Chapter 14 - The Man Who Wanted Everything)
The mansion doors locked automatically.
Northline's security system had been compromised from inside.
Thomas controlled it.
Noah stood in the library while emergency lights painted the walls red.
"Show yourself," he said.
Thomas's voice came through the speakers.
"Still impatient."
"You abandoned my mother."
"No."
"You hunted her."
"I protected her from people who would have destroyed her."
Eleanor laughed bitterly.
"You mean me?"
"Hello, Eleanor."
Her face tightened.
"I always wondered if you were clever enough to survive that fire."
"I learned from your family."
Noah stepped closer to the speaker.
"Where is Mom?"
Silence.
Then:
"Alive."
Noah's heart nearly stopped.
"Where?"
"Safe."
"From you?"
"From everyone."
Marcus looked toward Noah.
Do not trust him, his expression said.
Thomas continued.
"Grace and I disagree about your future."
"My future isn't yours to decide."
A soft laugh.
"You're fifteen."
"And you disappeared before I was born."
"To keep you alive."
"That's Mom's excuse too."
The voice became quieter.
"Your mother and I made mistakes."
Noah felt anger rise.
"You don't get to say 'we' like you were together."
"That's exactly what Grace would say."
"Then maybe she's right."
Silence.
Thomas changed tactics.
"Do you know why Grace gave you twenty-six percent?"
"Leverage."
"Protection."
"Same thing in your world."
"Perhaps."
The library doors unlocked.
A screen turned on.
A live video feed appeared.
Grace sat in a plain room.
Older.
Exhausted.
But alive.
Noah stopped breathing.
"Mom."
Grace looked toward the camera as if she could hear him.
Thomas spoke.
"She's safe."
Marcus moved closer to the screen.
"Where is she?"
"Still playing protector, Marcus?"
"Where is Grace?"
"Somewhere you failed to find."
Noah touched the screen.
Grace raised her head.
Her lips moved.
No sound.
But Noah read them.
Don't give him anything.
Thomas continued.
"Transfer your voting rights to a neutral trust I control, and Grace returns home."
Eleanor cursed.
Noah stared at his mother.
"You're asking me to trade the company for her."
"I'm asking you to choose family over money."
Noah laughed.
"You spent fifteen years turning family into money."
Thomas did not answer.
Noah looked at Eleanor.
Then Marcus.
Then Adrian.
Then Vanessa.
People who had lied.
Failed.
Hurt each other.
But people standing in the same room now because one boy had forced their secrets into the light.
"No."
Grace smiled faintly on the screen.
Thomas's voice hardened.
"Think carefully."
"I did."
"You could lose her."
"I already lost her once."
Noah stepped closer.
"I'm not letting you use her to decide who I become."
The screen went black.
The locks released.
Security systems rebooted.
Thomas was gone.
But he had made one mistake.
Adrian held up his phone.
"I traced part of the video signal."
Marcus looked at him.
"Where?"
"An industrial district near Newark."
Within forty minutes, police and federal agents surrounded the warehouse.
Noah was not allowed inside.
He waited in Eleanor's car.
Vanessa waited beside him.
"Do you think she's there?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because Thomas wanted me to see her."
After an hour, Detective Torres approached.
Noah jumped out.
"Did you find her?"
Torres's face was difficult to read.
"We found the room from the video."
"And my mother?"
"No."
Noah's hope collapsed.
"But we found evidence she was there recently."
"When?"
"Within twenty-four hours."
Noah closed his eyes.
Torres handed him a sealed bag.
Inside was a necklace.
Grace's necklace.
The one stolen from Eleanor's mansion.
"And this," Torres said.
A handwritten note.
Noah recognized the writing.
Grace.
Thomas is lying about why he needs the shares.
Project Winter isn't about Vale International anymore.
It's about what is hidden beneath it.
Noah looked up.
"What does that mean?"
Torres shook her head.
"We don't know."
Adrian arrived.
His face was pale.
"I might."
Everyone turned.
"My father once wrote about a second company."
"What company?" Eleanor asked.
Adrian looked at Noah.
"Vale Meridian."
Eleanor went completely still.
Noah noticed.
"You know it."
She did not answer.
"Eleanor."
Finally, she said:
"Vale Meridian doesn't officially exist."
"What does it do?"
May you like
Her answer came quietly.
"It owns things governments aren't supposed to know we own."
