Chapter 13 - EVERYTHING FALLS APART
Gunfire erupted.
Christopher pulled me behind a marble column.
Federal agents shouted.
Victor disappeared into the ballroom.
One of his shooters fired from the balcony.
Another agent returned fire.
I stayed low.
Then Christopher suddenly groaned.
I looked down.
Blood.
“Dad.”
“I’m fine.”
“You're shot.”
“Shoulder.”
I pressed my hand against the wound.
“You call this fine?”
He almost smiled.
“I've had worse board meetings.”
Footsteps rushed toward us.
I grabbed the dropped pistol from a security guard.
Christopher stopped me.
“Do you know how to use that?”
“No.”
“Then don’t become an additional problem.”
Fair.
Victor’s voice echoed through the ballroom.
“Christopher!”
Silence.
“Do you remember the night you took her from me?”
Christopher leaned against the column.
“You never had her!”
Victor laughed.
“That was always your gift. Rewriting history.”
I looked at my father.
“Keep pressure here.”
“Where are you going?”
“To finish a conversation.”
“Genevieve.”
But I stepped out.
Victor stood near the staircase.
His gun shifted toward me.
“Put it down,” I said.
He laughed.
“You don’t have one.”
“No.”
“Then you're brave.”
“No. I'm tired.”
That made him hesitate.
“You hate my father.”
“Yes.”
“You hate my mother.”
His face tightened.
“Yes.”
“You used Chad.”
“Easily.”
“And me?”
He looked at me carefully.
“You were the one thing Christopher loved enough to fear losing.”
There it was.
Not hatred.
Not even revenge.
Obsession.
“You spent twenty-three years destroying people because a woman left you.”
Victor’s jaw tightened.
“She betrayed me.”
“So you became worse.”
His gun rose slightly.
I kept talking.
“My mother betrayed me too.”
He stared at me.
“Chad betrayed me.”
Silence.
“My father lied to me.”
Behind the column, Christopher heard every word.
“And somehow, Victor, I managed not to kidnap a six-year-old.”
His face twisted.
“You think you're better than me?”
“Yes.”
Simple.
That enraged him.
He moved the gun toward my chest.
Christopher stepped out.
“No!”
Victor turned.
Federal agents shouted.
“Drop it!”
Victor grabbed me.
His arm locked around my neck.
The gun pressed against my temple.
Christopher froze.
Victor smiled.
“Now you understand.”
“Let her go.”
“Get on your knees.”
My father stared at him.
Victor shouted.
“KNEES!”
Christopher slowly lowered himself.
My chest tightened.
I had never seen him kneel to anyone.
Victor laughed.
“All that power.”
Christopher looked at me.
Not Victor.
Me.
Then he said quietly:
“Genevieve, left side.”
I understood nothing.
Until I felt Victor’s weight shift.
His left knee was weak.
Old injury.
I drove my heel backward.
Hard.
Victor grunted.
I twisted.
The gun fired.
Glass exploded.
Agents rushed forward.
Victor fell.
The weapon slid across the floor.
Christopher grabbed me.
Victor tried to crawl toward the gun.
Then my mother’s voice came from the doorway.
“Stop.”
Everyone turned.
Evelyn stood there with one arm in a sling.
Victor stared at her.
“You.”
She looked at the man she had once married.
“Yes.”
“You ruined my life.”
She shook her head.
“No, Victor.”
Her voice broke.
“You ruined it yourself.”
Agents surrounded him.
This time, Victor Sloane had nowhere left to run.
As they dragged him away, he looked at me and smiled.
“You think this ends with me?”
I said nothing.
He laughed.
May you like
“Ask Chad what he did with the insurance policy.”
And suddenly the nightmare had one final door left unopened.
