Chapter 3 - The Family Secret
The entire room seemed to hold its breath.
I kept my eyes locked on Vanessa’s hands, ready to draw my weapon at the slightest sudden movement.
“What do you mean?” I demanded sharply.
Vanessa slowly pulled a sleek, silver cell phone from her clutch and held it up by two fingers.
“Ethan is a pathetic, easily manipulated fool,” Vanessa sneered.
“He was deeply in debt, yes, but he did not have the security clearance to access the drone schematics.”
I frowned, running the clearance protocols through my mind.
She was right.
Ethan was a logistics officer, not a weapons developer.
We had always assumed he used a stolen password to bypass the firewall.
“If Ethan did not access the files, who did?” General Sterling asked.
Vanessa pointed her manicured finger directly across the room.
She pointed straight at Patricia.
My mother-in-law’s face lost every ounce of color.
“That is a lie!” Patricia shrieked, dropping her champagne glass.
The crystal shattered violently across the polished floor.
“Is it?” Vanessa challenged with a cruel laugh.
“You work as a senior archivist at the Department of Defense annex, Patricia.”
The pieces of the puzzle aggressively slammed into place inside my head.
Patricia had supreme access to outdated and newly archived classified files.
“You sold out your own country to pay for your son's gambling debts,” I realized aloud.
“I did it to protect my family's legacy!” Patricia yelled, completely losing her composure.
“Grace refused to work, so I had to find a way to keep my son from going to military prison for his debts!”
I stared at the woman who had tormented me for six long years.
She had called me a freeloader while she was actively committing high treason.
“You used Ethan as the middleman so he would take the fall if you were ever caught,” I said in disgust.
Ethan looked at his mother in absolute horror.
“Mom, you told me those were just unclassified training manuals!” Ethan sobbed.
“Shut up, Ethan, you are embarrassing yourself,” Patricia snapped viciously.
Before I could signal the MPs to arrest Patricia, Vanessa made her move.
She suddenly hurled her heavy silver phone directly at the crystal chandelier above us.
May you like
The glass shattered into a thousand deadly pieces, plunging the immediate area into darkness.
And in the chaotic darkness, I heard the unmistakable click of a loaded gun.
