Chapter 16 - The Last Recording
Victor fell against the desk.
Blood spread across his shoulder.
Lucas Grant stood in the doorway.
Smoke curled from his pistol.
Federal agents rushed into the cabin.
Eleanor seized Claire and pressed the gun beneath her jaw.
“Stay back!”
Ethan froze.
Eleanor pulled Claire toward the outer deck.
Rain struck the rusting steel.
The ocean roared beyond the warehouse doors.
“You always ruined everything,” Eleanor whispered.
Claire remained still.
“I did not ruin your family.”
“You made Ethan question me.”
“You made Thomas trust you.”
“You made Laura believe she could defeat me.”
“You defeated yourself.”
Eleanor’s grip tightened.
Below them, Thomas had left the secure vehicle.
He stood at the warehouse entrance.
“Let her go, Eleanor.”
She stared at him.
“You should be dead.”
“You tried very hard.”
“I saved what you built.”
“You corrupted it.”
“I made it powerful.”
“You made it afraid.”
Thomas held a portable recorder.
“I kept one final tape.”
Eleanor’s eyes moved toward it.
Thomas pressed play.
Her own voice emerged.
The recording had been made inside the lakeside cabin ten years earlier.
“You will sign control to me.”
“If you refuse, Ethan will believe you died a coward.”
“He will believe Claire betrayed him.”
“He will never know his father survived.”
Eleanor’s face changed.
Thomas had recorded her confession while restrained in the basement.
Lucas had hidden the cassette instead of destroying it.
Federal agents heard every word.
Eleanor pulled Claire closer to the edge.
“Turn it off!”
Thomas did not move.
“You told me love was a weakness.”
“You were wrong.”
“Love is the reason they came back for me.”
Ethan stepped forward.
“Mother.”
Eleanor looked at him.
For one moment, she appeared almost vulnerable.
“I did this for you.”
“No.”
His voice broke.
“You did it so I would never become strong enough to leave you.”
Her eyes filled with rage.
Claire drove her heel down onto Eleanor’s foot.
Eleanor lost balance.
The gun fired into the air.
Ethan grabbed Claire.
Eleanor fell against the railing.
The rusted metal snapped.
She caught the edge with both hands.
Below her waited forty feet of darkness and steel.
“Ethan!” she screamed.
He dropped to his knees.
He reached for her.
Claire stared at him.
After everything Eleanor had done, Ethan still tried to save her.
His fingers closed around her wrist.
Eleanor looked up at him.
Then she smiled.
With her free hand, she pulled a small blade from her sleeve.
She slashed at his arm.
His grip broke.
Eleanor fell.
A safety net stretched beneath the dry dock.
She struck it hard and became tangled in the cables.
Federal agents reached her minutes later.
She was injured.
But alive.
Victor was arrested.
The explosives were disarmed.
The archive survived.
Inside the final box, Claire found a photograph of her mother.
Laura stood beside Thomas and held a handwritten note.
Claire turned it over.
May you like
The note contained five words.
Eleanor answers to someone else.
