Chapter 7 - RUSSELL’S CONFESSION
Russell did not move.
“Katherine,” he said.
“Do not call me that.”
“It is your name.”
“My name died with my father.”
“No.”
“Your father died because he tried to kill Evelyn.”
Kendra’s hand shook.
“That is the Hartwell story.”
“It is mine.”
Russell confessed over the open tactical channel.
He had discovered Daniel’s North Harbor scheme before my mother did.
He confronted his brother privately.
Daniel promised to stop.
Russell believed him.
Weeks later, my mother’s car went off the bridge.
Russell spent the rest of his life helping my father build the case Daniel had destroyed.
“Why didn’t you expose him?” Kendra asked.
“Because you were eleven.”
“Your mother said she would disappear with you if Daniel’s name became public.”
“I chose to keep you alive.”
“You chose Arthur.”
“I chose a child over revenge.”
Kendra’s face tightened.
“And did you find me?”
“I never stopped looking.”
She laughed through tears.
“You looked with lawyers.”
“You should have looked like family.”
For one moment, the gun lowered.
Then the tower lights came on.
Mara’s team had reached the roof.
Kendra pulled Eleanor backward toward the ledge.
“Everybody stays where they are.”
Russell placed the real key on the ground and kicked it toward her.
She released Eleanor long enough to grab it.
I caught Eleanor before she fell.
Agents moved.
Kendra fired at the lights and ran toward a suspended construction platform.
She clipped herself to a safety cable and descended along the outside of the tower.
Victor tried to stand.
I pressed my scarf against his wound.
“You need to stay still.”
He stared at me.
“Why are you helping me?”
“Because letting you bleed to death would make this story about you.”
His eyes closed.
Agents followed Kendra down, but she triggered an emergency release.
The platform dropped six floors before stopping.
By the time police reached it, she was gone.
The real key was gone too.
Eleanor sat wrapped in a blanket, shaking.
She would not look at me.
Then she whispered, “I knew about Kendra.”
Victor opened his eyes.
“What?”
Eleanor admitted Kendra approached her a year earlier.
She promised to make Victor chief executive if Eleanor helped push me out of the marriage.
Eleanor gave her access to the penthouse, family schedules, and my handbag.
She believed it was only an affair and a divorce plan.
She did not know about North Harbor.
Victor stared at his mother as if seeing her for the first time.
“You sold my marriage for a title.”
Eleanor began to cry.
The countdown continued.
Five hours remained before the files went public.
Russell checked the false key Kendra left behind.
A tiny tracker blinked beneath its edge.
She had not escaped with our key.
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She had planted a device leading someone directly to Arthur Hartwell.
At that moment, the command van exploded in the street below.
