Chapter 8 - Vincent’s Confession
“I went to the Elmore house.”
Vincent stood unarmed while Marco kept a weapon trained on him.
“Why?”
Damian asked.
“To warn Thomas.”
“About what?”
“Your father.”
Damian’s face changed.
“My father was dead.”
“No.”
The room went silent.
Vincent looked directly at him.
“Anthony Hamilton didn’t die fourteen years ago.”
Damian actually laughed.
It was cold and disbelieving.
“I saw his body.”
“You saw a closed casket.”
“I saw medical records.”
“Bought.”
“A death certificate.”
“Bought.”
“My mother identified him.”
Vincent looked toward Evelyn.
“She identified a body that had been burned beyond recognition.”
Evelyn went pale.
Damian turned toward her.
“Mother?”
Tears appeared in her eyes.
“I believed it was him.”
Vincent continued.
“Anthony disappeared because federal investigators were closing in. Nicholas helped him fake his death.”
Caitlyn understood.
The ledger.
The recent transactions.
The impossible dates.
Anthony Hamilton was alive.
“And my father found out,” she said.
Vincent nodded.
“Thomas discovered Anthony was still controlling the trafficking network.”
Damian stared at the floor.
His entire life had been built around one certainty.
His father was dead.
Now even that had been a lie.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” he asked.
Vincent looked ashamed.
“Because Anthony had my sister.”
Damian’s eyes lifted.
Vincent’s voice cracked.
“She was nineteen. He threatened to kill her if I spoke. I warned Thomas instead. I thought he could disappear.”
“Did you give away his route?”
“No.”
“Who did?”
Vincent looked at Evelyn.
“Someone used her security credentials.”
Evelyn shook her head.
“No.”
Damian’s expression became unreadable.
Another betrayal.
Another stolen identity.
Another false trail.
Caitlyn stepped toward him.
“Damian.”
He did not respond.
“Look at me.”
Slowly he did.
“This is what Vale wants,” she said. “Everyone suspecting everyone.”
Vincent nodded.
“Exactly.”
Damian looked toward Noah.
“Then who visited the rehabilitation center?”
Vincent showed them a clearer photograph.
The stranger pretending to be Noah’s uncle.
Older.
Gray-haired.
But the face was unmistakable.
Evelyn made a broken sound.
Damian stared.
His father.
Anthony Hamilton.
Alive.
Caitlyn watched something inside Damian collapse.
Then rebuild itself into something colder.
“Where is he?”
Vincent answered.
“I know how to find him.”
That night they created a plan.
Caitlyn hated it.
Because the bait was her.
The ledger contained evidence capable of destroying Anthony’s remaining empire.
So Caitlyn would offer a trade.
The ledger for the truth.
Damian refused immediately.
“No.”
“You need him to come out.”
“No.”
“He wants the ledger.”
“No.”
“He wants me too.”
“That is exactly why the answer is no.”
Caitlyn stepped closer.
“You don’t get to order me around outside the office.”
“I can fire you and make that technically true.”
“Then fire me.”
Damian stared.
“Fine. You’re fired.”
“Great. Now I’m going.”
Vincent turned away to hide a smile.
Damian looked furious.
“You are impossible.”
“So I’ve been told.”
Finally he agreed.
But only after attaching a tracking device beneath her coat.
The meeting would happen at an abandoned ferry terminal.
Caitlyn arrived alone.
At least she appeared alone.
Nicholas Vale stepped from the shadows.
He was older than she expected.
Elegant.
Almost grandfatherly.
“You look like Thomas.”
Caitlyn held the ledger.
“You destroyed my family.”
“No.”
Vale smiled.
“Your father destroyed your family when he decided morality mattered more than survival.”
“Where is Anthony?”
Vale’s smile widened.
“Closer than you think.”
A gun pressed against Caitlyn’s back.
She froze.
A familiar voice whispered beside her ear.
“Hello, Miss Elmore.”
She recognized it immediately.
Dr. Harris.
Then the lights around the terminal exploded.
Gunfire erupted.
Damian’s men moved.
Harris dragged Caitlyn backward.
She drove her elbow into his ribs.
He lost his grip.
She ran.
Damian emerged from behind a concrete pillar.
“Caitlyn!”
Vale fired.
Damian shoved her aside.
The bullet struck him.
He fell.
Caitlyn screamed his name.
For the first time, not “Mr. Hamilton.”
Not “boss.”
May you like
“DAMIAN!”
And as she dropped beside him, blood spreading beneath her hands, Nicholas Vale disappeared into the darkness with the ledger.
