Chapter 14 - The Vanity of Colette
Colette bolted for the boardroom doors, but they swung open before she could touch the brass handles. Two plainclothes federal investigators stood in the opening, handcuffs already gleaming in the cold fluorescent light.
"Colette Vance—alias Colette Moreau, alias Colette Rossi," the lead investigator said, reading from a laminated warrant. "You are under arrest for conspiracy to commit biological espionage, corporate fraud, and international child abduction."
"Julian made me do it!" Colette screamed, her polished facade collapsing into pathetic hysteria as the steel cuffs snapped around her wrists. "Elena, wait! Listen to me! Julian kept a second ledger! The vault isn't in Zurich, it's on a private vessel in Howe Sound! I can take you there! I can give you the names of the five families!"
I walked past her without breaking stride, not granting her so much as a glance. "The five families can rot in the same darkness you're heading into, Colette. Take her away."
Her shrill screams echoed down the long concrete corridor until the heavy fire doors slammed shut, cutting off the noise forever.
I turned back to the boardroom. Victoria St. Claire was sitting in a chair, her shoulders slumped, stripped of her arrogance, looking every day of her seventy-eight years.
"Your father was a fool, Elena," Victoria whispered, staring at the shattered pieces of her jade cane on the floor. "He thought he could give power to the common people. He thought medicine belonged to everyone."
"My father was a visionary," I said quietly, leaning down to meet her gaze. "And unlike you, his legacy won't die in a federal prison cell."
Two military police officers stepped forward, gently but firmly lifting the elderly woman to her feet and escorting her out into the waiting rain.
The room went dead silent.
Gordon Blackwell stood beside the glass wall, the rain drumming against the reinforced panes like applause from a ghost audience. He looked down at his hands, then turned to me, his broad shoulders squared, ready for my condemnation.
"You used Julian’s arrogance to bring them all out into the light, didn't you?" I asked, my voice calm, the adrenaline slowly leaving my veins.
Gordon closed his eyes. "When your father died, Elena, I swore on his grave that I would protect his work and his daughter. But Victoria’s syndicate was buried so deep into the banking system that no legal court could touch them. I had to wait until they overreached. When Julian came to me five years ago, greedy and desperate, I gave him the rope to hang himself. But I swear on my soul... I never intended for you and Eli to endure the cruelty Julian inflicted on you."
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He took a step toward me, his hands open. "If you want me out of this complex, Elena... if you want me to sign over every Blackwell asset and disappear into the north, say the word. I will walk out that door right now."
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