CHAPTER 12: THE SHIPYARD
Rain fell over the abandoned shipyard.
Emma entered the warehouse carrying a metal briefcase in one hand and the wooden box in the other.
Thomas stood beneath a hanging industrial light.
He was in his sixties, elegantly dressed, calm and composed. Nothing about him resembled the monster who had manipulated her family for nearly two decades.
Eleanor sat twenty feet away.
The explosive device rested beside her chair.
“Put the case down,” Thomas ordered.
Emma obeyed.
“And the documents?”
“In the wooden box.”
Thomas smiled.
“You always were more intelligent than Adrian believed.”
“You chose him because you thought he could control me.”
“I chose him because you were lonely. Lonely people are easy to guide.”
Emma felt the words strike an old wound.
But the wound no longer owned her.
“You underestimated me.”
“No. I underestimated how badly Adrian would lose control. He was supposed to make you dependent, not turn your home into a crime scene.”
“You knew what he was doing.”
“I knew enough.”
“And you did nothing.”
Thomas shrugged.
“Your suffering was inconvenient. But necessary.”
Eleanor struggled against the chair.
“You destroyed our family.”
Thomas looked at her almost tenderly.
“You should have stayed silent eighteen years ago.”
Emma placed her hand on the briefcase.
“The fifty million is inside.”
Thomas stepped forward.
“Open it.”
Emma entered the combination.
Stacks of currency filled the case.
Thomas’s confidence returned.
He moved closer.
That was what Emma had expected.
The money was real, but every bill had been coated with an invisible tracking compound.
More importantly, the wooden box contained no documents.
It contained a live transmitter.
The same technology once hidden inside Emma’s pendant.
Thomas opened the box.
It was empty.
His expression changed.
“You lied.”
“I learned from experts.”
Red and blue lights flashed beyond the warehouse windows.
Thomas grabbed a pistol from beneath his jacket.
Emma did not move.
“You called the police.”
“No,” Emma said. “You did.”
She nodded toward the wooden box.
“Everything you confessed was transmitted directly to federal agents.”
Thomas aimed the weapon at her.
“You think this ends with me?”
“It ends when I decide I’m no longer afraid of you.”
Thomas turned the gun toward Eleanor.
Before he could fire, Vanessa stepped from the shadows and struck his arm with a metal pipe.
The shot hit the ceiling.
Emma ran to her mother.
Federal agents stormed the warehouse.
Thomas recovered quickly and grabbed Vanessa, pressing the weapon against her neck.
“You should have disappeared when I paid you,” he hissed.
Vanessa looked at Emma.
There was fear in her eyes.
But there was also resolve.
“Finish it,” she whispered.
Then she drove her heel down onto Thomas’s foot and twisted away.
Detective Ortiz fired.
Thomas fell.
The explosive timer continued counting down.
Two minutes remained.
The device was not connected to Eleanor’s chair.
It was connected to the warehouse’s main fuel tanks.
Everyone ran toward the exit.
Emma and Vanessa supported Eleanor between them.
As they reached the doors, a gunshot sounded behind them.
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Thomas was still alive.
And this time, the weapon was aimed directly at Richard, who had just entered the warehouse.
