Chapter 6: The Man Who Changed Sides
Chapter 6: The Man Who Changed Sides
Mason climbed onto Ethan’s shoulders and forced open the maintenance grate.
His body disappeared into the narrow shaft.
“Find the manual release!” Captain Hayes shouted.
The gas burned Ethan’s throat.
His vision blurred.
Seconds later, metal scraped beyond the wall.
The door unlocked.
Ethan and Captain Hayes dragged themselves into the corridor.
Mason dropped from the shaft, coughing.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I didn’t know she planned to kill anyone.”
“You knew enough,” Ethan replied.
Then he helped Mason stand.
“You can apologize later. First, help me stop her.”
They rushed back toward the bridge.
It was empty.
Margaret, Victoria, Dr. Park, and the guards were gone.
A trail of broken glass led toward the upper deck.
Outside, wind whipped across the yacht.
Victoria stood near the stern with one arm around Margaret’s neck.
In her other hand, she held a flare gun.
Dr. Park sat nearby with her wrists tied.
“Stop,” Victoria warned. “One more step, and she goes overboard.”
Ethan froze.
Margaret’s face was pale, but her eyes were clear.
“You don’t have to do this,” Ethan said.
Victoria laughed.
“You still think this is about money.”
“Isn’t it?”
“My father built Northstar Capital. Your father destroyed him.”
Margaret’s expression changed.
Victoria continued.
“Twenty-three years ago, Richard Cole accused my father of fraud. He lost his company, his reputation, and eventually his life.”
Ethan looked at his mother.
“Is that true?”
Margaret answered carefully.
“Victoria’s father committed fraud. Richard exposed him.”
“He ruined us!” Victoria shouted.
“He stole from thousands of employees.”
“He was my father!”
The flare gun pressed harder against Margaret’s side.
Victoria’s voice trembled now.
“I married you to take back everything the Coles stole.”
Ethan felt as though the deck had shifted under him.
Their meeting.
Their courtship.
Their wedding.
All of it had been planned.
“You never loved me,” he said.
Victoria’s eyes glistened.
For one painful second, she looked almost human.
“That was the only part I didn’t plan.”
Margaret suddenly drove her elbow backward.
Victoria lost her grip.
The flare gun fired into the night.
Captain Hayes tackled Victoria.
Ethan caught his mother before she fell.
But below them, orange flames erupted near the fuel intake.
The flare had landed inside an open ventilation shaft.
An alarm screamed.
May you like
Captain Hayes looked toward the rising smoke.
“We have six minutes before the fire reaches the main fuel line.”
