Chapter 7 - The Vault of Sins
The air inside the vault was cold and smelled of ozone,
like a thunderstorm held captive in a box.
I walked to the safe,
my hands steady despite the chaos outside the door.
"The code for the safe is the same,"
Harrison whispered,
now standing just inside the room,
his face a mask of defeat.
"But if you open it,
you can't close it again."
"The truth doesn't come with a lid,
Claire."
I ignored him and punched in the numbers.
The safe door hissed as the vacuum seal broke.
Inside were stacks of physical gold bars,
but that wasn't what I was looking for.
I pulled out a thick,
black binder labeled The Phoenix Project.
I flipped it open.
It wasn't a business plan.
It was a list.
A list of every politician,
judge,
and CEO the Voss family had "purchased" over the last twenty years.
It contained photos,
bank records,
and even recorded transcripts of blackmail.
This was the "silence" my father had mentioned.
The Voss family didn't just run a company;
they ran a shadow government.
And my father had been the one who stumbled upon the ledger during an audit.
He hadn't been a partner in their crimes;
he had been their hostage.
They had forced him to stay quiet,
using my safety as leverage.
"He stayed in this marriage to protect you,
Claire,"
Harrison said,
his voice cracking.
"My father told him if he ever went to the authorities,
you would have an 'accident' on your way to school."
"Then,
when I fell in love with you,
it was the perfect solution."
"Keep you in the family,
keep the money in the family,
and keep the secret buried."
I felt a wave of nausea so strong I had to lean against the safe.
My father had lived in fear for twenty years to keep me alive.
And I had married his jailer.
"You knew,"
I whispered,
looking at Harrison.
"You knew everything,
and you still asked me to marry you."
"I loved you,
Claire!"
he shouted.
"I thought I could change it."
"I thought I could protect you from my father's legacy."
"By lying to me?"
I screamed,
the binder shaking in my hands.
"By watching my father die and doing nothing?"
"I didn't order the DNR,"
he said,
tears streaming down his face.
"That was Patricia."
"She thought Arthur was getting ready to talk after your wedding."
I looked at the binder,
then at the man I had once loved.
He was a coward.
A well-dressed,
wealthy coward.
"Get out,"
I said,
my voice sounding like it came from another person.
"Claire—"
"GET OUT!"
He turned and fled,
leaving me alone in the vault of sins.
I took my phone and began to photograph every page of the binder.
I wasn't going to wait for a trial.
I wasn't going to wait for a judge they probably owned.
May you like
I was going to use the one thing they couldn't control.
The public.
