Chapter 9
I stared at Victor.
He should have been in the hospital.
His shirt was visible beneath his open coat, stained with blood from his reopened wound.
Ryan smiled.
“Family reunions are beautiful.”
Sophie began crying.
“Uncle Victor, please.”
Victor pointed the gun at Ryan.
“Release her.”
Ryan’s smile disappeared.
“You’re supposed to be securing the helicopter.”
“I changed my mind.”
“You don’t get to change your mind.”
Victor moved closer.
“I spent years telling myself I was protecting this family. Every lie made things worse.”
Ryan tightened his arm around Sophie.
“You gave me Emily’s name.”
“I know.”
“You helped me access Daniel’s accounts.”
“I know.”
“You kept paying me.”
Victor’s voice broke.
“I know what I did.”
The rooftop door opened behind us.
Charles Voss appeared with another gun.
So he was not merely a buyer.
He had been Ryan’s partner from the beginning.
“Put it down, Victor,” Voss said.
Victor looked between Ryan and Voss.
He was trapped.
The helicopter blades roared above us.
Through my earpiece, Marcus whispered that the police were moving up the west stairwell.
I needed to keep Ryan talking.
“You never planned to sell the system to those men downstairs,” I said.
Ryan looked at me.
“They were a distraction.”
“You planned to give it to Voss.”
Voss stepped closer.
“Stop talking.”
But Ryan’s ego would not let him.
“He financed the operation,” Ryan said. “Your uncle opened the doors. I did everything else.”
“You married me.”
“That was work.”
“You beat me.”
“That was pleasure.”
Victor’s face twisted with rage.
He raised his gun.
Voss fired first.
The bullet struck Victor’s shoulder.
He fell to one knee.
Sophie screamed.
I rushed toward her.
Ryan swung the gun toward me.
Victor grabbed Ryan’s ankle.
The shot went wide.
I hit Ryan with both hands.
Sophie broke free.
Voss aimed at us.
Then Dad came through the rooftop door.
He had left the hospital.
He fired once.
The bullet struck Voss’s weapon and sent it sliding across the roof.
Police flooded the area behind him.
Voss raised his hands.
Ryan ran toward the helicopter with the control unit.
The pilot saw the officers and tried to lift off.
Ryan jumped onto the landing rail.
I grabbed the back of his coat.
He kicked at me.
“You can’t win!” he shouted.
The control unit slipped from his hand.
It hit the rooftop and broke open.
A small drive slid toward the edge.
Ryan released the helicopter rail and dove for it.
He caught the drive inches before it fell.
But his body continued sliding.
His legs went over the edge.
I caught his wrist.
Ryan hung above the street.
The same man who had whipped me now depended on my strength to live.
“Pull me up!” he screamed.
Dad rushed toward us.
Ryan looked into my eyes.
For the first time, there was no arrogance.
Only terror.
“Emily, please.”
I remembered every apology he had made.
Every promise.
Every bruise he had explained away.
I tightened my grip.
“I’m not saving our marriage.”
Dad grabbed Ryan’s other arm.
Together, we pulled him onto the roof.
Police officers surrounded him.
Ryan tried to crawl toward the drive.
Sophie picked it up first.
“This belongs to my family.”
An officer handcuffed Ryan.
He stared at me.
“Why did you save me?”
I stood over him.
“Because I want you alive when the judge reads every charge.”
Voss was arrested.
Victor was placed on a stretcher.
Before the paramedics carried him away, he looked at me.
“I don’t deserve forgiveness.”
“No,” I said. “You don’t.”
He closed his eyes.
“But tell the truth,” I continued. “All of it.”
Victor nodded.
Police escorted Ryan downstairs through the ballroom.
The guests who had once admired him moved away as he passed.
Reporters shouted questions.
Ryan kept his head down.
Then Diane burst from the service corridor.
She had escaped the supply room.
When she saw her son in handcuffs, she attacked me.
“You destroyed him!”
Mom stepped between us.
She had arrived with a hospital driver.
“No,” Mom said. “You taught him that love meant control.”
Diane raised her hand.
Mom slapped her first.
The ballroom went silent.
“That is for my daughters.”
Police restrained Diane.
Dad placed one arm around Sophie and the other around me.
For the first time that night, I could breathe.
Then Marcus approached with the damaged control unit.
His expression was grim.
“The broadcast reached the reporters.”
“Then we have everything,” I said.
“Not everything.”
He showed us the broken device.
Before Ryan was captured, the system had transmitted the entire Ruby database to an unknown location.
May you like
Someone else had it.
And the receiving account was registered in my name.
