My aunt stood behind Jason with one hand resting against his shoulder.
She looked calm.
Almost bored.
That frightened me more than the weapon.
“You want me,” I said.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because the organization is collapsing.”
She glanced toward the soldiers behind me.
“Too many records have surfaced. Too many people are asking questions. Your mother's little rebellion has become inconvenient.”
My mother stepped forward.
“You're finished.”
My aunt smiled.
“Perhaps.”
Then she looked at me.
“But she isn't.”
Jason shook his head.
“Becca, don't give her anything.”
My aunt pressed the gun against his neck.
“Your brother is very brave.”
I took one step forward.
She raised the weapon.
“Stop.”
I stopped.
“What do you want?”
“The archive.”
“You already know where it is.”
“I know where your father kept it.”
Her eyes narrowed.
“I need the original.”
My mother looked at me.
I understood.
The archive we had opened contained copies.
The original records were somewhere else.
My aunt knew that.
“You think I have it.”
“You do.”
I reached slowly into my jacket.
Alvarez shifted behind me.
My aunt noticed.
“Tell your people to lower their weapons.”
I did.
Everyone obeyed.
My aunt smiled.
“Good.”
I pulled out the metal key.
Her expression changed.
For the first time, she looked excited.
“That opens the vault.”
“No.”
She frowned.
“What?”
“It opens something else.”
My mother looked at me sharply.
I had realized it while driving.
The key had been given to me by my mother.
She had said it would explain more than she could.
But my father's reaction had told me something else.
He hadn't been surprised that I possessed it.
He had been afraid of what it opened.
I held the key up.
“You don't know what this is.”
My aunt's eyes hardened.
“Give it to me.”
“No.”
She pushed the gun harder against Jason.
“Then he dies.”
I looked at Jason.
He was terrified, but he shook his head.
Don't.
I understood.
The message wasn't for my aunt.
It was for me.
Trust the clue.
I looked toward the control panel beside my mother.
There was a small circular lock.
Exactly the size of the key.
I had seen it earlier.
I had ignored it.
Now I understood.
I moved toward it.
My aunt shouted.
“Stop!”
I didn't.
She raised the weapon.
My mother lunged.
A gunshot exploded through the warehouse.
Jason dropped.
I screamed his name.
Alvarez fired.
The room erupted.
People scattered.
My aunt disappeared behind a stack of crates.
I reached Jason.
Blood spread across his shoulder.
“Jason.”
He looked at me.
“It's not bad.”
“You're bleeding.”
“I've had worse.”
“You're lying.”
“Probably.”
I pressed my hand against the wound.
My mother ran to the control panel.
She inserted the key.
The wall opened.
Inside was a narrow compartment.
A single black case rested within it.
My mother stared.
“That wasn't supposed to be here.”
“What is it?”
“The original ledger.”
I pulled it out.
The case was heavier than it looked.
Inside were documents.
Names.
Accounts.
Shipment routes.
Payments.
And one file marked with my mother's name.
I opened it.
The first page contained a photograph of her.
The second contained mine.
The third contained my aunt's.
Then I found the document that stopped me cold.
A recruitment authorization.
My name.
My aunt had not been preparing to kill me.
She had been preparing to install me.
The organization intended to make me its public military liaison.
My entire career had been designed to make me credible.
The medals.
The promotions.
The assignments.
Even the ambush.
All of it had built a reputation they could eventually exploit.
My mother read over my shoulder.
“They wanted you to become the face of the network.”
I closed the file.
“They never wanted me to disappear.”
“No.”
“They wanted me powerful.”
“Yes.”
I looked toward the crates.
My aunt was gone.
A side door stood open.
She had escaped.
But she had left something behind.
A phone.
It was ringing.
I picked it up.
My aunt's voice came through.
“You finally understand.”
I said nothing.
“You think you've won because you found the ledger.”
“No.”
“Good.”
Her voice softened.
“Because the ledger is only half the story.”
“What is the other half?”
“You.”
The call ended.
I stared at the phone.
My mother approached.
“We have to leave.”
“No.”
She looked at me.
“We have the evidence.”
“Not all of it.”
I held up the recruitment authorization.
“She wanted me inside the organization.”
My mother nodded.
“Then she made one mistake.”
“What?”
“She believed you would eventually choose power.”
I looked at Jason.
He was being treated by Alvarez.
Then I looked at the ledger.
For years, everyone around me had made choices for me.
My father.
My mother.
My stepmother.
Mercer.
My aunt.
They had moved pieces across a board and called it protection.
They had decided what I should know.
Where I should serve.
Whom I should trust.
Even what kind of person I would become.
I closed the black case.
“They don't get to choose anymore.”
My mother looked at me.
“What are you going to do?”
I stared at the warehouse door where my aunt had disappeared.
“We take the ledger public.”
My mother went pale.
“If you do that, everyone connected to it will come after you.”
“I know.”
“You could destroy your career.”
“I know.”
“You could destroy our family.”
I looked at her.
“My family was destroyed a long time ago.”
Outside, sirens began approaching.
This time, they were not alone.
News helicopters appeared above the warehouse.
Someone had leaked the location.
Cameras turned toward the building.
I looked down at the black case in my hands.
The secret had survived Fort Bragg.
It had survived deployments.
It had survived my mother's disappearance.
It had survived twenty-six years of lies.
Now it was in my hands.
And for the first time, I was not being ordered what to do with it.
I made my choice.
Click here to continue reading: PART 9: The Cameras Arrived Before the Authorities, and My Decision to Expose the Ledger Forced Everyone Who Had Lied to Me Into the Light
My Father Asked Me to Disappear for Christmas, and Before Midnight a Highway Disaster Exposed a Secret Buried Since Fort Bragg
Part 8 of 12
