Chapter 18 - THE FALSE VICTORY
Power failed across the property.
Federal teams moved immediately.
The abandoned hotel had multiple service corridors.
Old kitchens.
Basement access.
Maintenance tunnels.
Richard had prepared escape routes.
When agents entered the ballroom, it was empty.
Julian was gone.
Richard was gone.
Nathan was gone.
Only one thing remained.
The fake authentication device.
For twenty-seven minutes, no one knew where anyone was.
Then Nathan Carrow stumbled from a side exit.
Alone.
Hands raised.
He surrendered immediately.
Richard had abandoned him.
That told us everything about their partnership.
Nathan began talking before his attorney arrived.
He claimed Richard planned the entire scheme.
He admitted Bianca helped obtain internal documents.
He admitted Julian discovered the plan months earlier.
Then he said something unexpected.
“Julian came to us.”
I stared through the observation glass.
“When?”
“After he discovered Bianca.”
“What did he want?”
“A deal.”
“What kind?”
“He would help Richard believe the plan was working.”
“In exchange for what?”
“Richard leaves Elena alone.”
My heart tightened.
Julian had been playing both sides.
Badly.
Dangerously.
Without telling anyone.
“He falsified our financial statements.”
Nathan shrugged.
“To buy time.”
“He moved sixty million dollars.”
“To keep Richard from taking it.”
“He slept with Bianca.”
Nathan smiled unpleasantly.
“That one wasn't strategy.”
I almost hit him.
Instead, I walked out.
Truth did not erase consequences.
Julian may have tried to protect me.
He also betrayed me.
Both could be true.
At 9:12 p.m., agents found Richard's vehicle abandoned near the marsh.
At 9:46, they found Bianca.
She was hiding in a maintenance tunnel.
Alive.
Terrified.
She claimed Richard had threatened her after learning she copied his ledger.
At 10:20, the debt acceleration deadline was suspended by court order.
For the first time in forty-eight hours, Mercer International was safe.
Employees would be paid.
Hotels would remain open.
Carrow's attempt had failed.
My father hugged me.
Samuel opened champagne.
Margaret actually smiled.
Everyone thought we had won.
I didn't.
Because Julian was still missing.
At 11:07 p.m., my phone received a voicemail.
His voice.
“Elena.”
Static.
“If you're hearing this, Richard figured it out.”
More static.
“I need you to know something.”
A loud crash.
Then Julian spoke quickly.
“The penthouse wasn't about Bianca.”
I frowned.
“What?”
Obviously he couldn't hear me.
“There is something inside the original Aurelia building.”
A pause.
“Something my father has been trying to find for fifteen years.”
My pulse accelerated.
“He thinks your grandfather hid it there.”
The audio distorted.
Then one final sentence emerged.
“And Elena, if he finds it, the resorts won't matter anymore.”
The message ended.
I replayed it.
My father stood behind me.
His face had gone white.
“You know what he's talking about,” I said.
He didn't answer.
That was when I realized our victory had been false.
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Richard hadn't been trying to steal the empire.
He had been using the empire to find something else.
