CHAPTER 6 — "VANESSA'S FINAL MISTAKE"
Armed men poured into the chapel.
Red laser sights covered my father's chest.
Nobody moved.
Vanessa walked down the center aisle like she owned the building.
Perhaps she thought she did.
She stopped only a few feet away.
"You should've stayed dead, Jonathan."
My father laughed.
Even bleeding.
Even exhausted.
He laughed.
"You still don't understand."
Vanessa's smile faded.
"I already won."
"You signed nothing," she continued.
"So I simply created your signature."
She held up a leather folder.
"The courts transferred everything to me this morning."
"The company."
"The estate."
"Every account."
She looked at me.
"And once Ryan disappears..."
"No one will question the inheritance."
The gunmen raised their weapons.
Then my father said one sentence that changed everything.
"Look behind you."
Vanessa rolled her eyes.
"I'm done falling for your tricks."
"I wasn't talking to you."
The chapel doors burst open.
Dozens of armed federal agents flooded inside.
"Federal agents! Drop your weapons!"
Chaos erupted.
Gunmen scattered.
Some surrendered immediately.
Others fired wildly.
Detective Marcus led the tactical team through the smoke.
Vanessa reached into her handbag.
Not for a gun.
For a small remote.
She smiled.
"If I can't own Project Lazarus..."
"No one can."
She pressed the button.
Nothing happened.
She pressed it again.
Still nothing.
My father quietly held up an identical remote.
"Looking for this?"
While she'd been focused on me, he'd switched them.
Vanessa's confidence disappeared for the first time.
Agents surrounded her.
She backed toward the altar.
"You don't have proof."
My father nodded toward the church organ.
A hidden panel slid open.
Inside were multiple encrypted hard drives.
Video recordings.
Financial ledgers.
Secret contracts.
Every fake death.
Every bribe.
Every murder order.
Everything.
Marcus smiled.
"You spent years burying the truth."
"You hid it in the one place she'd never search."
My father looked at Vanessa.
"You always hated churches."
She collapsed to her knees as agents placed her in handcuffs.
The nightmare was finally over.
Or so we believed.
Because as officers escorted her outside...
She looked directly at me.
Smiled.
And whispered six words that froze my blood.
"You still haven't met your real mother."
Before anyone could question her...
A prison transport truck speeding toward the courthouse exploded in a ball of fire.
Vanessa's vehicle disappeared behind flames and smoke.
When firefighters finally reached the wreckage...
Three officers were injured.
The driver was unconscious.
The handcuffs remained locked.
May you like
But Vanessa Hale...
Had vanished without a trace.
