant’s message continued.
“If I do not see you in thirty minutes, Marissa pays for your father’s mistakes.”
Eleanor whispered, “He will hurt her.”
Willa looked at her.
“You know that now?”
Eleanor accepted the cruelty in the question.
“Yes.”
Daniel refused to let Willa go.
Willa refused to listen.
“For a year, everyone around me made decisions because they thought I could not handle the truth.”
She picked up the flash drive.
“That ends tonight.”
Owen offered to follow at a distance.
Willa agreed only if Grant never saw him.
The meeting location was an abandoned Sterling theater scheduled for demolition near the river.
Willa changed out of the torn gown into jeans, a sweater, and sneakers from an emergency bag Owen kept in the car.
Before leaving, she looked at her reflection.
The bruise on her cheek was darkening.
She did not cover it.
At the theater, Grant stood alone beneath the broken marquee.
Marissa was nowhere in sight.
“You came.”
“You said you had Marissa.”
Grant held out his hand.
“The drive.”
“Where is she?”
Grant smiled.
“Still trying to save employees before yourself.”
Willa did not move.
Grant’s smile faded.
“You humiliated me tonight.”
“You hit me.”
“You challenged me in front of people who are waiting for me to fail.”
“That was your choice.”
His eyes sharpened.
“Give me the drive.”
Willa held it up.
“Tell me where Marissa is.”
A sound came from inside the dark theater.
Someone clapped slowly.
Julian Cross stepped into the light.
Grant turned in surprise.
“Dad?”
Cross looked at him without affection.
Then he looked at Willa.
“You see the problem now.”
Willa’s pulse jumped.
Cross was not there to help Grant.
May you like
He was there to take him apart.
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