PART 7 — The Conspiracy of the Past
My breath caught in my throat. The man standing before me, my own brother Arthur, looked like a ghost from the past. Twenty years ago, he was accused of embezzling two million dollars from our family business. He disappeared overnight, and we all assumed he had fled abroad or died.
And now he stood here, pointing a gun at me.
"Arthur..." I stammered, trying to keep my voice under control. "Why? What did Daniel do to you?"
Arthur took a step forward. The scar on his cheek twitched as he clenched his teeth. "What did he do to me? He stole my life! Twenty years ago, I discovered Daniel was embezzling money from the business. When I tried to confront him, he framed me. He forged the evidence so it looked like I was the thief!"
He looked at Monique, who kept her head bowed in silence.
"He forced me to leave town," Arthur continued. "He threatened to destroy you and the children if I ever returned. I had to watch from the shadows as he took over my company, used my money, and built a second life with this woman!"
"We didn't know, Arthur!" I cried out. "All these years I thought you had abandoned us!"
"Because you were blind, Claire!" Arthur shouted. "You didn't want to see it! Daniel was no loving husband. He was a psychopathic master swindler. And Monique here... she was his accomplice from the beginning."
Monique looked up, her voice trembling with pain. "I loved him, Arthur... I didn't know he had ruined you..."
"Shut up!" Arthur snarled. He looked back at me. "Months ago, I made contact with Daniel. I let him know I knew everything about his offshore accounts and his second family. I demanded my money back. But he refused. He wanted to give everything to his beloved son Julian and his bastards in Portland."
"So you killed him?" I asked, a freezing chill running down my spine.
"He killed himself by fighting me in that car!" Arthur snapped. "Tuesday night, I forced him to get in. I wanted him to sign the transfer to Rosewood Holdings. But he went crazy behind the wheel. He started grabbing the steering wheel... and we went off the road."
Arthur took a deep breath, his eyes gleaming with pure madness. "Lucas showed up. That brat thought he could play the hero. I had to get away. But the money... the fifty million dollars in that Cayman Islands account... requires a double signature to be released."
Suddenly, I understood why I was here.
"My signature," I whispered.
Arthur smiled icily. He pulled a thick stack of papers from his inside pocket and threw it onto the ground at my feet. A pen fell beside it.
"Sign it, sister," he said. "As Daniel's wife and co-owner of Vance Enterprises, you have the right to unblock the accounts upon his death. Sign the transfer to Rosewood Holdings, and you walk out alive."
"And if I refuse?"
Arthur slowly aimed the gun at Monique. "Then I shoot her first. Afterwards, I'll pay a visit to your sweet little daughter Sophie... And believe me, Lucas can't protect her from my people."
My stomach turned. He knew every move. He knew Lucas was with Sophie.
Monique looked at me with wide, pleading eyes. "Sign it, Claire... He means it. He has no mercy."
I bent forward slowly and picked up the pen. But as my fingers touched the cold plastic, I saw something lying on the floor, half-hidden under an old wooden crate next to my foot.
It was a heavy, metal spray can of corrosive paint stripper, left behind by the shipyard workers.
My heart began to beat wildly. I looked at Arthur, who was waiting confidently with the gun in his hand.
"I will sign," I said softly. "But you must promise me one thing."
"I promise nothing," Arthur said impatiently. "Just sign!"
I straightened up as if to place the papers on a crate, but instead, I kicked the spray can with all my strength. The can rolled hard against the burning lightbulb hanging from the cord. The bulb swung wildly back and forth, causing shadows to dance across the warehouse.
In that fraction of a second of confusion, I grabbed the heavy metal pocketknife from my pocket and threw it not at Arthur, but straight at the hanging lamp's power cord.
