Chapter 7 - The Locked Penthouse.
Daniel spun toward the sound.
Charlotte grabbed the heavy brass letter opener from her mother's desk.
A shadow moved beyond the doorway to the bedroom.
"Who's there?"
Daniel's voice echoed through the suite.
No answer came.
Charlotte moved around the desk slowly.
The bedroom door was half-open.
She could hear breathing on the other side.
Daniel reached for his phone.
A woman stepped out before he could call security.
Charlotte stopped cold.
"Miriam?"
Miriam Cross, Solmere's general counsel, looked nothing like the polished attorney Charlotte remembered.
Her gray hair was loose.
Her blouse was torn at one sleeve.
She held a small revolver with both hands.
Daniel raised his palms.
"Easy."
Miriam's eyes locked on Charlotte.
"Is it really you?"
Charlotte lowered the letter opener slightly.
"Yes."
Miriam's shoulders sagged.
Then she began to cry.
Not loudly.
Just two silent tears down a face that had been holding too much for too long.
"I thought Victor found you first."
Charlotte looked at the gun.
"Why are you hiding in my mother's penthouse?"
Miriam lowered it.
"Because he tried to kill me this afternoon."
Daniel swore softly.
Miriam crossed the room and locked the suite door.
"Victor knows the original ledger is here."
Charlotte held up her mother's note.
"Your name is on this list."
Miriam closed her eyes.
"I know."
"Were you part of it?"
"At first."
The admission landed like a slap.
Charlotte stepped toward her.
"You forged my signature?"
"I prepared the documents."
"Did you forge it?"
Miriam looked directly at her.
"Yes."
Daniel moved between them when Charlotte's expression changed.
Miriam did not defend herself.
That made Charlotte angrier than an excuse would have.
She wanted Miriam to become a simple villain she could hate without hesitation.
Instead, the attorney looked terrified, guilty, and painfully human.
Charlotte was beginning to understand how Victor built his power.
He did not recruit loyal people.
He collected frightened ones.
"Victor told me it was temporary."
"He said Eleanor was unstable and the board needed emergency control."
Charlotte's voice shook with fury.
"So you erased me because he asked nicely?"
"No."
Miriam's face twisted.
"I erased you because he had photographs of my son buying drugs from an undercover officer."
Charlotte said nothing.
Miriam continued.
"He owned all of us differently."
"Arthur had gambling debts."
"Vanessa's father had hidden tax accounts."
"I had my son."
"And Daniel?"
Miriam looked at him.
Daniel went still.
"What about me?"
Miriam's expression changed.
"You really don't know."
"Know what?"
She reached into her coat and handed Charlotte a flash drive.
"Your mother found security footage from the night she died."
"Victor ordered me to destroy it."
"I made a copy."
Charlotte stared at the drive.
"What's on it?"
Miriam swallowed.
"Eleanor leaving the executive dining room at 10:42 p.m."
"Victor following her three minutes later."
"And Daniel entering the same corridor at 10:51."
Charlotte slowly turned toward him.
Daniel's face had gone white.
"I wasn't there."
Miriam whispered her answer.
"The camera says you were.
Daniel sat down hard on the edge of Eleanor's desk.
For years, he had wondered why Victor abruptly stopped trusting him after Eleanor's death.
Now the answer was obvious.
Someone had needed Daniel close enough to the crime to become useful evidence later.
He had not been overlooked.
May you like
He had been prepared as a scapegoat."
Then someone began pounding on the penthouse door.
