Chapter 9 - THE PRICE OF A DAUGHTERVictoria chose an unfinished Sterling Global tower.
Sixty-four floors of concrete and glass.
Construction had stopped months earlier.
Daniel climbed toward the fortieth floor carrying the original SD card.
Grace walked beside him.
Marcus’s team waited outside the perimeter.
Victoria had threatened to kill Lily if she detected police.
Daniel reached the open floor.
Wind rushed through unfinished walls.
Lily sat tied to a chair.
“Daddy!”
Daniel moved.
A gun appeared against Lily’s head.
Victoria stepped behind her.
“No closer.”
Daniel froze.
Grace whispered, “Mom.”
Victoria smiled.
“You brought him.”
“I’m here for Lily.”
“No. You’re here because you've become sentimental.”
Grace looked at her.
“Maybe.”
Victoria scoffed.
“Do you know why your father failed?”
“Because he trusted you.”
“Because he confused kindness with leadership.”
Daniel held up the SD card.
“Take it.”
Victoria looked at him.
“You really would trade evidence against your wife's killer for your daughter.”
“Yes.”
“No hesitation?”
“None.”
Grace looked at Daniel.
Victoria almost admired him.
“That's why men like you remain poor.”
Daniel smiled faintly.
“And that's why people like you die alone.”
Her expression changed.
Daniel continued.
“You had a husband who loved you.”
Silence.
“A daughter who spent nine years missing you.”
Victoria tightened her grip on the gun.
“You had everything money supposedly buys.”
Daniel pointed toward Lily.
“And none of it was enough.”
“Shut up.”
“You're worth billions, and a seven-year-old girl in a broken-down house has more people who love her than you do.”
“SHUT UP!”
Victoria aimed at Daniel.
Exactly what he wanted.
Lily threw herself sideways.
Grace lunged.
The gun fired.
Daniel tackled Victoria.
Grace pulled Lily away.
Victoria struck Daniel with the weapon.
He fell.
She lifted it again.
A second gunshot exploded.
Victoria froze.
Blood spread across her shoulder.
Alexander stood at the stairwell.
“You really should improve your building security.”
Victoria fired toward him.
Alexander ducked.
Marcus’s team rushed in.
Victoria ran toward a construction elevator.
Grace followed.
“Mom!”
Victoria reached the platform.
Grace stepped onto it.
Daniel shouted.
“GRACE!”
The lift began rising.
At the sixty-fourth floor, Victoria exited onto the unfinished roof.
Rain had begun falling.
Chicago stretched below.
Grace followed.
Her mother stood near the edge.
“Give me the backup.”
“What backup?”
“You're Robert's daughter. You copied Rebecca's files.”
Grace smiled.
“For once, you're right.”
Victoria raised her weapon.
“Where?”
“Already released.”
Victoria froze.
Grace had scheduled every Meridian file to be delivered simultaneously to federal investigators, international regulators, six newspapers, and Sterling Global’s shareholders.
The release triggered twenty minutes earlier.
Phones across the financial world were exploding.
Meridian was finished.
Victoria stared at her daughter.
“You destroyed your own company.”
“Maybe.”
“Your fortune could collapse.”
“Maybe.”
“You could lose everything!”
Grace thought of Daniel's tiny kitchen.
Spaghetti stretched with water.
Lily laughing over cereal.
A roof that leaked.
A man who helped a stranger because kindness mattered more than inconvenience.
Grace smiled.
“No.”
Victoria stared.
“I finally learned what everything is.”
She lowered her gun.
Victoria fired.
Daniel appeared from the stairwell and pulled Grace aside.
The bullet missed.
Marcus’s team surrounded Victoria.
This time she had nowhere to run.
She looked over the edge.
Grace knew what she was considering.
“Don't.”
Victoria laughed.
“You still care?”
“No.”
Grace's voice shook.
“I just refuse to let you escape consequences again.”
Victoria slowly raised her hands.
The weapon fell.
Marcus arrested her.
Daniel held Grace.
For several seconds, neither noticed.
Then Grace looked up.
“You came after me.”
“You keep doing dangerous billionaire things.”
She laughed.
“You're bleeding.”
“So are you.”
“Are we terrible at this?”
“Absolutely.”
Then she kissed him.
This time neither apologized.
Lily was safe.
William Crowe survived.
Sophia survived too and agreed to testify.
Alexander became the most unexpectedly useful witness in the federal case.
Victoria Sterling was charged with an extraordinary list of crimes.
Meridian collapsed across three continents.
Rebecca Carter’s murder investigation reopened.
And Daniel finally got something he had never expected.
The truth.
But truth came with another problem.
The whole world now knew his name.
Reporters waited outside his workplace.
His employer placed him on leave.
Pictures of Daniel and Grace kissing on the tower appeared everywhere.
One headline read:
THE $100 BILLION LOVE STORY.
Daniel stared at it.
“I hate this.”
Grace looked over his shoulder.
“They used a decent picture.”
“My hair looks ridiculous.”
“Your priorities are fascinating.”
Then Grace's smile disappeared.
A financial channel on television reported that Sterling Global stock had fallen forty-one percent.
Grace’s net worth had dropped by tens of billions.
Board members demanded her resignation.
Daniel turned toward her.
“You okay?”
Grace watched the numbers falling.
Then turned off the television.
May you like
“Yes.”
And for the first time in her adult life, she meant it.
