Chapter 6 - The Confession
Roman did not go alone.
He intended to.
Claire refused.
Daphne refused for a different reason.
“If Malcolm sees me, he may hesitate.”
Roman stared at her.
“He shot at you twenty minutes ago.”
“He used to.”
“He doesn’t anymore.”
“That doesn’t erase twelve years.”
Claire looked between them.
“What exactly was Malcolm to you?”
Daphne’s expression changed.
Roman saw it too.
“Oh.”
Daphne looked away.
“We were together.”
Roman cursed.
“For how long?”
“Six years.”
“During Amelia?”
“Yes.”
“Did Amelia know?”
“Eventually.”
Claire understood.
That explained how Daphne had obtained internal information.
And perhaps why Amelia trusted her.
Daphne wasn’t merely her friend.
She had been sleeping beside one of the men helping destroy the family.
Roman’s voice turned hard.
“Did you tell Malcolm what Amelia discovered?”
Daphne’s eyes filled with tears.
“Yes.”
Roman stepped toward her.
Claire moved between them.
“Roman.”
“My wife died because—”
“I know!”
Daphne’s voice broke.
“I know exactly what my mistake cost.”
Silence.
She wiped her face.
“I thought Malcolm would protect us. I thought he would take the evidence to Roman.”
Roman laughed bitterly.
“He took it to my father.”
“Yes.”
Roman looked ready to explode.
Then Claire said, “Eli.”
One word.
Everything else disappeared.
Roman exhaled.
“Right.”
Terminal 14 occupied twelve acres beside the harbor.
Rows of dark warehouses.
Shipping cranes.
Containers stacked like giant blocks.
Rain began again as they approached.
Roman parked beneath an overpass.
“We need to know where Eli is.”
Daphne pointed toward the eastern warehouse.
“Old customs office.”
“How do you know?”
“Malcolm used it before.”
Claire looked at Roman.
“And the drives?”
He held up a small case.
“Copies.”
“You made copies?”
“Lena did.”
“Smart doctor.”
“I employ smart people.”
Claire raised an eyebrow.
“Apparently with mixed results.”
Even now he almost smiled.
Roman handed Daphne a phone.
“If we don’t come out in twenty minutes, send everything to the FBI contact on that screen.”
“You trust him?”
“No.”
“Comforting.”
“I trust that he wants a career.”
They entered the terminal from the water side.
Claire knew the dock.
She had been there hours earlier.
The black grit beneath their shoes.
The smell of diesel.
The sound of water striking pilings.
Roman noticed her slowing.
“What?”
“This is close.”
“To where you found Eli?”
She nodded.
Roman looked toward the river.
Something passed over his face.
“If you hadn’t been here…”
“I was.”
He met her eyes.
“That’s the only version we’re living in.”
They continued.
Voices came from the customs office.
Julian.
“You were supposed to keep the boy at the house.”
Celeste answered.
“Lena took him before I could move.”
“And yet he’s here.”
“Because Malcolm handled it.”
Roman’s hands tightened.
Claire touched his arm.
Wait.
Malcolm spoke next.
“Roman will come.”
Julian laughed.
“For the kid?”
“For his son.”
“There’s a difference?”
“To Roman, yes.”
Claire looked at him.
Roman’s face revealed nothing.
Inside, Eli cried.
“Dad!”
Roman nearly moved.
Claire stopped him.
A deeper voice came through a speaker.
Recorded.
Charles Archer.
Roman’s dead father.
“You want truth, Roman?”
Roman froze.
Malcolm continued.
“The boy found this behind Amelia’s portrait.”
A recording played.
Charles’s voice filled the warehouse.
“Amelia knows too much.”
Another voice.
Malcolm.
“What do you want done?”
Charles answered.
“Make it look like the road.”
Roman closed his eyes.
His father had ordered Amelia’s death.
The recording continued.
Julian spoke.
“Dad, wait.”
Roman opened his eyes.
A younger Julian.
“There has to be another way.”
Charles laughed.
“You want the empire, son? Then learn what it costs.”
Present-day Julian shouted.
“Turn that off!”
Malcolm didn’t.
The confession continued.
Charles said, “Roman will never do what needs doing. He has principles. Principles are expensive.”
Then:
“Amelia made him weak.”
Roman’s face became stone.
Another voice appeared.
Celeste.
“What about the child?”
Charles answered.
“Leave Eli alone.”
Roman looked surprised.
Malcolm stopped the recording.
Inside the office, Julian said, “My father never ordered Eli killed.”
Malcolm answered, “Your father is dead.”
Julian’s voice became uncertain.
“What are you saying?”
“I’m saying the empire belongs to whoever can keep it.”
Claire looked at Roman.
The betrayal was evolving.
Malcolm hadn’t merely inherited Charles’s operation.
He had taken control.
Julian had convinced himself he was heir.
He was actually another employee.
Roman whispered, “We move now.”
He entered through the side door.
“Let him go.”
Everyone turned.
Eli cried, “Dad!”
Malcolm stood behind the boy.
Gun raised.
Celeste beside him.
Julian across the room.
Roman held the case.
“Drives.”
Malcolm smiled.
“Put them down.”
Roman did.
Claire remained hidden behind the doorway.
Daphne had stayed outside.
Malcolm kicked the case toward Celeste.
She checked the drives.
“Real.”
Malcolm looked at Roman.
“Your wife was a problem.”
Roman’s expression didn’t change.
“She was better than every person in this room.”
Julian looked away.
Malcolm laughed.
“She almost destroyed everything your father built.”
“Good.”
“You don’t mean that.”
“I do.”
Malcolm studied him.
“Charles always said you lacked stomach.”
“My father died believing fear made him powerful.”
Roman stepped closer.
“I’ve spent four years cleaning up things I thought were business mistakes. Turns out I was cleaning his fingerprints.”
Julian suddenly snapped.
“Enough.”
Roman looked at him.
Julian’s face was twisted with anger.
“You had everything.”
Roman almost looked confused.
“What?”
“The company. The house. Dad’s respect.”
Roman laughed once.
“His respect?”
“He chose you.”
“He used me.”
“He still chose you!”
Julian’s voice echoed through the warehouse.
“I spent my entire life standing two feet behind Roman Archer.”
Eli stared at his uncle.
Julian pointed at him.
“Even when Amelia found out, she went to you in her letters. You. Everything came back to you.”
Roman’s voice softened.
“You could have walked away.”
“And become what?”
“My brother.”
The answer hurt Julian.
Claire saw it.
For a second, the man beneath the jealousy appeared.
Then Malcolm said, “Touching.”
Julian looked at him.
Malcolm raised his gun.
Roman noticed first.
Not aimed at him.
At Julian.
“Malcolm—”
The shot exploded.
Julian fell.
Eli screamed.
Roman lunged.
Claire moved.
She grabbed a metal hook from the wall and struck Celeste’s arm.
The woman dropped the drives.
Malcolm fired again.
Roman knocked Eli’s chair sideways.
The bullet missed.
Claire tackled Celeste.
They hit the concrete.
Celeste clawed at her face.
“You should have stayed out of the harbor!”
Claire drove her elbow into the woman’s ribs.
“People keep telling me where I should stay.”
Roman cut Eli’s restraints.
Malcolm ran toward the rear exit.
Then Daphne appeared.
She stood in the doorway holding a gun.
Malcolm stopped.
“Daphne.”
Her hands shook.
“Don’t.”
For the first time Malcolm looked human.
“Give me the gun.”
“No.”
“You won’t shoot me.”
“Maybe not.”
Daphne’s voice trembled.
“But Roman will.”
Malcolm looked behind him.
Roman stood with his weapon raised.
Eli behind him.
Julian bleeding on the floor.
Celeste coughing beneath Claire.
Malcolm slowly lifted his hands.
Then he smiled.
“You forgot something.”
Roman’s eyes narrowed.
Malcolm pressed a button on his watch.
A timer illuminated on the wall.
03:00
Claire stared.
“What did you do?”
Malcolm laughed.
“This terminal burns.”
Roman looked around.
Fuel drums.
Old wiring.
Thousands of documents.
Evidence.
Malcolm backed toward a side door.
“If I lose the empire, nobody inherits it.”
The timer changed.
02:48.
Roman grabbed Eli.
“Run!”
They ran for the loading bay.
Daphne followed.
Claire dragged Celeste up.
Roman looked back.
“Leave her!”
“No.”
Celeste stared at Claire.
“Why?”
Claire shoved her forward.
“Because I’m not becoming you.”
They reached the dock.
Behind them, fire erupted through the first warehouse.
Roman threw Eli into a tugboat tied nearby.
Claire climbed after him.
Daphne jumped aboard.
Then Claire realized someone was missing.
“Julian.”
Roman froze.
His brother was still inside.
Roman looked at the burning warehouse.
Claire saw the decision destroy him.
Julian had betrayed him.
Helped kill Amelia.
Helped kidnap Eli.
Yet he was still his brother.
Roman turned back.
Claire grabbed him.
“No.”
“I can get him.”
“The building is burning.”
“I can get him.”
Eli cried, “Dad!”
Roman looked at his son.
Then at the flames.
A figure stumbled from the smoke.
Julian.
Bleeding.
He collapsed on the dock.
Roman ran to him.
Together he and Claire dragged Julian aboard.
Daphne started the tugboat.
The explosion came seconds later.
Terminal 14 disappeared behind fire.
Eli clung to his father.
Julian lay unconscious.
Celeste sobbed.
Malcolm was nowhere.
Claire stared into the flames.
“He escaped.”
Roman nodded.
“And now he knows we have the confession.”
Daphne looked at Amelia’s recorder in Claire’s hand.
“No.”
Claire followed her gaze.
The confession.
She had grabbed it during the fight.
Malcolm didn’t know.
Daphne smiled through tears.
“He thinks it burned.”
Roman looked toward Charleston.
Sirens approached.
For the first time, they had something Malcolm did not know still existed.
Proof.
But as the tugboat drifted beyond the burning terminal, Roman’s phone received one final message.
A photograph.
Taken inside the mansion.
Mrs. Delaney sat tied to a chair.
Behind her stood Malcolm Reed.
May you like
The message read:
YOU SAVED THE WRONG HOSTAGE.
