Chapter 14 - THREE MINUTES
Click.
Nothing.
Thomas pulled again.
Click.
Emily laughed through tears.
“You’re out.”
Claire screamed, “Help me!”
Margaret and Daniel rushed forward.
Together, they pulled Rachel back over the railing.
She collapsed onto the bridge.
Thomas ran.
Daniel chased him toward the east tower.
Margaret dropped beside Rachel.
“Are you hurt?”
“My baby.”
Rachel clutched her stomach.
Emily knelt.
“Are you bleeding?”
“No.”
Claire looked toward Thomas.
“He’s getting away.”
Rachel grabbed her jacket.
“No.”
Claire stared at her.
“Stay with her,” Margaret said.
Then Margaret stood.
For twenty-two years, she had waited for other people to tell her what happened to her child.
Not anymore.
She ran.
Thomas reached the maintenance station beneath the tower.
He locked the door.
Daniel kicked it once.
Twice.
Margaret found a steel bar and smashed the window.
Thomas stared at her from inside.
His face was bleeding.
“You always were dramatic.”
Margaret hit the glass again.
“You have no idea who I am.”
The window broke.
Daniel reached through and unlocked the door.
Inside were file boxes.
Hard drives.
Passports.
Cash.
Records going back decades.
Sophie arrived behind them.
“Oh my God.”
Thomas backed toward a desk.
11:56.
Margaret saw a laptop.
On the screen was a legal portal.
TRANSFER OF BENEFICIAL CONTROL.
Below it:
PENDING — 00:03:47.
Thomas had been trying to block the trust.
Charles appeared in the doorway, leaning heavily on Ruth.
“You can’t stop it, son.”
Thomas looked at him.
“You.”
Charles nodded.
“You should’ve stayed dead,” Thomas whispered.
“I should’ve stopped you a long time ago.”
Thomas laughed.
“You made me.”
Charles absorbed that.
Then nodded.
“I helped.”
Ruth began crying.
Thomas grabbed the laptop.
Daniel aimed at him.
“Put it down.”
Thomas smiled.
“You shoot me, the laptop goes in the river.”
Sophie said, “The evidence is already copied.”
Thomas looked at her.
For the first time, fear appeared.
“What?”
“I uploaded Harris’s records two hours ago.”
“You’re lying.”
“No.”
Sirens sounded in the distance.
Federal vehicles.
Thomas looked around.
No exits.
No allies.
No control.
He turned to Margaret.
“You ruined everything.”
Margaret stared at him.
“No.”
The clock hit 11:59.
“You did.”
Thomas lunged.
Not at Margaret.
At Rachel.
He burst through the doorway and ran toward her.
Emily stepped in front of Rachel.
Thomas slammed into her.
They hit the ground.
Claire jumped on his back.
Daniel grabbed Thomas’s arm.
A gun slid across the pavement.
Margaret kicked it over the railing.
Thomas roared.
“Get off me!”
Then the clock on Sophie’s phone changed.
12:00 A.M.
Everyone froze.
A notification appeared.
TRUST TRANSFER EXECUTED.
Thomas stared at the screen.
His face collapsed.
Twenty-five years of murder, fraud, kidnapping, bribery, and lies had failed by three minutes.
Federal agents rushed onto the bridge.
Thomas was handcuffed.
Rachel stood beside Emily and Claire.
Three women.
Same eyes.
Same birthmark.
Margaret looked at them.
Her daughters.
Then Ruth quietly said behind her—
“Margaret, before they take Thomas away, there’s one last thing you need to know.”
Margaret turned.
May you like
Ruth’s face told her it would hurt.
Again.
