Chapter 15 - The Widow Who Refused to Kneel
Victor pulled Claire toward the hallway.
The piece of metal pressed against her skin.
“Move,” he ordered the agents.
Mason lowered his weapon slightly.
“Victor, the building is burning. Let her go.”
“She is the reason Daniel found the accounts.”
Claire kept her breathing steady.
That was not true.
But Victor needed someone to blame because admitting Daniel had outsmarted him was unbearable.
Daniel shifted one step to the left.
Victor noticed.
“Do not move.”
Daniel stopped.
Then he tapped two fingers against his leg.
Once.
Twice.
Claire dropped her full weight without warning.
Victor’s grip slipped.
She twisted beneath his arm and drove her elbow backward into his ribs.
The broken metal fell.
Daniel lunged forward and pulled Claire away.
Mason and the agents tackled Victor to the ground.
He fought until one agent forced his hands behind his back.
The cuffs closed.
“You are under arrest for attempted murder, kidnapping, destruction of evidence, corporate fraud, and obstruction of justice.”
Victor stared at Daniel from the floor.
“You think arresting me saves your company?”
Daniel held Claire close.
“It saves the patients you were willing to sacrifice.”
Firefighters entered and carried Rebecca outside.
One agent retrieved the black drive from beneath her chair.
The archive roof groaned above them.
Everyone evacuated moments before part of the ceiling collapsed.
Outside, rain soaked the pavement and cooled the smoke.
Rebecca sat beneath a blanket while paramedics treated her.
She looked at Claire.
“I am sorry.”
“For what?”
“I helped change the first report. Victor threatened my family, but I still signed it.”
Claire crouched beside her.
“You came back for the original data.”
“I tried. That is when they took me.”
Daniel joined them.
“Will you testify?”
Rebecca looked toward Victor being placed inside a federal vehicle.
“Yes.”
Mason approached with the encrypted drive sealed inside an evidence bag.
“This contains the trial records?”
“And more,” Rebecca said. “Victor recorded his private meetings because he planned to blackmail Margaret after the sale.”
Daniel looked at Mason.
“So the drive contains my mother’s voice.”
Rebecca nodded.
May you like
“Every order she gave.”
👉 Victor had finally been captured, but the encrypted drive was about to reveal that Margaret’s betrayal began years before Daniel’s attempted murder.
