Chapter 6 - THE TRAITOR INSIDE THE HOUSENobody slept.
Adrian questioned every guard.
Mara checked every camera.
Grandma checked us.
Twice.
Mom refused medication because she was afraid someone had changed it.
The memory card had disappeared from my shoe inside Adrian's mansion.
That meant Julian had help.
Adrian gathered his security staff.
Twenty-three people.
One was a traitor.
Emma sat beside me watching them.
“What?” I whispered.
“Shoes.”
“What about them?”
“The person knew where the card was.”
“So?”
“Only people in the hospital bathroom could know.”
“Grandma.”
“Not Grandma.”
“Me.”
“Not you.”
“You.”
Emma rolled her eyes.
“Someone had a camera.”
I stared at her.
“The bathroom?”
“Maybe outside.”
We told Mara.
She reviewed hospital footage.
Two hours later, she found a woman dressed as a nurse entering a supply closet across from the bathroom.
The woman worked for Adrian.
Her name was Celeste Ward.
Head of residential medical security.
Celeste had helped move Mom into the mansion.
Adrian ordered her detained.
Her room was empty.
So was one of the SUVs.
Celeste had escaped.
With the memory card.
Mom looked destroyed.
“It is over.”
“No,” Adrian said.
“She has the ledger.”
“Encrypted.”
“Michael's encryption won't hold forever.”
Adrian turned to Emma.
“Did you ever connect the pink phone to Wi-Fi?”
Emma nodded.
“Grandma's.”
“Anywhere else?”
“The library.”
Adrian looked at Mara.
Mara understood.
“If the phone synchronized while the card was installed, there may be a temporary cache.”
Adrian's technology team worked for fourteen hours.
At 3:17 the next morning, they recovered twelve percent of Black Harbor.
Twelve percent was enough.
There were judges.
Police.
Senators.
Businessmen.
And one name that made Adrian sit down.
Thomas Vale.
His father.
Beside Thomas's name was another.
Julian Vale.
But underneath both names was a third.
Ruth Dawson.
Grandma.
My grandma.
Mom stared at her.
Adrian stared at her.
Emma and I stared too.
Grandma didn't deny it.
She sat down.
“I can explain.”
Mom whispered, “Please.”
Grandma cried.
“I worked for Thomas Vale.”
Adrian looked shocked.
“When?”
“Before Claire joined the company.”
Mom shook her head.
“You told me you cleaned offices.”
“I did.”
“Mom.”
“I cleaned Thomas Vale's private office.”
Grandma's voice broke.
“And I listened.”
She had been Black Harbor's first witness.
She saw envelopes.
Meetings.
Names.
Thomas discovered her.
Instead of killing her, he threatened Mom.
Grandma stayed silent.
Years later, Mom unknowingly discovered the same conspiracy.
“I should have warned you,” Grandma whispered.
Mom cried.
“Why didn't you?”
“Because I thought silence kept you safe.”
Mom looked at us.
The lesson was obvious.
Silence had protected nobody.
Adrian knelt in front of Grandma.
“Ruth. Did my father ever mention someone above him?”
Grandma looked confused.
“Above Thomas?”
“Black Harbor continued after he died.”
Grandma's face changed.
“Yes.”
“Who?”
“He called him the Architect.”
Adrian stood.
Mara entered.
“Sir.”
She held a phone.
“We found Celeste.”
“Where?”
“Dead.”
Mom covered our ears.
Again, too late.
Mara continued.
“The memory card is missing.”
Adrian looked at the recovered ledger.
“Then Julian has it.”
“No,” Grandma whispered.
Everyone turned.
She stared at the screen.
“The Architect has it.”
The mansion lights flickered.
A television turned on by itself.
Julian appeared on the screen.
He was bleeding.
Terrified.
Behind him stood a shadow.
Julian looked into the camera.
“Adrian,” he whispered. “I was wrong.”
A gun pressed against his head.
May you like
“There is someone worse than me.”
The screen went black.
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