Chapter 14 - RAYMOND'S BETRAYAL
The plan was simple.
That should have warned them.
Emily entered the Grand Halcyon carrying a duplicate manuscript.
Federal agents occupied nearby rooms.
Torres monitored hidden audio.
Daniel remained in a surveillance van despite hating every second of it.
Emily reached the lobby.
The marble had been repaired where the violin struck.
She could still see it.
Not physically.
In memory.
Preston standing over her.
Money falling.
Her mother’s violin breaking.
She kept walking.
A text appeared.
ELEVATOR.
Room 1708 again.
Emily entered.
The room was empty.
Then the connecting door opened.
Raymond Hale stood there.
Alive.
No restraints.
No captor.
No weapon pointed at him.
Emily stopped.
Raymond looked devastated.
“You shouldn’t have come.”
“You told me to.”
“No.”
Her stomach tightened.
“The messages weren’t from you.”
He shook his head.
“Where’s Grandpa Thomas?”
“Safe.”
“Then what is this?”
Raymond closed the door.
“The end.”
Torres heard everything.
Agents began moving.
Then their communications died.
Meridian jammed the floor.
Raymond took the manuscript.
Emily stepped backward.
“You betrayed us.”
His eyes filled.
“Yes.”
“Again.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I have a daughter.”
Emily froze.
Raymond had never mentioned a daughter.
“She’s twenty-six.”
He swallowed.
“Meridian has owned her life since she was seventeen.”
“What did she do?”
“Nothing.”
“Then what do they have on her?”
Raymond looked toward the window.
“Her mother.”
Raymond’s wife had been involved in financial crimes before her death.
Meridian threatened to implicate their daughter.
Raymond obeyed for years.
Grace discovered it.
She offered to help him.
He changed Grace’s route because Meridian promised they only wanted to frighten her into stopping.
Instead they sabotaged the car.
“I heard the crash over the radio.”
Raymond’s voice broke.
“I have heard it every night for three years.”
Emily stared.
“You could have told Dad.”
“I was a coward.”
“Yes.”
He nodded.
“Yes.”
That answer hurt more than an excuse would have.
Raymond gave her the manuscript back.
Emily frowned.
“What are you doing?”
“Finishing what Grace asked me to do.”
He reached inside his jacket.
Not for a gun.
For the brass endpin.
Emily stared.
“You had it.”
“Evelyn gave it to me before she was attacked.”
“Why?”
“Because she knew she was being followed.”
He twisted the endpin open.
Inside was a tiny strip of film.
Not a key.
A photograph.
A face.
Emily recognized the woman.
Eleanor Voss.
Beside her stood someone else.
Preston Vale.
Much younger.
And a third person.
Daniel’s father, Charles.
Emily looked up.
“What does this prove?”
Raymond pointed to the date.
It had been taken after Eleanor’s supposed death.
Charles knew Eleanor was alive.
Grace had discovered that.
That was the secret behind Meridian.
Charles had never completely fought his mother-in-law.
For years, he cooperated with her.
He helped build the biometric vault.
Only later did he regret it.
Grace uncovered evidence proving Charles had participated in Meridian before trying to destroy it.
Emily whispered.
“Dad worshipped Grandpa Charles.”
“Grace didn’t want him to know until she had proof.”
A sound came from the adjoining room.
Raymond immediately moved Emily behind him.
The door opened.
Thomas Mercer entered.
Untied.
Uninjured.
Emily stared.
“You weren’t kidnapped.”
Thomas lowered his head.
“No.”
Raymond looked at Emily.
“We staged the photograph.”
Anger rushed through her.
“You terrified me.”
“We needed Meridian to believe Thomas was useful.”
“You lied.”
“Yes.”
“Everybody lies.”
Raymond looked ashamed.
Thomas stepped forward.
“But we found the violin.”
He opened a case.
Grace’s rare violin lay inside.
Perfect.
Beautiful.
Untouched.
Emily’s eyes filled.
She reached toward it.
Then the hotel door exploded inward.
A gunshot struck Raymond in the chest.
He fell.
Thomas pulled Emily behind the bed.
A masked shooter entered.
Raymond, bleeding heavily, raised his gun and fired twice.
The attacker went down.
Agents finally reached the room.
Torres ripped off the shooter’s mask.
Everyone froze.
It was Jonah Reed.
The young security officer who had knelt beside Emily in the lobby.
The man who had seemed loyal from the beginning.
Jonah smiled through blood.
“You still don’t understand.”
Daniel rushed into the room.
Jonah looked directly at him.
“Raymond was never Meridian’s real man inside your family.”
His eyes moved toward Lydia, entering behind Daniel.
May you like
Then he laughed.
“Ask your sister what she did the night Grace died.”
