Chapter 14 - Stallone’s Secret
Emergency lights flashed red.
I heard Lily scream.
Then Marco shouted:
“DOWN!”
An explosion tore through the far wall.
Glass and steel rained across the floor.
I covered Lily with my body.
Police shouted.
Thomas tried to run.
An officer tackled him.
The emergency lights stabilized.
Marco still stood near us.
He hadn’t escaped.
He hadn’t taken Lily.
He had detonated the loading dock doors.
Outside, three black SUVs were burning.
Men had been waiting inside them.
Victor stared.
“You knew.”
Marco nodded.
“I suspected.”
I grabbed him.
“You could have killed us!”
“The charge went outward.”
“You pressed a bomb!”
“Daniel.”
He pointed toward the ceiling.
A red light blinked.
“Thomas had the building wired to kill everyone once police entered.”
I stared.
“You knew?”
“Not until thirty seconds ago.”
He handed the remote to Detective Harmon.
“Signal jammer. Emergency frequency trigger.”
Thomas cursed from the floor.
Marco walked toward him.
“You really should stop buying cheap detonators.”
I almost laughed.
Almost.
Then I remembered Victor’s accusation.
“The cameras.”
Marco turned.
“I installed them.”
“For who?”
“Amelia.”
“Victor said—”
“Victor paid for the original system.”
Victor nodded.
“Years ago.”
Marco continued.
“When I discovered he had access, I rebuilt it.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because Amelia begged me not to.”
I hated secrets.
I hated every person who claimed to love me while hiding something.
Marco seemed to know.
“You can hate me later.”
“I’m already starting.”
“Fair.”
Sophie stepped forward.
“What did Amelia ask you to protect?”
Marco looked at Lily.
“The final file.”
I frowned.
“We found the page.”
“Not that file.”
He reached beneath his shirt.
A small key hung around his neck.
“Amelia gave me this the night before she died.”
“To what?”
“A bank box.”
Victor’s face changed.
“You still have it?”
Marco looked at him.
“Yes.”
Victor whispered:
“Then Margaret’s ledger still exists.”
Sophie stared.
“What ledger?”
“The proof,” Victor said.
“Proof of what?”
“Every payment.”
Thomas stopped fighting the officers.
For the first time, he looked afraid.
Marco smiled at him.
“That got your attention.”
We went to the bank that morning with federal investigators.
The deposit box contained one red folder.
Inside were account records.
Signatures.
Wire transfers.
Hospital payments.
Payments to private security companies.
Payments connected to Margaret’s death.
Noah’s disappearance.
Sophie’s confinement.
Amelia’s crash.
At the bottom was a sealed white envelope.
Written across it:
FOR LILY, WHEN THE TRUTH IS SAFE.
I opened it with Sophie beside me.
Inside was one final DNA report.
I frowned.
“We already know Sophie is her mother.”
Marco said nothing.
Sophie turned pale.
“What?”
I read the first line.
MATERNAL MATCH:
Sophie Crane.
PATERNAL MATCH:
My eyes moved down.
The name wasn’t Noah Mercer.
It was someone else.
I read it twice.
“No.”
Sophie grabbed the paper.
Her mouth opened.
“No. That’s impossible.”
Marco looked at her.
“What name?”
She turned the report around.
Lily’s biological father was listed as:
May you like
DANIEL REED.
Me.
