CHAPTER 11: My Husband Locked Me In A Freezer So He Could Marry A Fake Pregnant Heiress—But The Next Morning...
CHAPTER 11
THE TRIAL OF THE FOUR FOUNDERS
The words glowed across every monitor.
WELCOME BACK, FOUNDERS.
THE TRIAL CAN NOW BEGIN.
Nobody moved.
Even Victor Beaumont stood perfectly still.
For the first time since Evelyn had met him, the billionaire's expression betrayed something dangerously close to uncertainty.
The room itself seemed to awaken.
Dust-covered servers hummed to life one by one.
Hidden projectors descended silently from the ceiling.
Rows of recessed lights illuminated the circular table engraved with the four family names:
HART.
BEAUMONT.
KANE.
CROSS.
Arthur Kane whispered under his breath.
"He actually finished it."
Victor never took his eyes off the monitors.
"I told him not to."
A calm male voice filled the room.
Older than the recordings.
Steadier than before.
"Good evening, Victor."
"You've aged exactly as I expected."
Victor slowly lifted his head.
"Daniel."
"No."
The voice answered.
"Not anymore."
"The man you betrayed disappeared nineteen years ago."
"What remains..."
"...is the witness you failed to kill."
Evelyn looked around the room.
The voice wasn't coming from speakers alone.
It echoed through the walls themselves.
Arthur stepped closer to the center table.
"Daniel..."
"Are you alive?"
A pause followed.
Then came the answer.
"That depends."
Arthur frowned.
"What does that mean?"
"It means my body survived."
"But the man you knew did not."
Without warning, the center of the circular table split apart.
A cylindrical projector slowly rose from beneath the floor.
Blue light expanded upward.
Particles gathered.
A life-sized hologram materialized.
A man in his early forties.
Dark hair.
Thin glasses.
Calm eyes.
Evelyn immediately understood why Frank had recognized him.
It was Daniel Cross.
Or at least...
The Daniel Cross of nineteen years ago.
Arthur's voice trembled.
"My God..."
Victor remained silent.
Daniel's hologram looked at each of them individually.
The movement was so natural that Evelyn instinctively forgot she wasn't looking at a living person.
"I anticipated this meeting would happen eventually."
"If you are seeing this projection..."
"...then Jonathan Hart is dead."
Arthur lowered his head.
"He is."
Daniel nodded sadly.
"I expected as much."
Then his gaze shifted toward Evelyn.
"You must be his daughter."
Evelyn swallowed.
"I'm Evelyn."
"I know."
"I've been waiting for you since the day you were twelve years old."
Her heart skipped.
"You knew me?"
Daniel smiled gently.
"I helped your father build your birthday telescope."
Memories flashed across Evelyn's mind.
A quiet man with glasses.
Always carrying blueprints.
Always smiling politely.
She had completely forgotten him.
Until now.
Elsewhere in the underground complex...
Donovan Pierce and the tactical team finally reached the collapsed corridor leading toward Room Seventeen.
The passage had been intentionally destroyed.
Fresh concrete blocked the route.
Grace stared at the debris.
"This wasn't caused by the explosion."
Donovan crouched beside the broken wall.
He examined the fractured steel supports.
"No."
"It was sealed from the inside."
Frank caught up moments later.
His breathing was heavy.
He looked at the collapse...
Then quietly said,
"Daniel did this."
Grace looked confused.
"Nineteen years ago?"
Frank nodded.
"He designed emergency isolation systems."
"If activated..."
"...entire sections of the bunker became independent structures."
Donovan stood.
"So Evelyn is trapped."
Frank slowly shook his head.
"No."
"She's protected."
Back inside Room Seventeen...
Daniel's hologram slowly circled the table.
"Before this trial begins..."
"...there is one misunderstanding I need to correct."
Victor folded his arms.
"I'm listening."
Daniel looked directly at him.
"You believe Jonathan created the Archive."
Victor answered confidently.
"He did."
Daniel smiled.
"No."
"I did."
Silence.
Arthur stared.
"What?"
"The Archive was never Jonathan's."
"It belonged to all four founders."
Victor's voice became colder.
"You erased my access."
"I revoked your authority."
Victor took one step forward.
"You had no legal right."
Daniel's holographic image actually laughed.
"I wrote the system."
"I define the authority."
Evelyn noticed a small green light blinking beneath the edge of the table.
Daniel followed her gaze.
"Curious."
"Just like your father."
He gestured toward the table.
"Please sit."
Evelyn hesitated.
Arthur quietly nodded.
"It's safe."
The moment she lowered herself into the chair marked HART...
A soft click echoed beneath the floor.
The chair locked into place.
Arthur immediately reached for her.
"Evelyn!"
Daniel calmly raised one hand.
"Relax."
"She's exactly where she needs to be."
The remaining three chairs slowly rotated outward.
Each waiting beneath its corresponding family name.
Daniel looked toward Victor.
"Please."
Victor smiled faintly.
"You still enjoy dramatic entrances."
"And you still enjoy avoiding responsibility."
Victor considered the chair.
Then...
To everyone's surprise...
He sat down.
The chair immediately locked.
Arthur remained standing.
"I'm not participating."
Daniel looked disappointed.
"You already are."
Without warning, mechanical restraints rose from beneath the floor and secured Arthur's wrists.
He struggled.
"What is this?"
"A court."
"You don't hold trials by standing outside them."
Arthur's chair pulled backward automatically.
He was seated despite every effort to resist.
Only one chair remained empty.
CROSS.
Daniel looked toward it.
"It appears..."
"...I'm the only founder unable to attend in person."
The room suddenly darkened.
A deep tone echoed overhead.
An emotionless computerized voice replaced Daniel's.
IDENTITY CONFIRMATION INITIATED.
Green lasers swept across the room.
Scanning each occupant.
FOUNDER HART... VERIFIED THROUGH DIRECT DESCENDANT.
FOUNDER BEAUMONT... VERIFIED.
FOUNDNER KANE... VERIFIED.
A brief pause followed.
Then—
FOUNDER CROSS...
The system hesitated.
Processing.
Processing again.
Suddenly...
A warning alarm sounded.
Red lights flooded the chamber.
Daniel's holographic expression changed for the first time.
Confusion.
"No..."
The computer repeated.
IDENTITY CONFLICT DETECTED.
Everyone looked toward the empty chair.
A heartbeat later...
A fingerprint appeared on the scanner.
Not holographic.
Real.
Fresh.
Then another.
The chair slowly rotated...
As though someone invisible had just sat down.
Victor's face lost all color.
Arthur stopped breathing.
Even Daniel's hologram stared in stunned silence.
A calm human voice spoke from the darkness behind them.
"You always did overcomplicate your software, Daniel."
The lights gradually brightened.
A man stepped out of the shadows.
Gray suit.
Silver hair.
Walking with the confidence of someone who belonged there.
He looked directly at Daniel's hologram.
Then smiled.
"You preserved my seat."
Daniel whispered only one sentence.
Impossible.
"You..."
"...were supposed to be dead."
The stranger looked toward Evelyn.
His eyes softened.
"So you're Jonathan's little girl."
"I've wanted to meet you for a very long time."
Evelyn's heartbeat thundered in her ears.
She had never seen the man before.
But the security system had.
Because at that exact moment...
The computerized voice calmly announced the impossible.
FOUNDER CROSS... VERIFIED.
WELCOME HOME... DANIEL CROSS.
The hologram slowly turned toward the living man.
Two identical faces stared at one another across the table.
One digital.
One flesh and blood.
Only one question remained.
If the real Daniel Cross had been alive all these years...
Then whose voice had been guiding them through the bunker?
May you like
And who...
Had been pretending to be Daniel for the last nineteen years?
