Chapter Ten: Richard’s Last Choice
Richard had been placed in protective custody.
He complained constantly.
The apartment was too small.
The food was terrible.
The guards treated him like a criminal.
“You are a criminal,” one agent reminded him.
Richard still believed cooperation would preserve part of his old life.
He imagined a reduced sentence, a quiet relocation, perhaps a future relationship with Grace.
That illusion ended when Vale’s men found him.
A corrupt federal contractor revealed the safe-house location.
Richard disappeared during a shift change.
Hours later, Harrison received a video call.
Richard was seated in a dark warehouse.
His face was bruised but he was conscious.
Sebastian Vale stood behind him.
“You wanted evidence,” Vale said. “Now you have a witness.”
Harrison kept his voice calm.
“What do you want?”
“Every copy of the Bellweather files.”
“You know I cannot control federal evidence.”
“You control your sister.”
Harrison’s expression did not change.
“What does Khloe have to do with this?”
“She is the only person Richard still cares about.”
Richard looked toward the camera.
“Do not listen to him.”
Vale placed a hand on his shoulder.
“Richard stole documents from me. He gave them to you. But he kept one final ledger as insurance.”
Harrison understood.
Vale did not know where the ledger was.
He believed Khloe did.
“Where is Caleb Ross?” Harrison asked.
“Alive.”
“Prove it.”
Vale turned the camera.
Caleb sat against a wall several feet away.
He looked weak but alert.
“You release both men,” Harrison said. “Then we discuss the ledger.”
Vale smiled.
“You are accustomed to commanding courtrooms. This is not a courtroom.”
“No,” Harrison replied. “In a courtroom, you would already be losing.”
The call ended.
Federal agents traced the connection to an industrial area near Chester.
Dozens of warehouses matched the signal radius.
Richard had mentioned one property in his statements—a decommissioned paper mill used for private meetings.
Agents moved in before dawn.
Vale’s security team spotted them.
In the confusion, Richard freed one hand from the plastic restraint around his wrists.
He reached Caleb and pulled him toward a side exit.
A guard raised his weapon.
Richard stepped between them.
Agents entered seconds later.
Vale escaped through an underground service tunnel.
Caleb survived.
Richard did not.
At the hospital, Harrison identified the body.
He felt no forgiveness.
But he felt the tragedy of wasted choices.
Richard had betrayed everyone who trusted him.
In his final moments, he had chosen to protect someone else.
Khloe listened in silence when Harrison told her.
“Did he say anything?” she asked.
“Only that Grace should never know him as a coward.”
Khloe looked down at her sleeping daughter.
“I do not know what I will tell her.”
“You do not have to decide now.”
Richard’s death transformed the case.
He could no longer testify.
His defense attorneys challenged every recorded statement.
Vale’s lawyers called him an unreliable criminal.
The remaining case depended on the missing ledger.
That evening, Khloe remembered something.
“The nursery,” she said.
“What about it?”
“Richard insisted on choosing one piece of furniture himself. An antique music box. He said it belonged to his grandmother.”
“Where is it?”
“At the mansion.”
The property was still under court control.
Harrison obtained a warrant.
Inside the music box, investigators found a key.
The key opened a private bank vault registered under Grace’s name.
Inside was the final ledger.
May you like
Richard had hidden it where neither Vale nor Vanessa would think to look.
With the child whose future he had nearly destroyed.
