Chapter 7 - My Father Walked Out of the Shadows—But He Wasn't the Man I RememberedMy father looked older.
Much older.
But his eyes were the same.
He stared at me.
“Elena.”
I ran toward him.
He hugged me.
I cried against his chest.
“I thought you were dead.”
“I know.”
“You let me believe it.”
“I had to.”
I pulled away.
“Why?”
“Because if they knew you were alive, they would have killed you.”
Dominic approached.
Father looked at him.
“You've grown.”
Dominic laughed bitterly.
“That's all you have to say?”
“You survived.”
“Barely.”
Father looked at me.
“I'm sorry.”
I asked the question that mattered.
“Who is The Architect?”
Father's expression hardened.
“He doesn't have a name.”
“Everyone has a name.”
“Not him.”
Then he explained.
The Architect was not one person.
It was a network.
Politicians.
Judges.
Police officials.
Businessmen.
Criminal leaders.
They had operated for decades.
My father had tried to destroy them.
He failed.
So he created a plan.
He divided evidence among three people.
My mother.
Silas.
And Dominic.
Each held one piece.
That was why they had been hunted.
But there was still a fourth piece.
Mine.
I looked at him.
“What do I have?”
He touched my necklace.
The pendant I had worn since childhood.
I had never known it contained a hidden memory card.
Inside were financial records linking The Architect to hundreds of crimes.
Dominic stared at it.
“We have them.”
Father shook his head.
“No.”
“What?”
“The records are useless without the final ledger.”
“Where is it?”
Father looked at me.
“You already have it.”
I touched the pendant.
Then I realized.
The compass.
The pendant.
My father's journal.
All three contained pieces of the same code.
When combined, they revealed one name.
Samuel Cross.
Dominic looked toward the doorway.
Samuel was gone.
He had escaped.
But he took something with him.
May you like
The final ledger.
And now he knew exactly where we were.
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