Chapter 9 - The Stolen Legacy
I lay on the thick carpet, gasping for breath, staring up the barrels of two police-issue handguns.
Mayor Sterling stood up slowly from his console, his eyes wide behind his wire-rimmed glasses.
He raised a hand, ordering his security detail to stand down and hold their fire.
Sterling looked at my bruised face, my cheap, torn suit, and my mangled right hand.
He whispered my name in pure disbelief, asking where I had been for the last two decades.
I pulled myself up to my knees and begged him to give me exactly one minute at his override console.
I told him Julian Vance was a complete fraud, and the Apex Tower they were about to build would collapse within a year.
Down on the main stage, Julian saw me talking to the Mayor and his face twisted into absolute panic.
Julian grabbed the microphone and screamed at the police to shoot me, claiming I was reaching for a detonator.
Sterling looked at me, then looked down at the terrified billionaire on the stage.
The Mayor stepped aside, pointing to his master console, and told me I had sixty seconds to prove it.
I stumbled toward the keyboard, my bloody fingers flying across the keys to access the saved file on the network.
Just as I prepared to hit enter, Julian pulled something out of his tuxedo jacket.
It was my original, genuine leather sketchpad, the one his men had stolen from me.
May you like
He pulled a gold-plated lighter from his pocket, ignited a massive flame, and held it directly under the ancient, grease-stained pages.
Julian yelled that my legacy was nothing but ashes, and set my life's work completely on fire in front of the world.
