Chapter 7 - The Final Confession on ScreenThe monitor flickered, and Thomas’s face appeared on the screen. He looked frail, propped up against hospital pillows, but his eyes burned with that same fierce intelligence I fell in love with when we were seventeen.

“Hello, my brave Nancy,” Thomas said, his voice husky from illness.
“If you’re watching this, you’ve survived the first wave. You found the box, you stared down Victoria, and you unlocked the vault. I always knew you were the strongest person I ever met. Back at the bus station, when I let you walk away, it broke my soul. But I knew that if you stayed in our hometown, the syndicate would have destroyed you just like they tried to destroy me.
Everything I built, every dollar, every corporation—it was all a weapon forged to destroy the monsters who stole our youth. But weapons need a rightful wielder. Victoria and her associates are currently trying to liquidate the company through offshore accounts. The flash drive in this terminal contains the master override codes to block their transfers and seize their personal assets.
There is one final thing, Nancy. Look behind the false back panel of the bottom filing cabinet on your left. There is something there I wanted you to have fifty-six years ago.”
May you like
Tears blurred my vision as I rushed to the filing cabinet, pulled open the heavy bottom drawer, and reached into the dark cavity at the back. My fingers brushed against a small, velvet jeweler's box.
I pulled it out, flipped the latch, and gasped. Inside rested an engagement ring—a simple, delicate silver band holding a small, brilliant diamond, identical to the one Thomas had shown me at the old diner when we were seventeen years old. He had kept it in his pocket for more than half a century.
Related Stories