Chapter 16 - THE REVELATIONThe workshop seemed to spin around me. The rain outside suddenly sounded deafening, like drums beating against the tin roof.
My father hadn't just been an accidental victim of corporate pressure years ago. And Thomas Vance hadn't just been an honest cop stumbling into a lucky break by answering my desperate phone call at the lighthouse.
It was all a chess match.
Julian hadn't built the Apex Syndicate from scratch; he had inherited it. And Thomas Vance wasn't trying to destroy the syndicate to clean up the police department—he was systematically eliminating his rivals to seize total, uncontested control of the entire forty-eight-million-dollar empire.
Every move I had made—calling Vance, handing over the digital files, setting up the anniversary trap, and even feeding Julian the Cayman Islands data—had played directly into Thomas Vance’s master plan.
He had used me as his personal weapon to wipe out Julian, his own brother Harrison, and every corrupt official standing between him and absolute financial dominance in Cleveland and Washington.
My phone buzzed violently in my pocket.
It was an incoming call from an unlisted, secure line.
May you like
With shaking fingers, I slid the screen to answer.
"Impressive work, Clara," a familiar, gravelly voice echoed through the speaker. There was no pretense of police authority now; just cold, calculating triumph. "You played your part better than I ever could have hoped."
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