Chapter 8 - Vincent Learned the Enemy Was Sitting at His Table and Had Been Protecting Him for YearsMargaret Hale arrived under heavy security.
She was eighty-two.
Fraile.
But her eyes were sharp.
She looked at Vincent and smiled.
“You look like your mother.”
Vincent sat across from her.
“Tell me who the Broker is.”
Margaret shook her head.
“You're asking the wrong question.”
“I'm done with riddles.”
“You shouldn't be.”
Vincent leaned forward.
“People have died.”
“Yes.”
“My brother was imprisoned.”
“Yes.”
“My mother disappeared.”
“Yes.”
“My life was manipulated.”
“Yes.”
“A little girl was nearly killed.”
Margaret looked at Molly.
“And yet you're still asking who.”
She placed a ledger on the table.
“The Crown isn't one person.”
Vincent opened it.
Every page contained names.
But one symbol appeared beside certain people.
A circle.
Margaret said, “Those are the Keepers.”
“Keepers?”
“They protect the ledger.”
“How many?”
“Three.”
Vincent remembered the photograph.
His father.
His mother.
Adrien.
Margaret smiled.
“Not anymore.”
“Then who?”
She pointed.
Three names.
Eleanor Callahan.
Adrien Vale.
Frank Doyle.
Vincent froze.
Frank.
Molly looked at him.
“That's why he was close.”
Vincent felt sick.
Margaret continued.
“Your father created the Keepers.”
“But he died.”
“Yes.”
“Adrien survived.”
“Yes.”
“Frank survived.”
“Yes.”
“And my mother?”
“Never stopped.”
Vincent's eyes narrowed.
“Then the betrayal—”
“Was an act.”
“What?”
Margaret looked at Molly.
“Adrien did not sell Vincent.”
Vincent stared.
“He made the world believe he did.”
“To protect me?”
“Yes.”
“From what?”
“The actual Broker.”
Margaret turned a page.
A single name appeared.
ELEANOR CALLAHAN.
Vincent stood.
“My mother?”
Margaret nodded.
“But she's been protecting me.”
“Yes.”
Vincent's heart broke.
Everything was upside down.
His mother had hidden him.
Adrien had betrayed him to protect him.
Frank had lied to him.
The people he distrusted were the ones keeping him alive.
Then why had the attacks happened?
Margaret answered.
“Because Eleanor is dying.”
Silence.
“She has weeks.”
Vincent sat slowly.
“She knows the Crown will collapse when she dies.”
“And someone wants to inherit it.”
“Daniel?”
“No.”
Margaret looked at Molly.
“Your mother.”
Everyone turned toward Hannah.
Hannah went pale.
“What?”
Margaret said:
“Your father left you the final key.”
Hannah stared.
“I don't have anything.”
Molly suddenly reached into her backpack.
She pulled out an old photograph.
On the back was a handwritten message.
For Hannah.
Hannah began crying.
Vincent took it.
The message read:
If the Crown comes for our daughter, give her the key.
“What key?” Vincent asked.
Hannah shook her head.
“I don't know.”
Molly touched the photograph.
“There.”
A tiny symbol.
The crown.
But beneath it was a second symbol.
A broken crown.
Evelyn's face changed.
“The ledger has two versions.”
Vincent looked at her.
“Meaning?”
“The public ledger.”
“And the hidden ledger.”
Margaret nodded.
“The hidden ledger doesn't track money.”
“What does it track?”
“Promises.”
Vincent frowned.
“Promises?”
“Who owes whom.”
Suddenly it became clear.
The Crown had never really been about money.
It was about leverage.
Every powerful person who had ever received protection owed something.
The person holding the hidden ledger controlled them.
And if someone possessed the final key, they could erase every debt.
Molly looked at Vincent.
“Then nobody can control anybody anymore.”
Vincent nodded.
“Yes.”
Margaret smiled.
“Exactly.”
A gunshot shattered the window.
Margaret fell.
Hannah screamed.
Vincent tackled Molly to the floor.
Frank fired toward the balcony.
Then another shot.
Silence.
Margaret breathed weakly.
“Burn it.”
Vincent looked at the ledger.
“Why?”
“The Crown.”
Her eyes closed.
“End it.”
Vincent looked at Molly.
Then at Hannah.
Then at the ledger.
He finally understood what he had inherited.
Not an empire.
A prison.
May you like
And if he wanted to save Molly, he could not become its next warden.
He had to destroy it.
Related Stories
