Chapter 9: The Tower

Chapter 9: The Tower

Hale Global occupied sixty-eight floors in the center of the city.

Victoria knew the building.

She knew my office.

And because I had once trusted her, she still possessed an executive access card.

Security locked down the tower, but Victoria had already entered.

Her target was not money.

It was the company’s central server.

Daniel had created a hidden program designed to transfer billions in intellectual property, client accounts, and private contracts to overseas companies.

The system required two authorization keys.

Daniel had one.

The second was stored in my office safe.

Victoria entered the building disguised as a maintenance worker and reached the sixty-eighth floor before security identified her.

By the time I arrived, she had locked herself inside my office.

Lily waited downstairs with Maria and federal agents.

“You shouldn’t be here,” Warren told me.

“She won’t open the safe without me.”

Victoria called my phone.

“Come upstairs alone.”

“No.”

“Then I erase everything your wife left behind.”

My office contained Elena’s handwritten journals, family photographs, and the original trust documents protecting Lily’s inheritance.

“I’ll come,” I said.

Warren grabbed my arm.

“She could be armed.”

“I know.”

I entered the office alone.

Victoria stood beside the open safe.

She held a small gasoline can in one hand and a lighter in the other.

“You ruined everything,” she said.

“You hurt my daughter.”

“She was never supposed to matter this much.”

“She is the only thing that matters.”

Pain flashed across Victoria’s face.

“You told me you loved me.”

“I loved the person you pretended to be.”

She laughed bitterly.

“And you think Lily loves you? She begged you to come home. You ignored her.”

The accusation landed because it was true.

Victoria stepped closer.

“I was there while you were chasing contracts. I knew exactly how long it would take before you noticed your own child was disappearing.”

“You’re right.”

She looked surprised.

“I failed her.”

I continued.

“But you mistook my guilt for weakness.”

Victoria raised the lighter.

“Give me the authorization code.”

“No.”

“I’ll burn everything.”

“No document in this room is worth my daughter’s safety.”

Her hand trembled.

“All your memories of Elena?”

“Elena is not paper.”

I took one step closer.

“She lives in Lily.”

Victoria’s face twisted with rage.

She threw the lighter toward the gasoline.

Before it landed, the sprinkler system exploded overhead.

Lily had activated the fire controls from the security room below.

Water flooded the office.

The lighter died.

Victoria screamed and grabbed a metal letter opener from my desk.

Security officers rushed through the door.

She held the blade against her own throat.

“Stay back!”

Then Lily’s voice came through the office speaker.

“Victoria.”

Everyone froze.

Lily continued calmly.

“You said my father would choose you.”

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Victoria stared at the ceiling speaker.

“He already made his choice.”