Chapter 6 - THE GRANDFATHER SHE NEVER KNEW
Conrad Voss did not react like a monster.
That frightened Evie more.
He did not shout.
He did not threaten.
He simply adjusted his cuff.
“Your mother inherited Arthur’s talent for drama.”
Evie frowned.
“Arthur isn’t her father.”
“No.”
Conrad smiled.
“I meant his talent for moral superiority.”
Rebecca took Evie inside the abandoned laboratory.
Old Hale Dynamics logos remained on the walls.
Project Ember had begun there years earlier before Daniel moved the research to a larger facility.
Conrad led Evie to a glass conference room.
“Do you know why your family lost everything?”
“Because you stole it.”
“Childish.”
“Kidnapping children seems pretty childish too.”
Rebecca snapped, “Evie.”
Conrad raised a hand.
“No. Let her speak.”
He sat across from his granddaughter.
“I built systems.”
“What systems?”
“The systems your father used to become wealthy.”
“My dad built his company.”
“With banks I influenced. Investors I introduced. Contracts I arranged without his knowledge.”
Evie stared.
“Why?”
“Because Claire loved him.”
The answer surprised her.
Conrad continued.
“For a time, I wanted my daughter happy.”
“You abandoned her.”
“I watched from a distance.”
“That’s not the same thing.”
Conrad’s expression cooled.
“No.”
Evie realized something.
“You loved her.”
Rebecca looked away.
Conrad did not answer.
“You loved Mom, but you killed her anyway.”
Conrad leaned closer.
“Your mother threatened hundreds of people.”
“Criminals.”
“Employees. Families. Governments. Industries.”
“She found out what you were doing.”
“She found out how the world actually works.”
Evie said quietly,
“And she chose not to become you.”
That one hurt him.
She could tell.
Outside, Daniel, Arthur, and Adrian prepared their approach.
Federal tactical units surrounded the facility at a distance.
Conrad had warned that any visible police presence would endanger Evie.
Arthur wanted to wait.
Daniel refused.
“She’s twelve.”
Adrian studied the building plans.
“There’s an old storm tunnel.”
Daniel looked up.
“You know it?”
“Claire showed me the original engineering plans.”
The tunnel entered beneath the western laboratory.
Arthur looked at his son.
“I’m coming.”
“No.”
“I lost eighteen years.”
“That doesn’t make you bulletproof.”
Arthur stepped closer.
“I’m not losing another person because I stayed behind.”
Adrian stared at him.
Then handed him a vest.
Inside, Rebecca received a message.
She stepped away from Conrad.
Her expression changed.
Grant Mercer had escaped federal transport.
At least, that was what the alert claimed.
Conrad smiled when she told him.
“Good.”
“You planned that?”
“Of course.”
Evie listened.
Grant had not escaped.
Federal agents had staged the report.
Grant had agreed to help after learning Conrad’s men had lied about his daughter.
A second message reached Rebecca.
An image.
Lily Mercer.
Alive.
Standing beside federal agents.
Rebecca went pale.
Conrad saw it.
“What?”
She locked the phone.
“Nothing.”
Conrad extended his hand.
“Give me the phone.”
“Father—”
“Now.”
Rebecca hesitated.
Evie watched fear spread across her aunt’s face.
Conrad took the phone.
Saw Lily.
His expression did not change.
“Interesting.”
“You told Grant she was under our control.”
“She was.”
“When?”
“Years ago.”
“You said she still was.”
“I say what people need to hear.”
Rebecca stared.
“You lied to me too?”
Conrad smiled.
“Of course.”
Something cracked inside her.
Evie saw it.
All her life, Rebecca had believed she was the chosen daughter.
Claire had been emotional.
Difficult.
Rebellious.
Rebecca had been loyal.
Now she finally understood.
Conrad was loyal to no one.
Not Grant.
Not Claire.
Not Rebecca.
Conrad looked toward Evie.
“Your father will bring the ledger.”
“And then?”
“He goes home.”
“You’ll kill him.”
“No.”
“You killed Mom.”
Conrad’s smile disappeared.
“I did not order Claire’s death.”
Rebecca turned sharply.
“What?”
Conrad looked at his daughter.
“I ordered Grant to damage her vehicle enough to frighten her.”
Rebecca stared.
“You told me she had to be stopped.”
“Yes.”
“You said—”
“I said stopped.”
Rebecca’s face lost color.
Evie looked between them.
“Then who ordered her killed?”
Silence.
Rebecca slowly backed away.
Conrad looked at her.
The truth became visible before anyone spoke.
Rebecca whispered,
“She was going to expose us.”
Conrad’s eyes hardened.
“What did you do?”
Rebecca’s mouth trembled.
“She wouldn’t listen.”
Conrad stood.
“What did you do?”
“I changed the instruction.”
Evie stopped breathing.
Rebecca began crying.
“I told Grant the brakes had to fail on the mountain.”
Conrad slapped her.
Rebecca fell against the table.
Evie jumped.
Conrad’s composure shattered.
“You killed Claire?”
“You would have lost everything!”
“She was my daughter!”
“So am I!”
Conrad stared at Rebecca.
She screamed,
“I spent my whole life doing everything you asked! Claire defied you, embarrassed you, investigated you—and you still loved her more!”
Evie suddenly understood the true murder.
Not just greed.
Jealousy.
A lifetime of sisters competing for the love of a father who deserved neither.
Conrad looked devastated.
Rebecca laughed through tears.
“Now you understand.”
Then alarms sounded.
Intrusion.
Daniel and Adrian had entered the storm tunnel.
Conrad turned.
Rebecca grabbed Evie.
“Don’t move!”
She held a gun.
Conrad stared at his daughter.
“Put it down.”
“No.”
“Rebecca.”
“You’ll sacrifice me.”
“Yes.”
The word stopped her.
Conrad did not lie.
Not this time.
“If keeping Evelyn alive requires giving you to the police, I will.”
Rebecca’s face twisted.
“You choose Claire again.”
“She is not Claire.”
“She looks like her.”
Conrad stepped forward.
Rebecca raised the gun.
Evie suddenly kicked backward.
Her heel struck Rebecca’s shin.
The gun fired into the ceiling.
Conrad lunged.
Rebecca shoved Evie away.
Glass shattered.
Daniel burst into the room.
“EVIE!”
She ran.
Daniel caught her.
For the first time since the nightmare began, Evie screamed like a child.
“Dad!”
He held her so tightly she could barely breathe.
Adrian secured Rebecca.
Arthur entered behind him.
Conrad saw his brother.
Thirty-one years of hatred crossed the room.
“Arthur.”
Arthur stared.
“Conrad.”
Conrad smiled faintly.
“You always were dramatic.”
Arthur looked toward Evie.
Then at Rebecca.
Then back at his brother.
“You destroyed my family.”
Conrad answered,
“You destroyed it yourself.”
Arthur’s eyes burned.
“You tried to kill my son.”
“I tried to protect what we built.”
“You sabotaged his plane.”
“He was going to expose us.”
“There was no us.”
Conrad almost laughed.
“There was always us.”
Federal agents stormed the building.
Conrad did not resist.
Rebecca did.
She grabbed for the fallen gun.
Adrian tackled her.
Agents restrained her.
Daniel kept Evie against his chest.
Arthur approached Conrad.
“You lost.”
Conrad looked at him almost pityingly.
“No.”
Arthur frowned.
Conrad smiled.
“Project Ember was never the real prize.”
Daniel looked up.
“What?”
Conrad nodded toward Evie.
“The girl is.”
Evie’s stomach turned.
Daniel stepped protectively in front of her.
Conrad continued.
“Claire discovered something about Ember before she died.”
“What?”
Conrad looked at Evie.
“She hid the final formula.”
Daniel stared.
“Where?”
Conrad laughed.
“I don’t know.”
Arthur asked,
“Then why is Evie the prize?”
Conrad’s eyes never left the child.
“Because Claire told me exactly who she gave it to.”
Daniel’s face changed.
“No.”
Evie shook her head.
“My mom never gave me anything.”
Conrad smiled.
“Not knowingly.”
Later that night, federal agents searched Evie’s possessions.
Nothing.
They searched Claire’s belongings.
Nothing.
They searched the blue summer box.
Nothing.
Then Evie remembered the portrait.
The one Arthur had bought back.
The one painted when she was six.
Claire’s hand rested on Evie’s shoulder.
Around six-year-old Evie’s neck was a small red pendant.
Evie had forgotten it completely.
“Dad.”
Daniel looked.
“That necklace.”
He frowned.
“It was a music pendant.”
“Where is it?”
Daniel thought.
“Your mother put it away when the battery died.”
Evie opened the summer box.
Beneath the beach photographs lay a tiny red heart.
Arthur’s technicians opened it.
Inside the fake battery compartment was another memory chip.
Daniel stared.
Project Ember’s final manufacturing formula.
Complete.
Claire had hidden a technology worth billions inside her daughter’s childhood necklace.
Evie looked at her father.
“What happens now?”
Daniel looked at Arthur.
Arthur looked at Adrian.
The men who had spent years chasing ownership suddenly understood the only important question.
Not who could sell Ember.
Who should benefit from it?
Arthur smiled faintly.
May you like
“That, Evelyn Hale, should be your decision.”
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