Chapter 29 - The Balcony Reckoning
"Shut it off! SHUT IT OFF!" Victoria shrieked, backing away from the podium, her manicured hands clawing at her throat as the video looped, the audio of Lily’s terrified scream echoing through the grand hall in surround sound.
"Someone kill the feed!" Senator Sterling bellowed, stumbling away from Victoria as if she had turned into a leper.
*BOOM!*
The double doors of the private executive elevator were blown off their hydraulic tracks, crashing flat onto the polished marble floor.
Through the cloud of fire and smoke walked Ethan Vance.
He didn't look like a dead man. He looked like an avenging titan.
His face was streaked with soot and blood, his jaw set like iron. Strapped securely to his chest, safe and unharmed, was Lily, holding Clara’s battered teddy bear. In Ethan’s right hand was the suppressed tactical sidearm; in his left was the master override remote linked to the building’s server.
The Aegis private security guards raised their carbines, but Detective Ramirez and a dozen federal agents with tactical badges flooded through the emergency stairwells, weapons drawn.
"FEDERAL AGENTS! DROP YOUR WEAPONS! STAND DOWN!" Ramirez roared.
The security guards looked at the video still looping on the giant screen, looked at the federal badges, and slowly dropped their rifles to the marble floor.
Victoria turned, her eyes wild, her red gown swishing violently as she fled through the broken side doors toward the panoramic open-air observation terrace eighty floors above the streets.
Ethan followed her into the howling rain.
The cold wind whipped through Victoria’s hair, tearing her diamond earrings loose. She backed toward the edge of the glass terrace balustrade, her high heels catching on the wet limestone tiles.
"Stay back, Ethan!" she screamed, her voice cracking into hysteria. "I'll jump! I swear to God I'll take the trust secrets down with me!"
"The secrets are already gone, Victoria," Ethan said, walking slowly toward her, his voice perfectly steady, carrying through the wind. "Clara’s research is uploaded to the global public domain. The offshore labs on Dead Man's Reef are underwater. Julian is dead. You have nothing left."
Victoria laughed—a bitter, hollow, terrifying sound that tore from her chest.
"You think this was about money, Ethan? You pathetic, blind fool!" she spat, pointing a trembling, manicured finger at Lily. "Look at her! Look at your precious daughter! You think Clara gave birth to her?!"
Ethan stopped. His grip on the remote tightened. "What did you say?"
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Victoria sneered through her smeared mascara, rain soaking through her crimson gown. "Clara was sterile, Ethan! She couldn't carry a child! Lily isn't Clara’s baby! She’s mine!"
***
