Chapter 14 - The Betrayal
Security footage showed Vanessa entering Gideon’s car.
Gideon denied seeing her.
Then Daniel discovered deleted GPS data.
The car traveled to a private Solmere estate outside the city.
I wanted to believe Gideon had another explanation.
He didn’t.
He had taken Vanessa.
Not to hurt her.
To keep her from turning over evidence against Helena.
Helena had promised to destroy Gideon’s criminal files if he prevented Vanessa from testifying.
Another compromise.
Another betrayal.
We found Vanessa unharmed.
She looked at Gideon and said something I never forgot.
“You all keep saying you had no choice.”
She shook her head.
“You always had a choice.”
Gideon surrendered.
Vanessa gave investigators the evidence in her mother’s private safe.
Emails.
Offshore account codes.
And one audio recording.
Helena’s voice.
“If Eleanor refuses the sale, we deal with her the way we dealt with Thomas.”
No ambiguity remained.
Helena had planned both attacks.
But when we returned to the hotel, we discovered something worse.
A federal judge had frozen the Vale trust pending litigation.
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Until the ownership dispute was resolved, I could not use the Sovereign Clause.
And the debt clock had only eighteen hours left.
