Chapter 7 - A Fragile Alliance
With Mrs. Vance gone, the Manor fell into a state of terrified silence. The staff walked on eggshells, terrified that they would be the next to face Silas's wrath.
Lyra met Julian in the library at midnight. The rain lashed against the massive windows, masking the sound of their conversation.
"That was ruthless, Lyra," Julian said, pouring himself a scotch. "Framing Vance. I didn't think you had it in you."
"She was collateral damage," Lyra said coldly. "We need to execute the final phase. The annual shareholder meeting is tomorrow night. All of your father's investors, board members, and political allies will be in the grand dining room. If we expose the ledger then, there's no covering it up. The FBI will have to act."
Julian nodded slowly, staring into his glass. "We project the digitized pages of the ledger onto the screens during his presentation. By the time he realizes what's happening, the data will already be mass-emailed to the SEC and the press."
"You have the media contacts?" Lyra asked.
"I do. And I have a private helicopter on standby to get us off the estate before the feds raid the place," Julian said. He walked over to her, his gaze intense. "Tomorrow, Silas Montgomery falls. And we walk away."
Lyra looked into his eyes. He was a good liar. He was almost perfect. But Lyra had spent her entire life studying monsters, and she recognized the hunger in his gaze. Julian didn't want to expose the company; he wanted to control it. Exposing the ledger to the public would destroy the Montgomery fortune entirely, leaving Julian with nothing.
He was going to betray her. He was going to use the ledger to blackmail his father into stepping down, and then he was going to kill her to tie up loose ends.
"Tomorrow," Lyra agreed, her voice smooth and convincing.
May you like
She left the library and returned to her basement room. She retrieved the ledger from the toilet tank and dried it carefully. She didn't sleep that night. Instead, she sat in the dark, writing a secondary code on her burner phone. If Julian thought she was just a pawn in his game of succession, he was about to learn a very painful lesson.
She was Lyra Thorne. And the Thorne family always collected their debts.
