CHAPTER 7 – The File Everyone Was Willing to Kill For
The words echoed in Emily's mind.
"The granddaughter dies next."
Detective Ryan Brooks immediately ordered federal protection.
Within an hour, Emily was moved to a classified safe house guarded by FBI agents around the clock.
But Richard Hale wasn't afraid of security.
Because he had spent thirty years buying people.
Judges.
Politicians.
Police officers.
Even federal agents.
Nobody knew who could still be trusted.
Meanwhile, Victor lay in a hospital bed under heavy guard.
For the first time in his life, he looked terrified.
He wasn't afraid of prison.
He was afraid of Richard.
Detective Brooks leaned closer.
"You said Richard stole a file."
Victor nodded weakly.
"My father created it."
Brooks frowned.
"Your father?"
Victor swallowed hard.
"My real father wasn't Eleanor's husband."
The room went silent.
"My biological father..."
"...was Richard Hale."
Emily froze.
"What?"
Victor closed his eyes.
"Mother never told us."
"Richard forced himself back into her life before Whitmore Holdings became successful."
"When she discovered she was pregnant, she left him forever."
"He disappeared before I was born."
Emily suddenly understood everything.
Richard wasn't after money.
He wanted his own son to destroy Eleanor from the inside.
Victor had been manipulated since childhood...
By his own father.
At that moment, alarms blared through the hospital.
The lights flickered.
Every monitor went black.
Then—
BOOM!
An explosion shattered the emergency entrance.
Smoke filled the hallway.
Masked gunmen stormed inside with military precision.
"Take Victor alive!"
The FBI returned fire.
Bullets ripped through the walls.
Doctors and nurses screamed as patients were rushed into locked rooms.
Detective Brooks grabbed Victor's bed and pushed it toward the emergency stairwell.
"Move!"
Emily refused to stay behind.
"I'm coming."
"No!"
Brooks shouted.
"Richard wants Victor."
Emily looked at Victor.
Then she noticed something strange.
Victor wasn't looking at the gunmen.
He was staring at one particular nurse.
A woman quietly standing near the elevator.
She wasn't panicking.
She was smiling.
Victor whispered,
"That's her..."
Brooks turned.
"Who?"
"The woman who visited Richard every week."
Before anyone could react—
The nurse pulled a silenced pistol from beneath her medical coat.
One shot.
Two shots.
Three FBI agents fell instantly.
She calmly removed her wig and surgical mask.
Long black hair spilled over her shoulders.
Emily recognized her face from an old newspaper hidden inside Richard's file.
It was Sophia Hale.
Richard's daughter.
Victor's half-sister.
The woman officially declared dead twenty years ago.
Sophia smiled coldly.
"Hello, brother."
"You've disappointed Father."
She pressed a button on a small remote.
The entire hospital went dark.
Backup generators failed.
Security doors unlocked.
Chaos exploded across every floor.
Sophia walked toward Victor without fear.
Then she looked directly at Emily.
"So..."
"You're the granddaughter everyone keeps talking about."
She slowly raised her pistol.
"But Father gave me a different mission."
"He said your death should look like..."
"...an accident."
The gun fired.
Emily closed her eyes.
But the bullet never reached her.
Someone jumped in front of her.
Detective Ryan Brooks.
The bullet struck his chest.
As he collapsed into Emily's arms, he whispered just four words...
"Don't trust Eleanor... ever."
Emily's heart stopped.
Because if Brooks was telling the truth...
May you like
Everything she believed over the past week...
Had been a lie.
