Chapter 13 - THE CHOICE NO FATHER SHOULD MAKE
Charles pulled Oliver backward into the tunnel.
Ryan stopped breathing.
Maya took one step forward.
Charles pressed the knife closer.
“Do not move.”
Oliver’s eyes filled with tears.
“Daddy.”
Ryan raised his hands.
“Let him go.”
Charles smiled.
“Give me the drive.”
“You’re surrounded.”
“I have escaped surrounded rooms before.”
Maya’s voice shook with rage.
“He is three years old.”
“He is leverage.”
“He is your blood.”
Charles laughed.
“Blood has never meant what your family pretends it means.”
Ryan looked at the tunnel walls.
There was no way around Charles.
The river exit was behind them.
Police could not fire without risking Oliver.
Ryan slowly reached toward Maya.
She placed the drive in his hand.
Detective Reeves whispered.
“Don’t.”
Ryan looked at his son.
“No evidence is worth his life.”
Peter stepped forward.
“Charles, the drive is copied.”
Charles’s expression tightened.
“Where?”
“Seven news organizations.”
“Three federal agencies.”
“And a judge you never managed to buy.”
Charles looked at Peter.
“You always were a terrible liar.”
Peter smiled faintly.
“I learned from watching you.”
Charles pulled Oliver farther back.
Ryan held up the drive.
“This is the original.”
“You want it?”
“Take it.”
He tossed it toward the ground between them.
Charles looked down.
That single movement was enough.
Oliver bit his hand.
Charles shouted.
Maya ran forward.
Charles lifted the knife.
Ryan reached them first.
He caught Charles’s wrist.
Maya pulled Oliver away.
Charles struck Ryan in the throat.
Ryan stumbled.
Charles grabbed the drive and ran deeper into the tunnel.
Detective Reeves pursued him.
Peter shouted.
“The tunnel floods at high tide!”
Ryan handed Oliver to Denise.
“Take them outside.”
Maya refused to leave.
“I’m coming with you.”
They followed Reeves.
The tunnel narrowed.
Water rose around their ankles.
Ahead, Charles reached a steel door.
It was locked.
He struck it with his shoulder.
Reeves aimed his weapon.
“Drop the knife.”
Charles turned.
His face was covered with mud and blood.
“You think prison frightens me?”
“No.”
Reeves’s voice remained steady.
“But losing frightens you.”
Charles looked at Ryan.
“I built your life.”
“I gave you the company.”
“I protected your mother.”
“You murdered my father.”
“Your father chose strangers over his family.”
“He chose the truth.”
“He chose weakness.”
Water rose to their knees.
Maya stood beside Ryan.
Charles looked at her with hatred.
“This all began because you refused to sign.”
Maya stared back.
“No.”
“This began because no one stopped you earlier.”
Charles lunged toward her.
Ryan stepped in front of him.
The two men crashed into the water.
The knife slid away.
Charles forced Ryan beneath the surface.
Maya grabbed a loose chain and wrapped it around Charles’s arm.
Reeves pulled Ryan up.
The steel door behind Charles suddenly opened.
A rush of river water exploded into the tunnel.
Everyone was thrown backward.
Ryan grabbed Maya.
Reeves caught the wall ladder.
Charles reached for the drive floating nearby.
Even as the water dragged him away, he chose the evidence.
He caught it.
Then the current pulled him through the open door.
Ryan reached out.
Charles was already gone.
The tunnel began filling rapidly.
They climbed the ladder toward a maintenance hatch.
Peter opened it from above.
Maya emerged first.
Ryan followed.
Reeves barely made it out before water swallowed the ladder.
Outside, Maya ran to Oliver.
He wrapped his arms around her.
Ryan knelt beside them.
Oliver touched the bruise on his father’s face.
“Bad man gone?”
Ryan looked toward the river.
“I think so.”
Divers searched until sunrise.
They found Charles’s coat.
They found the broken drive.
They did not find his body.
Federal agents arrived that morning.
Peter turned over copies of every record.
Board members were arrested.
Judges were suspended.
Doctors were questioned.
Whitmore Holdings shares collapsed before the market opened.
Ryan stood beside Oliver’s hospital bed watching the news.
Maya turned off the television.
“We are not safe until they find Charles.”
Ryan looked at his son.
“I know.”
His phone rang.
The caller ID showed a restricted number.
Ryan answered.
A distorted voice whispered.
“You should have let me drown.”
Then the sound of a child crying came through the phone.
May you like
It was not Oliver.
It was Rose.
