CHAPTER 11 — The Harbor House
Victor’s father had owned a warehouse near Baltimore Harbor.
Officially, it had been demolished.
In reality, a concealed residence remained beneath it.
Thomas led the federal team through an abandoned shipping yard as a storm rolled in from the water.
Emily was ordered to remain behind.
She ignored the order.
Inside the underground house, Elena had loosened one wrist from the rope.
Victor paced in front of her.
“You should have stayed invisible,” he said.
“You should have learned to cut thicker cables.”
He struck the chair with the back of his hand.
Elena did not flinch.
“You spent years cleaning my floors,” Victor said. “Did you enjoy pretending you were better than me?”
“I enjoyed watching you underestimate me.”
Victor leaned closer.
“Emily will bring the ledger.”
“No. She’ll bring the police.”
“She still thinks I loved her. People forgive what they need to believe.”
Elena smiled faintly.
“You never understood her.”
An explosion shook the hallway.
Federal agents entered the building.
Victor seized Elena and dragged her toward a private dock.
Thomas reached the chamber first.
Victor fired.
The bullet struck Thomas’s vest and knocked him down.
Emily heard the shot from the stairwell.
She found Elena struggling with Victor beside a speedboat.
Victor held a gun against Elena’s ribs.
“Drop the drive,” he ordered.
Emily placed the flash drive on the floor.
Victor kicked it into the water.
Then he forced Elena into the boat.
Before he could follow, Emily pulled a metal lever beside the dock.
The security gate dropped between Victor and the boat.
Elena shoved the throttle forward.
The boat shot across the harbor, carrying her away from Victor.
For a moment, it appeared she had escaped.
Then Victor raised a remote control.
A red light blinked on the device.
Thomas saw it and shouted.
“Elena, jump!”
The boat exploded.
The blast lit the harbor orange.
Emily screamed her sister’s name.
Fragments of the boat rained across the water.
Rescue teams searched until sunrise.
They found Elena’s coat.
They found part of the seat.
They found blood.
They did not find Elena.
Victor disappeared during the confusion.
Three days later, the courts temporarily froze the Whitmore estate.
The evidence from the ledger began dismantling Victor’s network.
Emily returned to the hospital after experiencing early contractions.
As she lay alone in the dark, someone entered her room.
A hooded figure approached the bed.
Emily reached for the call button.
The figure pulled back the hood.
Elena stood there, soaked, bruised, and alive.
But she was not alone.
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Behind her was a man Emily had believed dead for twenty years.
Their father, Charles Whitmore.
