CHAPTER 9: My Husband Locked Me In A Freezer So He Could Marry A Fake Pregnant Heiress—But The Next Morning...
CHAPTER 9
THE THIRD BETRAYAL
For several long seconds, Evelyn couldn't move.
The frozen image on the monitor seemed impossible.
Jonathan Hart.
Victor Beaumont.
Arthur Kane.
Standing together.
Laughing.
Shaking hands.
Not as enemies.
As partners.
Arthur slowly lowered his pistol.
His weathered face carried something Evelyn had never seen before.
Shame.
"No..." he whispered.
Victor's voice echoed through every speaker in the command center.
"Oh, Arthur."
"You always were the sentimental one."
Arthur clenched his jaw.
"You manipulated us."
Victor smiled.
"No."
"I gave both of you exactly what you wanted."
He changed the camera angle.
Another recording appeared.
The date remained the same.
Eighteen years earlier.
Jonathan stood over a blueprint spread across the conference table.
"This facility stays off the books," Jonathan said.
"If anyone discovers it, everything we've built disappears."
The younger Arthur nodded.
"I'll supervise construction myself."
Victor poured three glasses of whiskey.
"Then we're agreed."
The three men raised their glasses.
Evelyn stared in disbelief.
Her father had willingly worked beside Victor.
Arthur quietly closed his eyes.
"Keep watching."
The recording continued.
Jonathan refused to drink.
Instead, he pulled another document from his briefcase.
"I haven't signed yet."
Victor's smile barely changed.
"Still don't trust me?"
Jonathan looked directly at him.
"I trust your intelligence."
"I don't trust your ambition."
The room became silent.
Arthur looked from one man to the other.
"What aren't you telling each other?"
Victor leaned back comfortably.
"Jonathan believes I want control."
Jonathan answered immediately.
"You don't want control."
"You want ownership."
Victor laughed softly.
"Is there a difference?"
"There always is."
Jonathan folded the unsigned contract.
"If HarborLock becomes part of your network..."
"...every port we own becomes vulnerable."
Victor's expression hardened.
"You still think like an engineer."
"I think like a father."
Victor smiled again.
"And fathers are easily manipulated."
The recording suddenly ended.
The screen turned black.
Back in the present, Evelyn slowly looked toward Arthur.
"My father already knew."
Arthur nodded.
"He discovered Victor's true intentions before construction finished."
"Then why didn't he expose him?"
Arthur hesitated.
"Because by then..."
"...Victor already controlled half the board of Hart Maritime."
Above ground, Donovan Pierce finally reached the hidden maintenance tunnel with Grace and the tactical team.
The secondary entrance Jonathan had secretly drawn on the blueprint was almost invisible beneath decades of concrete repairs.
Frank pointed toward the rusted steel hatch.
"That's it."
Donovan didn't waste a second.
"Cut it."
Hydraulic tools screamed against old steel.
Grace checked her watch.
"If Victor reaches Evelyn first..."
Donovan interrupted.
"He won't."
Grace looked at him.
"You sound very certain."
Donovan's answer came quietly.
"Because Jonathan prepared for something even Victor doesn't know."
Back inside the underground command center...
Victor continued speaking through the monitors.
"You've probably read enough of Jonathan's journal to think he was the hero."
Evelyn remained silent.
"He wasn't."
Arthur stepped toward the screen.
"Stop."
Victor ignored him.
"He lied to you, Arthur."
Arthur's face tightened.
"You promised never to mention her."
Victor laughed.
"I promised many things."
Evelyn noticed Arthur suddenly becoming uneasy.
"Who?"
Arthur didn't answer.
Victor answered for him.
"Elizabeth."
Arthur looked away.
The name alone seemed to wound him.
Victor continued.
"Jonathan told Arthur that Elizabeth died during the warehouse fire."
He paused deliberately.
"She didn't."
Arthur slowly looked back at the screen.
"No..."
Victor's smile widened.
"She lived."
Arthur whispered,
"That's impossible."
"It is."
"And she spent the last seventeen years believing..."
"...you abandoned her."
Arthur stumbled backward.
The pistol slipped from his hand and clattered across the floor.
Evelyn stared.
Arthur Kane—the man who had remained calm while facing armed killers—looked utterly broken.
Victor watched him with quiet satisfaction.
"You've protected Jonathan's secrets your entire life."
"And he rewarded you with a lie."
Arthur's breathing became uneven.
"He wouldn't..."
"He did."
Victor reached toward the camera.
A second folder appeared on the monitor.
Medical records.
Photographs.
Letters.
Every document carried the same name.
ELIZABETH KANE.
Alive.
For seventeen years.
Arthur's knees nearly gave out.
Evelyn caught his arm before he fell.
"Arthur."
He looked at her with eyes filled not with fear...
But betrayal.
"He told me she was dead."
His voice cracked.
"I buried an empty grave."
Suddenly...
A small indicator light began flashing on one of the dormant computer consoles.
Unlike Victor's transmission...
This signal came from inside the room.
Arthur frowned.
"That's impossible."
Evelyn approached cautiously.
The monitor powered on by itself.
No image.
Only a blinking cursor.
Then words began appearing one letter at a time.
IF VICTOR IS SPEAKING TO YOU...
Arthur's eyes widened.
"No..."
The typing continued.
...DO NOT BELIEVE EVERYTHING HE SAYS.
Evelyn stopped breathing.
There was no camera.
No internet connection.
No visible source.
Yet someone...
Somehow...
Was communicating directly with them.
Arthur whispered,
"Jonathan."
Evelyn shook her head.
"My father is dead."
The cursor blinked once.
Then another sentence appeared.
THE DEAD CANNOT TYPE...
BUT THE LIVING CAN.
Arthur grabbed the edge of the desk.
"I disabled this terminal eighteen years ago."
More letters appeared.
Slowly.
Deliberately.
I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR YOU, EVELYN.
The room fell completely silent.
Even Victor's image disappeared from every monitor.
Only the mysterious message remained glowing against the black screen.
Evelyn leaned closer.
Her pulse thundered in her ears.
She typed a single question.
WHO ARE YOU?
The answer appeared almost immediately.
I WAS YOUR FATHER'S GREATEST FAILURE.
Before either of them could react, the entire underground complex trembled violently.
A much larger explosion echoed somewhere above.
The lights flickered.
Emergency sirens activated throughout the bunker.
Arthur looked toward the ceiling.
"They're bringing the building down."
Another line appeared on the monitor.
This one shorter than all the others.
Only four words.
HE FOUND THE REACTOR.
Arthur's face lost every trace of color.
"There isn't supposed to be a reactor."
The final response appeared.
THERE IS NOW.
Then every screen in the command center went dark simultaneously.
For the second time that night...
Someone else had taken control of the game.
And neither Victor Beaumont...
May you like
Nor Arthur Kane...
Had seen this new player coming.
