Chapter 26 - The Trap Simon Built
Simon wanted Samuel.
Not the baby.
Not directly.
Not even the money.
He wanted the one person alive who remembered Edward before the lies became history.
Samuel understood.
“He thinks I know who his biological father was.”
“Do you?”
I asked.
Samuel looked away.
“Yes.”
Everyone stared.
“You just said you didn’t.”
“I lied.”
I almost laughed.
“Apparently that’s genetic too.”
Samuel accepted it.
“Who?”
“Edward’s business partner.”
“Name?”
“Charles Cross.”
Julian’s father.
The room went silent.
Simon Hale was biologically a Cross.
Julian’s uncle.
The family tree twisted again.
Samuel explained.
Edward’s wife had an affair with Charles Cross.
Twins were born.
Samuel was Edward’s biological son.
Simon was Charles’s.
Edward knew.
He raised both.
But he treated Simon differently.
Colder.
More suspicious.
Simon spent his entire life believing Edward hated him because he was weaker.
The truth was more primitive.
Edward didn’t consider him his.
“Does Simon know?”
“No.”
“He suspects?”
“Yes.”
“And he thinks the master archive proves it.”
“Yes.”
“What happens if he learns?”
Samuel looked at me.
“I don’t know.”
That wasn’t good enough.
We made a plan.
Samuel agreed to meet Simon.
Marcus planted trackers.
Detective Cole prepared a tactical team.
I stayed behind.
This time, no argument.
My body was tired.
My baby mattered more than proving courage.
Samuel went to an abandoned Hale shipping terminal near the river.
Simon waited inside.
The conversation streamed through Marcus’s equipment.
“Brother.”
Simon said.
Samuel replied.
“We stopped being brothers a long time ago.”
Simon laughed.
“You sound like Arthur.”
“Arthur became a better man than either of us.”
“Arthur became weak.”
“No.”
“He became ashamed.”
“Of us?”
“Of what we helped Edward do.”
Simon paced.
“Where is the confession?”
“Safe.”
“Give it to me.”
“No.”
“Then I take it from Claire’s child.”
Samuel went still.
“You won’t touch the baby.”
Simon smiled.
“Everyone thinks I want the infant.”
“You don’t?”
“No.”
“I want the trust to open.”
“Why?”
“So the archive releases.”
Samuel stared.
“You want it public?”
“Yes.”
That changed everything.
Simon didn’t want blackmail.
He wanted detonation.
Every secret.
Every video.
Every compromised politician.
Every family humiliation.
Released publicly.
Not justice.
Chaos.
“You’ll destroy innocent people.”
Samuel said.
Simon shrugged.
“Innocence is usually a matter of missing footage.”
“You sound exactly like Edward.”
Simon flinched.
There.
The wound.
Samuel stepped closer.
“Do you want to know why he never loved you?”
Simon stared.
“Careful.”
“It wasn’t because you disappointed him.”
“Stop.”
“It wasn’t because you were weak.”
“Stop.”
“You weren’t his son.”
Simon punched Samuel.
Marcus began moving.
I listened remotely from Hale House.
Samuel recovered.
“Charles Cross was your father.”
Simon froze.
“No.”
“Edward knew.”
“No.”
“Julian knows too.”
Simon’s face changed.
“Julian?”
“Yes.”
“Why would he know?”
“Because Charles told him.”
Simon backed away.
Everything he believed about himself cracked.
Then Julian appeared.
Not physically.
On a screen inside the terminal.
He had somehow accessed the network from detention through an accomplice.
Or the video had been prerecorded.
“Hello, Uncle Simon.”
Simon stared.
Julian smiled.
“You finally know.”
“Where is the archive?”
Simon asked.
“With me.”
“You’re lying.”
“No.”
“You’re in custody.”
“Yes.”
Julian smiled.
“But data doesn’t require freedom.”
The terminal doors locked automatically.
Marcus swore.
The stream shook.
Fire alarms activated.
Not fire.
Gas suppression.
The room began filling with white vapor.
Samuel covered his face.
Simon tried the door.
Locked.
Marcus’s team breached from outside.
They pulled Samuel out.
Simon disappeared through a service shaft.
Again.
But Julian’s message continued playing.
“Claire.”
I froze.
The recording addressed me.
“If Samuel has survived long enough to hear this, then you have probably learned most of it.”
“Not all.”
“Arthur believed the trust could cleanse the family.”
“He was wrong.”
“Money cannot clean blood.”
“Only disclosure can.”
The screen displayed a countdown.
24:00:00.
Twenty-four hours.
Marcus called me.
“Claire.”
“I see it.”
“What happens at zero?”
Julian’s recording answered.
“The complete Edward Hale archive will be released publicly.”
Samuel whispered.
“No.”
Millions of private recordings.
Some proving crimes.
Some containing nothing but personal moments stolen without consent.
Victims and offenders mixed together.
Children.
Affairs.
Illness.
Confessions.
Political corruption.
Family arguments.
Everything.
Julian had converted Edward’s abuse into a digital bomb.
“Can we stop it?”
I asked.
Marcus looked at Samuel.
Samuel looked at me.
“Yes.”
“How?”
“The sealed trust contains Arthur’s override.”
“And it opens when?”
Samuel’s eyes moved toward my stomach.
“When the baby is born.”
I stared at the countdown.
My due date was still weeks away.
Then pain tightened across my abdomen.
I grabbed the table.
Margaret stood.
“Claire?”
Another contraction followed.
Closer.
Harder.
Dr. Morales’s warning returned.
The fall could trigger early labor.
Daniel rushed toward me.
“Claire.”
I looked at the countdown.
Twenty-three hours.
Fifty-eight minutes.
May you like
Then I felt warm fluid.
My water had broken.
