Chapter 6 - THE FACTORY
Blackwood Steel Works had been abandoned for fifteen years.
Its shattered windows glowed beneath flashes of lightning.
Victor parked outside.
He carried the flash drive inside a small metal case.
No weapons.
That had been Serena’s demand.
His footsteps echoed through the factory.
“Serena!”
A light switched on.
Sophie sat strapped into a baby carrier on a table thirty feet away.
Victor moved instinctively.
“Don’t.”
Charles Vale stepped from behind a steel column holding a gun.
He was older than Victor remembered.
Gray-haired.
Thin.
But very much alive.
Victor stopped.
“You’re supposed to be dead.”
Charles smiled.
“Your father wanted me dead.”
“So I gave him what he wanted.”
Serena emerged from the shadows.
She had changed clothes.
Black pants.
Black coat.
No trace of the polished woman Chicago society knew.
“Where is the drive?”
Victor lifted the metal case.
“First I take Sophie.”
“No.”
“Serena.”
Her expression hardened.
“You destroyed everything.”
Victor almost laughed.
“I came home and found you standing over my injured son.”
“He never knew when to shut his mouth.”
Victor’s eyes darkened.
“You don’t get to say his name.”
Charles raised the gun.
“Easy.”
Victor looked toward Sophie.
She was crying softly.
“Why my family?”
Serena smiled.
“Because your family destroyed mine first.”
Victor frowned.
“What?”
“My father worked for Blackwood Steel.”
“So did twenty thousand people.”
“He discovered your father was dumping chemical waste under three residential blocks.”
Victor’s face changed.
Serena continued.
“He threatened to expose him.”
“And?”
“Your father destroyed him.”
“He lost his job.”
“Then his house.”
“Then his health.”
“My mother died two years later.”
Victor stared at her.
“I didn’t know.”
“No.”
“You inherited the penthouse.”
“The private jets.”
“The company.”
“We inherited medical debt.”
Victor breathed slowly.
“So you decided to hurt my children?”
Her eyes flashed.
“I decided a Blackwood should finally lose something.”
Victor stared at her in disgust.
“Ethan was born five years after my father died.”
“So?”
“He had nothing to do with your father.”
“He carries the name.”
Victor shook his head.
“And that was enough for you.”
For one second, Serena looked uncertain.
Then Charles interrupted.
“Enough history.”
“Give us the drive.”
Victor opened the case.
Inside was a flash drive.
Charles motioned toward a laptop.
“Put it in.”
Victor did.
Charles began copying the files.
Serena walked toward Sophie.
Victor watched her carefully.
“You said you wanted revenge.”
“I wanted justice.”
“No.”
Victor’s voice became hard.
“Justice doesn’t fracture a child’s arm.”
Serena looked away.
“That wasn’t supposed to happen.”
“You pushed him.”
“He grabbed me.”
“He weighs sixty pounds.”
“He threatened to tell you.”
Victor stared.
“And Sophie?”
Serena said nothing.
“You bruised a baby.”
“I lost control.”
“That’s your defense?”
Serena suddenly shouted.
“You have no idea what I lost!”
Sophie began crying harder.
Victor’s entire expression changed.
“Lower your voice around my daughter.”
Charles laughed.
“Still giving orders.”
The laptop beeped.
Copy complete.
Charles pulled the flash drive free.
“Now we finish.”
Victor looked at him.
“Finish what?”
Charles raised the gun toward Victor’s chest.
Serena turned.
“That wasn’t the deal.”
Charles ignored her.
“You said you wanted him gone.”
“I said I wanted control of the company.”
“And how do you think you get it?”
Serena moved between them.
“You promised Sophie wouldn’t see this.”
Charles shoved her aside.
Victor lunged.
The gun fired.
Glass exploded.
Victor slammed Charles into a steel beam.
They crashed to the floor.
Serena screamed.
Sophie wailed.
Charles drove his elbow into Victor’s jaw.
Victor hit back.
Once.
Twice.
The gun slid across the concrete.
Serena saw it.
She ran.
Victor and Charles both reached toward her.
Serena picked up the gun.
She pointed it.
Victor froze.
Charles smiled.
“Good girl.”
Serena’s hands shook.
Then she turned the gun toward Charles.
His smile disappeared.
“You were using me.”
“Serena.”
“You planned to kill Victor and blame me.”
Charles’s face went cold.
“You were always expendable.”
Serena’s eyes filled with fury.
Victor looked between them.
A red laser suddenly appeared on Charles’s chest.
Then another.
Then ten more.
Marcus’s voice thundered through the factory.
“DROP THE WEAPON!”
Serena flinched.
Charles reached inside his coat.
A gunshot cracked.
He fell.
Victor ran to Sophie.
He ripped the straps loose and pulled his daughter against his chest.
“I’ve got you.”
Sophie screamed against his neck.
Victor kissed her hair.
“I’ve got you.”
Police flooded the building.
Serena still held the gun.
“Drop it!” an officer shouted.
She looked at Victor.
For one strange moment, she seemed almost human again.
Then her eyes shifted toward a side exit.
Victor saw it.
“Serena, don’t.”
She ran.
Three officers chased her.
Victor held Sophie tighter.
Marcus approached.
“Charles is alive.”
Victor nodded.
“Good.”
“I want him talking.”
Then Marcus’s radio crackled.
“Suspect moving toward the river.”
A pause.
Then:
“She jumped.”
May you like
Victor looked toward the black water beyond the factory windows.
And nobody saw Serena surface.
