Chapter 7 - Five Minutes to Save the Truth
Aaron disconnected the ballroom network, but the timer continued.
Four minutes and forty-one seconds remained.
“The command is built into the drive,” he said. “It doesn’t need an internet connection.”
“What happens when it reaches zero?” Evelyn asked.
“Most likely, the files erase themselves.”
Rebecca pointed toward the screen.
“Margaret built protection systems into the archive. There should be a cancellation phrase.”
“Where?”
“In one of her letters.”
Richard stared at the countdown.
“You won’t stop it.”
Evelyn turned.
“You know the phrase.”
“I know Margaret trusted symbols and games. I never understood them.”
“You understood enough to hide the trust.”
“I hid it because she was creating chaos.”
“She was documenting theft.”
“She was documenting fragments without understanding the consequences.”
Rebecca faced him.
“You moved $62 million.”
“To keep Carter Industries alive during the banking collapse.”
“Into Lydia’s companies.”
“Because she had access to capital no legitimate bank would provide.”
Aaron looked at him.
“Blackthorn money.”
Richard said nothing.
The timer reached four minutes.
Rebecca searched through Margaret’s letter.
“There are repeated words. Child, key, camera, truth.”
Sophie’s voice came from the bridal-suite doorway.
“Grandma said the camera had no favorite.”
Evelyn turned.
The officer had brought Sophie back because the bridal suite’s lights had gone out.
Sophie approached the laptop.
“In the recording, she looked at the camera when she said children shouldn’t pay.”
Aaron entered THE CAMERA HAD NO FAVORITE.
The system rejected it.
Three minutes and twenty seconds.
“What did Margaret call you when you were little?” Rebecca asked Evelyn.
“Evie.”
“And Preston?”
“Jamie. His middle name.”
Preston looked up.
“She stopped calling me that when I was six.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
Richard answered.
“Because Lydia returned.”
Everyone looked at him.
“She came to the house and demanded money. Margaret saw her speaking to Preston in the garden. After that, Margaret became obsessed with protecting the children from secrets.”
“Margaret became careful,” Rebecca said.
The timer reached two minutes and forty seconds.
Aaron opened the unnamed folder.
It required a password.
The clue field contained one sentence.
THE FIRST CHILD SAW WHAT THE FATHER BURIED.
Evelyn remembered being ten years old and watching Richard bury a metal box beneath an oak tree on the Carter estate.
When she asked him about it, he told her it contained letters from a business partner.
Years later, the tree was removed.
The ground was covered with stone.
“What did you bury beneath the east oak?” she asked.
Richard’s face went still.
“Nothing.”
“I saw you.”
“You were a child.”
“What was in the box?”
The timer passed two minutes.
Richard looked toward the police lights visible through the ballroom windows.
“Margaret’s first camera.”
Rebecca whispered, “The wedding camera.”
Evelyn remembered an old silver camera her mother carried everywhere. Margaret said photographs were more reliable than memory because they did not change to protect the person remembering.
“What did it record?”
Richard’s eyes went to Preston.
“His arrival.”
“Lydia bringing him?”
Richard nodded.
“What else?”
“Lydia wasn’t alone.”
One minute and thirty seconds.
“Who was with her?” Preston asked.
Richard looked at him with something close to pity.
“Your biological father.”
Preston’s voice became strained.
“Who?”
“Enter the camera’s name,” Richard said.
Evelyn searched her memory.
Her mother had named the silver camera after a woman from Greek mythology.
“Cassandra.”
Aaron entered CASSANDRA.
The timer paused at fifty-eight seconds.
A second field appeared.
WHO DID CASSANDRA SEE?
Richard closed his eyes.
Evelyn grabbed his arm.
“Tell me.”
“He will come for Preston.”
“Who?”
“The founder of Blackthorn.”
Rebecca stared at Richard.
“You said he was dead.”
“I believed he was.”
“His name,” Aaron demanded.
Richard looked at Preston.
“Gabriel Voss.”
Aaron entered the name.
The countdown vanished.
ACCESS RESTORED.
The drive began copying itself onto three secured devices.
Preston sat heavily in a chair.
“Gabriel Voss is my father?”
Richard nodded.
Aaron looked at him.
“Voss disappeared after an international fraud investigation twelve years ago. Blackthorn was dissolved after three witnesses vanished.”
Rebecca’s voice was grim.
“Margaret was the fourth witness.”
Evelyn felt the meaning settle over the room.
“You believe Gabriel caused the accident.”
“I believe Margaret discovered he was using Lydia’s companies to move stolen money through the Carter Trust,” Rebecca said. “She planned to testify.”
Richard’s anger returned.
“You do not know what happened.”
“Then tell us.”
Richard looked toward Sophie.
“I tried to stop Margaret from driving that night.”
Evelyn could barely speak.
“You told me you were at the office.”
“I lied.”
“Were you in the car?”
“No.”
“Did you know someone was following her?”
Richard’s silence became an answer.
Evelyn stepped away from him.
“You let her leave.”
“I thought they wanted the files, not her.”
“You knew she was in danger.”
“I had made a deal.”
“With Gabriel?”
“With Lydia. Margaret would surrender the evidence, and Blackthorn would leave our family alone.”
Rebecca shook her head.
“You trusted Lydia?”
“I trusted fear.”
Aaron opened the BLACKTHORN folder.
It contained financial records, surveillance photographs, and lists of names.
Several current wedding guests appeared in the photographs.
Judges.
Bankers.
Executives.
Politicians.
Blackthorn had not disappeared.
It had changed uniforms.
Aaron stopped at a recent image.
It showed Lydia standing outside Carter Industries three weeks earlier.
Beside her was a man whose face remained turned away from the camera.
The timestamp was recent.
Preston stared at the man.
“That could be anyone.”
Aaron enlarged the image.
The man’s hand rested on the roof of a black car.
On his wrist was the broken-circle tattoo.
He wore a signet ring bearing the initials G.V.
Gabriel Voss was alive.
The ballroom doors unlocked automatically as police gained control of the security system.
Officers entered.
Vanessa moved suddenly.
She shoved the officer beside her and grabbed the laptop.
Before Aaron could stop her, she pulled the black drive free.
She ran toward the hidden staircase.
Preston caught the back of her gown.
The fabric tore.
Vanessa fell but kept hold of the drive.
“Let me go!”
“Give it back.”
“You have no idea what my mother will do if she loses this.”
“She is not your mother.”
“She is the only mother I have.”
“She built our lives to steal an inheritance.”
Vanessa kicked free and reached the open staircase.
A figure appeared at the bottom.
The disguised server.
The white gloves were gone.
The broken-circle tattoo was visible.
The figure raised one hand toward Vanessa.
“Bring me the drive.”
Vanessa stopped.
The voice belonged to a woman.
She removed the cap.
May you like
Rebecca gasped.
The woman had Margaret Carter’s face.
