Chapter 9 - The TowerWe returned to Bellamy Tower as husband and wife and potential owners of an international criminal apocalypse.
It was not the honeymoon I had imagined.
Not that I had imagined one.
Six months earlier, my romantic goals consisted mainly of finding a man who could make dinner reservations without texting me at midnight asking whether I was awake.
Now I was married to Theodore Bellamy and searching his corporate headquarters for a master ledger capable of exposing a secret organization older than his family.
Life had become unreasonable.
Eleanor was recovering in a secured hospital suite.
Her explanation was infuriatingly incomplete.
Sebastian created two ledgers.
The first tracked Circle members and current financial relationships.
The one we had released.
The second contained something more dangerous.
Proof of ownership.
Contracts.
Blackmail archives.
Biometric keys.
Access protocols.
Enough information, according to Eleanor, to take control of the Circle rather than merely expose it.
“Why would Sebastian keep that?” I asked.
Theo and I stood in his office after midnight.
“Insurance.”
“Your family really loves that word.”
“He believed dismantling the Circle without leverage would create a vacuum.”
“So instead he hid the nuclear launch codes in your office building.”
“Essentially.”
“That’s stupid.”
“He was a Bellamy.”
“Fair.”
Theo studied the original construction plans.
Bellamy Tower had been renovated four times.
Sebastian supervised the earliest expansion.
One section of the plans made no architectural sense.
A vertical cavity between the private elevators and central support core.
Three feet wide.
Forty stories high.
“What is that?” I asked.
“No idea.”
“Secret criminal elevator?”
“We already have one.”
“Of course you do.”
Theo zoomed in.
A maintenance access existed on floor twenty-seven.
We went there with Rachel, Adrian, and a thoroughly handcuffed Trent.
Trent looked offended.
“I saved your wife at the cathedral.”
Theo pressed the elevator button.
“You lied for twelve years.”
“Can both facts coexist?”
“Yes.”
“Then perhaps one handcuff?”
“No.”
The elevator opened.
Floor twenty-seven housed legal archives.
At 1:00 a.m., it was empty.
We found the maintenance panel behind shelving.
Theo’s fingerprint failed.
Mine activated it.
Everyone stared.
“Well,” I said. “That’s unsettling.”
The wall opened.
Inside was a narrow room.
No documents.
Only a telephone.
Old.
Black.
Rotary dial.
It rang.
We all jumped.
Trent whispered, “That’s disturbing.”
Theo answered.
“Bellamy.”
A woman’s voice came through the speaker.
“You brought too many people.”
Theo’s expression hardened.
“Identify yourself.”
“You know me as Elise Bernard.”
French legal counsel.
The woman from the museum auction.
My stomach dropped.
Theo stared at Adrian.
Adrian swore.
Elise continued.
“The master ledger is not in the Tower.”
“Eleanor says it is.”
“Eleanor believes many things Sebastian wanted her to believe.”
“Where are you?”
“Close.”
Theo looked toward the ceiling camera.
“Security.”
Nothing.
The floor systems had been disabled.
Elise laughed softly through the phone.
“Theodore, Lucien was never the head of the Circle.”
Adrian went pale.
I noticed.
“You know,” I said.
He looked at me.
“Elise’s family founded it.”
The voice on the telephone grew amused.
“Good, Adrian.”
Theo’s hand tightened around the receiver.
“What do you want?”
“Clare.”
Everyone looked at me.
I was becoming tired of that answer.
“Why?”
“Because Madeleine’s daughter can access what Sebastian stole.”
“The master ledger.”
“No.”
Elise paused.
“The treasury.”
Theo frowned.
“What treasury?”
Adrian closed his eyes.
“Aurum.”
I looked at him.
“The company?”
“Not a company.”
He swallowed.
“A vault.”
According to Adrian, the Circle maintained reserves independent of banks.
Gold.
Bearer bonds.
Diamonds.
Art.
Cryptographic access to modern assets.
Aurum Maritime had been created by Sebastian and Juliet to divert pieces of it.
“They stole from the Circle,” I whispered.
“Billions,” Adrian said.
“How many?”
“Then? Perhaps three.”
“And now?”
“Forty to sixty billion.”
Trent whistled.
Theo gave him a look.
“What? That is objectively a large amount.”
Elise spoke again.
“Bring Clare to the roof.”
Theo laughed once.
“No.”
“I have someone she will come for.”
My stomach dropped.
A video appeared on the maintenance room monitor.
Dad.
Sitting in a wheelchair.
Terrified.
A man stood behind him.
“Dad.”
His voice came through.
“Clare? Honey?”
I moved toward the screen.
Theo caught me.
“How did you get him out of Queen’s Memorial?”
Elise answered.
“We have doctors too.”
Rage flooded me.
“You touch him and—”
“I have no desire to harm your father.”
“Then release him.”
“Open the treasury.”
“I don’t know how.”
“You will.”
The screen changed.
Coordinates.
Bellamy Tower rooftop.
Ten minutes.
The call ended.
Theo immediately said, “No.”
“That’s my father.”
“I know.”
“I’m going.”
“No.”
“We are not doing this again.”
“This is different.”
“You always say that.”
“Because the threats keep becoming worse.”
Rachel stepped forward.
“We need a plan.”
I looked at the building schematics.
“Can Elise leave the roof by helicopter?”
“Yes.”
“Can we stop it?”
Theo nodded slowly.
“Airspace interference would alert her.”
“What about the building lights?”
“What?”
“Can you make the roof dark?”
“Why?”
I looked at Trent.
“Do you still have Circle credentials?”
He smiled.
“Several.”
Theo hated the plan immediately.
That was becoming a useful measure of quality.
Nine minutes later, I stepped onto the roof alone.
Wind tore at my coat.
The Manhattan skyline glittered around us.
A helicopter waited with blades spinning.
Dad sat near the edge in his wheelchair.
Elise Bernard stood beside him.
Elegant.
Emerald coat.
Same calm expression she wore at the museum.
Two armed guards.
“Clare.”
“Elise.”
“You have caused remarkable trouble.”
“I learned from my family.”
She smiled.
“Juliet would be proud.”
“You knew her?”
“Very well.”
“Did you kill her?”
“No.”
The answer came easily.
“Lucien?”
“No.”
“Who?”
“Cancer.”
I blinked.
Grandma had died from what doctors called sudden organ failure after an undiagnosed condition.
Elise saw my expression.
“Not every death in your family is murder.”
“That might be the nicest thing anyone has told me this month.”
Dad looked at me.
“I’m okay, sweetheart.”
“I know.”
He was lying.
He looked exhausted.
Elise extended a tablet.
“Your fingerprint.”
“For what?”
“To transfer Aurum authority.”
“I don’t have authority.”
“You inherited Madeleine’s biometric position.”
She smiled.
“Blood has always been more reliable than passwords.”
I approached.
Theo’s voice whispered through the concealed earpiece.
“Three more steps.”
I moved.
“Two.”
Elise’s guard watched my hands.
“One.”
I stopped before the tablet.
“Now.”
Every light on Bellamy Tower went out.
Darkness.
The helicopter lights died too.
Elise shouted.
A gunshot cracked.
I dropped.
Someone grabbed me.
For one terrifying second, I thought it was a guard.
Then Trent whispered.
“Move.”
He had used a maintenance harness to climb the exterior service line to the roof.
Insane.
Theo’s influence.
We crawled behind the elevator housing.
Gunfire erupted.
Bellamy security entered from the stairwell.
Theo reached Dad.
I saw him pull the wheelchair behind cover.
Elise ran toward the helicopter.
Its electrical systems remained dead.
She screamed at the pilot.
Theo moved toward her.
“Don’t.”
I caught up.
Elise stood at the edge of the roof.
Wind whipped her hair.
“It doesn’t end with me.”
Theo aimed his gun.
“It can.”
She looked at me.
“The treasury was never money, Clare.”
“What?”
“Sebastian understood power.”
She smiled.
“The real treasury is information no government can afford to release.”
Before anyone could stop her, she stepped backward.
Off the roof.
I screamed.
Theo grabbed me before I reached the edge.
Far below, darkness swallowed her.
For several seconds nobody spoke.
Then Dad said weakly, “I don’t like your new friends.”
I laughed and cried at the same time.
Theo brought him inside.
At the hospital two hours later, doctors confirmed he was dehydrated but unharmed.
I sat beside his bed.
Theo waited outside to give us privacy.
Dad looked at my wedding ring.
“So.”
“So.”
“You got married.”
“Yes.”
“Without me.”
“I can explain.”
“You married the scary restaurant man.”
I stared.
“You knew?”
“I have eyes.”
“You met Theo once.”
“He stood outside my hospital room pretending he wasn’t watching you sleep in the chair.”
I blinked.
“When?”
“The first week.”
Theo had never told me.
Dad smiled faintly.
“He looked at you the way your mother used to look at locked doors.”
“That is not romantic.”
“It is if you knew your mother.”
His expression became sad.
“She always wanted to know what was behind them.”
I held his hand.
“Dad, did she ever tell you about Sebastian?”
His smile vanished.
“Yes.”
I sat upright.
“You knew?”
“She told me before we married.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because she made me promise.”
I nearly laughed from frustration.
“Apparently vows of secrecy were our family hobby.”
Dad squeezed my fingers.
“She was scared.”
“Of Lucien?”
“Of everyone.”
He looked toward the door.
“But mostly of what you might become if you inherited that world.”
I looked at Theo through the glass.
“What did she think I would become?”
“Powerful.”
I frowned.
Dad smiled sadly.
“Your mother wasn’t afraid you’d be weak, Clare. She was afraid you’d be very good at being a Bellamy.”
That stayed with me.
Later, back at the penthouse, I stood before the windows.
Theo came behind me.
“Your father is right.”
“You were eavesdropping?”
“The door was glass.”
“You’re impossible.”
“Yes.”
He wrapped his arms around me.
“Do you think I’m becoming like them?”
“No.”
“You answered too quickly.”
“I know exactly what you are becoming.”
“What?”
“My wife.”
I turned.
“That avoids the question.”
“My equal.”
His expression was serious.
“That frightens the board more than anything.”
I almost smiled.
“What about the master ledger?”
“Still missing.”
“And Elise said the treasury is information.”
“Yes.”
“Could she have been lying?”
“Certainly.”
I leaned against him.
“For once, I would like our biggest problem to be choosing honeymoon destinations.”
“Anywhere you want.”
“Somewhere without secret tunnels.”
“That eliminates most Bellamy properties.”
“Theo.”
“I’m joking.”
“Are you?”
“No.”
I groaned.
His phone rang.
We both stared at it.
“Don’t answer.”
“I have to.”
“No resurrected relatives.”
“I promise.”
He answered.
It was Eleanor.
Theo listened.
Then slowly looked at me.
“What now?”
He put the call on speaker.
Eleanor’s voice filled the room.
“Clare, your father told me you found Madeleine’s marker.”
“Yes.”
“Then you are close.”
“To what?”
“The real archive.”
I closed my eyes.
“Please do not say another chapel.”
“No.”
“A crypt?”
“No.”
“A tunnel?”
“No.”
“Good.”
“It is beneath Luciel Blue.”
I opened my eyes.
Theo stared at me.
The restaurant.
Table nine.
The place where we met.
Eleanor continued.
“Sebastian purchased the building in 1987.”
My pulse quickened.
“Why?”
“Because Juliet designed the archive herself.”
Theo looked toward Manhattan’s glittering streets.
Our entire story had begun there.
Not by accident.
Not entirely.
I whispered, “The owner inspected every glass that night.”
Theo frowned.
“What?”
“Pierre said the owner rarely appeared.”
Understanding spread across his face.
“The owner knew I was coming.”
Theo was already reaching for his coat.
I caught his arm.
“What?”
“We’re going to Luciel Blue.”
“It’s three in the morning.”
“You wanted a honeymoon without tunnels.”
I stared.
“That sentence does not make sense.”
May you like
His mouth curved.
“Welcome to marriage.”
