Chapter 7 - The Lie My Father Built
Dust filled my mouth.
I hit the concrete floor hard enough to knock the air from my lungs.
Rebecca landed beside me.
Behind us, the tunnel entrance collapsed beneath twisted steel.
Darkness swallowed everything.
“Ryder?”
“I’m here.”
She switched on her phone flashlight.
Blood ran from her temple.
“Can you stand?”
“I can.”
I wanted answers more than oxygen.
“You said my father worked with Samuel.”
Rebecca looked toward the blocked tunnel.
“We need to move.”
“No.”
“He’ll come through another access point.”
“Then talk while we move.”
We followed an underground service passage barely wide enough for two people.
Rebecca limped.
I stayed three feet behind her.
Not because I trusted her.
Because I didn’t.
“My father collected evidence against Samuel.”
“Yes.”
“He was shot because of it.”
“Yes.”
“Then explain what you meant.”
Rebecca breathed carefully.
“Robert and Samuel hated each other. That part is real.”
“Great.”
“But they also needed each other.”
“For what?”
“The shell network.”
I stopped.
“What?”
“Samuel built false identities. Robert built the financial structures.”
“No.”
“You think Samuel could create hundreds of holding companies across twenty years without someone who understood security?”
“My father was an engineer.”
“Your father was brilliant.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“He created the encryption architecture they used to hide ownership.”
I laughed once.
“My encryption architecture.”
She looked back.
“Yours came later.”
Cold crawled up my neck.
Dad had told me he adapted my early prototype.
Maybe the opposite was true.
Maybe my first security architecture had been based on ideas he already used illegally.
Rebecca continued.
“Robert wanted to expose the murders. But exposing Samuel meant exposing himself.”
“So he stayed dead.”
“Yes.”
“He wasn’t protecting us.”
“Not entirely.”
I thought of the hospital.
His confession.
Cowardice dressed as sacrifice.
Maybe that part had been true too.
“Why would he help Samuel?”
“Money.”
“No.”
“You really want another reason?”
“Yes.”
“Pride.”
That sounded more believable.
“Robert thought he could control Samuel. Thought the fraud could remain financial. Fake corporations. Hidden profits. Tax schemes.”
“And when Samuel started killing?”
“He tried to leave.”
“So Samuel tried to kill him.”
“Yes.”
“Then why work with him afterward?”
“Because Robert had no identity, no legal access, and no way to expose Samuel without implicating himself.”
“So they made a deal.”
Rebecca nodded.
“An uneasy one.”
“For eleven years?”
“On and off.”
I felt sick.
“What did Dad get?”
“Time.”
“What did Samuel get?”
“Access to Robert’s encryption systems.”
“And you?”
She went quiet.
“What did you get, Rebecca?”
“You.”
The single word stopped me.
She faced me in the narrow tunnel.
“I was supposed to watch you.”
“So you married me.”
“No.”
“You expect me to believe our marriage wasn’t part of the plan?”
“At first, Samuel wanted me near you.”
“Why?”
“To learn whether Robert contacted you.”
“So you spilled wine on me at that gala.”
“That was deliberate.”
“At least something makes sense.”
“But I wasn’t supposed to date you.”
I stared at her.
“You spent seven years lying to me.”
“I know.”
“You abused my mother.”
Her face tightened.
“I know.”
“You broke her wrist.”
“I pushed her.”
“Stop correcting vocabulary.”
“I’m not defending it!”
Her voice echoed through the tunnel.
“I became exactly what Samuel trained me to become.”
“You chose every day.”
“Yes.”
No excuses.
That almost made it worse.
She looked away.
“I could tell you I was afraid. I could tell you Samuel threatened me. I could tell you Marcus watched me. All of those things are true.”
“But?”
“But I still did it.”
For the first time since learning her identity, she wasn’t trying to manipulate me.
“I hated Eleanor,” she whispered.
“Why?”
“Because she saw me.”
“What does that mean?”
“She never believed I was Allison.”
Mom.
Of course.
“She told you?”
“Not directly. But she watched me. Asked questions.”
“What questions?”
“About my childhood. Schools. Foods I liked. The kind of questions mothers ask.”
“And you didn’t know how to answer.”
“I knew Allison Bennett’s biography.”
“But not her memories.”
Rebecca nodded.
“Eleanor knew.”
“So you isolated her.”
“Yes.”
“You convinced me she was confused.”
“Yes.”
“You stole her medication.”
“Yes.”
My hands clenched.
She stepped back.
“I know what you want to do.”
“You don’t.”
“I do.”
I wanted to hate her without complication.
But complication was everywhere.
A distant mechanical sound echoed ahead.
Rebecca extinguished the phone.
“Someone’s coming.”
We moved into a maintenance alcove.
Two men passed carrying rifles.
Samuel’s people.
One spoke into a radio.
“Mercer’s father got out. Old woman too.”
Relief hit me.
Mom safe.
Dad alive.
Then the second man said, “Kessler’s team has them pinned near the north road.”
David.
He was supposed to be in custody.
My mind raced.
“How did David get out?”
Rebecca whispered, “He didn’t.”
“Then?”
“His team.”
More enemies.
Wonderful.
The men moved on.
We continued.
At the tunnel exit, Rebecca stopped.
“Once we’re outside, you go east.”
“You?”
“West.”
“No.”
She looked surprised.
“You’re coming with me.”
“Why?”
“Because you know too much.”
“You can hand me to police later.”
“That’s the plan.”
A bitter smile.
“Romantic.”
“Don’t.”
The exit opened into a dry creek bed.
Gunfire sounded in the distance.
I called Ruiz.
No signal.
We climbed a ridge.
Then my phone connected.
Six missed calls.
Ruiz.
Dad.
Unknown.
I called Ruiz.
“Where are you?”
“North of the station.”
“Your mother is safe.”
I closed my eyes.
“Dad?”
“With her.”
“What about Samuel?”
“Escaped.”
“David?”
“Still in federal custody, but several men associated with him hit the perimeter.”
“Rebecca is with me.”
Silence.
“Repeat that.”
“She helped me get out.”
“Do not let her leave.”
Rebecca rolled her eyes.
“I can hear her.”
Ruiz continued.
“Federal agents recovered Samuel’s laptop.”
“Did he access the ledger?”
“No. The watch wafer was damaged.”
I almost smiled.
Dad’s design.
Mechanical watch.
Ceramic wafer.
Maybe being thrown onto concrete had cracked it.
“We still have Mom’s key?”
“Yes.”
“Dad’s?”
“He says Samuel got a copy.”
“So we’re ahead.”
“Maybe.”
“What?”
Ruiz lowered her voice.
“We identified our police leak.”
“Who?”
“Captain Warren Blake.”
I knew the name from local news.
Twenty-six years in Dallas law enforcement.
Decorated.
Respected.
“He’s missing.”
“Of course.”
“And there’s more.”
There always was.
“Blake’s financial records connect to a company called Bennett Holdings.”
Rebecca stiffened.
“What?”
Ruiz heard her.
“You know it?”
Rebecca took the phone from my hand.
“Bennett Holdings isn’t a company.”
“What is it?”
“A reserve identity.”
“For who?”
Rebecca’s face went pale.
“For Samuel.”
I took the phone.
“He uses Allison Bennett?”
“No.”
Rebecca looked terrified.
“The real Allison was supposed to become Samuel’s financial successor identity.”
I frowned.
“A female identity?”
“He didn’t care. Corporations don’t see faces. Bennett Holdings controlled the clean assets.”
“And when Allison disappeared?”
“Samuel needed Rebecca to keep the identity active.”
So Rebecca becoming Allison Bennett had not only been camouflage.
It preserved an entire financial network.
Ruiz said, “We found payments from Bennett Holdings to Captain Blake for nine years.”
Nine.
From around the time Allison disappeared.
“How much?”
“Over three million.”
Rebecca sat on a rock.
“Samuel owns him.”
“Not anymore,” Ruiz said. “He’s wanted.”
Then a text message came through.
From Dad.
Ryder. DO NOT BRING REBECCA TO POLICE.
I stared.
A second message.
BLAKE HAS MORE PEOPLE.
Then:
MEET ME AT THE OLD FARM. COME ALONE.
I showed Rebecca.
She shook her head.
“Don’t.”
“Why?”
“Robert never asks anyone to come alone.”
“You seem to know him well.”
“I do.”
Too well.
I called Dad.
No answer.
Ruiz said, “Do not go.”
“I’m going.”
“Ryder.”
“I need to know whether that message is his.”
We drove in an abandoned pickup found near the service road.
The old farm was forty miles east.
A property my parents had owned when I was young.
Dad sold it after I left college.
At least, I thought he had.
The barn still stood.
So did the little white farmhouse.
No vehicles.
No lights.
I entered alone.
“Dad?”
Silence.
On the kitchen table sat my graduation watch.
The one Samuel took.
Cracked glass.
Bent bracelet.
No wafer.
Beside it was Dad’s phone.
I picked it up.
A video began automatically.
Captain Warren Blake appeared on screen.
He smiled.
“Hello, Ryder.”
Behind him, Dad sat tied to a chair.
My mother was beside him.
My relief vanished.
They had both been taken again.
Blake continued.
“Your father has made this unnecessarily difficult.”
Dad’s face was bloody.
Mom looked furious rather than frightened.
Blake leaned toward the camera.
“You have Rebecca.”
I glanced toward the window.
She had remained in the truck.
“Samuel wants her back.”
Why?
She was a liability now.
Unless she possessed something they needed.
“Bring Rebecca to the courthouse parking garage at midnight.”
Blake smiled.
“Your parents for your wife.”
Then Dad raised his head.
“No!”
Blake struck him.
The video ended.
I ran outside.
The truck passenger door was open.
Rebecca was gone.
On the seat lay a note.
DON’T TRADE YOUR FAMILY FOR ME.
Beneath it:
ASK ALLISON WHERE SAMUEL’S REAL LEDGER IS.
I called Ruiz.
Then Allison Bennett.
The real one.
She answered from the Oklahoma facility.
“Ryder?”
“Allison, I need you to remember something.”
“I’ll try.”
“Samuel’s ledger.”
Silence.
“Not the list,” I continued. “The real ledger.”
She began breathing faster.
“Red room.”
“What red room?”
“Bank.”
“What bank?”
“The one with no money.”
“Allison.”
“He kept people there.”
My skin crawled.
“Where?”
“Below the courthouse.”
I froze.
The courthouse parking garage.
Samuel wasn’t just choosing a meeting place.
His ledger was beneath it.
I asked one more question.
“Allison, how do you know?”
Her answer changed everything.
“Because Rebecca hid me there after Marcus tried to kill me.”
I couldn’t speak.
“Rebecca saved you?”
“Yes.”
“Then why did she take your identity?”
Allison began crying.
“Because Samuel told her if she didn’t, he’d finish what Marcus started.”
I looked at the empty passenger seat.
For seven years Rebecca had lied to me.
For months she had abused my mother.
None of that disappeared.
But nine years earlier, a frightened young woman had saved Allison Bennett’s life.
And now she had disappeared again to stop me from trading my parents for her.
My phone rang.
Rebecca.
I answered.
“Where are you?”
Her breathing was uneven.
“Courthouse.”
“Don’t.”
“Samuel wants me.”
“Why?”
“Because I know how to open the red room.”
“Rebecca—”
“I can get your parents out.”
“Wait for me.”
“I’m done letting people pay for what I did.”
A metallic click came through the phone.
A gun being cocked.
Samuel’s voice appeared.
“Rebecca.”
She whispered, “Ryder.”
Then screamed.
The call ended.
I stared toward downtown Dallas in the distance.
Midnight was forty-nine minutes away.
May you like
And beneath the courthouse sat a room containing enough secrets to destroy everyone involved.
Including, apparently, my father.
