Chapter 10: The Blue Compass
Chapter 10: The Blue Compass
At the coastal estate, Victoria entered the bedroom under police supervision.
Chief Briggs believed she was retrieving medication.
Instead, she opened the blue compass on the mantel.
Inside was a memory card.
For months, Victoria had secretly copied her uncle’s communications.
Not because she planned to expose him.
Because she never fully trusted him.
The card contained bank transfers, encrypted messages, and a recording of Vale discussing Daniel Ross.
It also contained something Victoria had never listened to before.
A file labeled THOMAS VALE — FINAL CALL.
Her father.
With shaking hands, she pressed play.
Thomas Vale’s frightened voice filled the room.
“Adrian, I’m going to the authorities. This has gone too far.”
Then Adrian answered.
“You won’t make it there.”
A gunshot followed.
Victoria stopped breathing.
Her uncle had murdered her father and spent twenty-three years blaming the Cole family.
Everything she had believed was a lie.
Everything she had done to Margaret had been built upon it.
Chief Briggs entered the room.
“What are you holding?”
Victoria hid the card inside her ring.
“Nothing.”
Briggs stepped closer.
“Dr. Vale wants you moved somewhere safe.”
Victoria understood what that meant.
She grabbed a heavy lamp and struck Briggs across the arm. His gun fell.
She ran.
Outside, Dr. Park waited in an ambulance with Margaret.
Victoria had arranged the escape during the confusion at the harbor.
Margaret glared at her.
“Where is Ethan?”
“My uncle took him.”
“How do you know?”
“Because that’s how he gets rid of people.”
Victoria gave Dr. Park the memory card.
“Send every file to every news station, federal agency, and board member you can find.”
Dr. Park inserted the card into her laptop.
“It’s encrypted.”
Victoria recited the password.
Margaret stared at her.
“Why are you helping us?”
Victoria’s voice cracked.
“Because I finally know who the monster is.”
Margaret’s eyes remained cold.
“There is more than one monster in this story.”
Victoria accepted the words without defending herself.
Then Dr. Park found a live GPS feed embedded in Vale’s communications.
A moving dot traveled along the cliff road.
Ethan.
Victoria looked toward the ambulance driver.
“Turn around.”
Margaret grabbed her wrist.
“You are not going alone.”
May you like
The two women who hated each other climbed into the front of the ambulance.
And together, they went to save the same man.
