Chapter 3 - The Man Behind the Glass
Clara wanted to leave immediately.
I refused.
"You are safer here," I told her.
"Luca thought his family was safe too," she answered.
Mateo returned with security footage before I could respond.
Clara had been followed into Vale Global by Darius Cole, Victor's personal security director.
Darius had not followed her upstairs.
He had gone directly to the legal archives.
Then my phone received a photograph taken through the windows of my penthouse office from another tower.
The message beneath it read, SEND THEM DOWN.
A second message followed.
OR SHE LEARNS WHY LUCA SCREAMED.
I ordered a Level Seven lockdown.
Magnetic locks sealed the floor.
Blinds covered the glass.
Then Emma pointed across the street.
"That man came to our apartment," she said.
Clara stared at her daughter.
Emma described an older man with white hair and a missing finger.
Mateo identified him immediately.
Caleb Rourke.
Luca's former driver.
A man declared dead thirteen years earlier.
The lights went out before we could understand what that meant.
When backup systems failed too, Mateo drew his weapon.
Someone was overriding our security from inside the company.
A man entered through the dark corridor.
Dr. Julian Reeves had arrived with a portable DNA reader.
He took cheek swabs from Emma and me.
The result appeared seventy-nine seconds later.
Emma and I shared a 99.97 percent probability of a second-degree biological relationship.
She was Luca's daughter.
She was my niece.
I crouched beside her and told her the truth.
"It says I'm your uncle."
She threw her arms around my neck.
Then Reeves stared at the machine again.
A second match had appeared.
A first-degree relationship to Emma had been uploaded to the database eighteen months earlier.
The sample belonged to Luca.
Reeves looked at me with terror in his eyes.
May you like
"Your brother may still be alive."
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