The fog at the docks felt like a cold, wet shroud, clinging to Alicia's skin. She stared at Henry Carter, her breath hitching in her throat. The kind, elderly man who had smiled at her over dinner—the one she thought was her ally—had vanished. In his place stood a cold-eyed patriarch who looked like he could order a disappearance as easily as a corporate merger.
"You should have stayed in the archives, Alicia," Henry said, his voice as sharp and clinical as a scalpel. "Some foundations are better left buried under the weight of time."
"Why?" Alicia whispered, clutching the folder of evidence to her chest like a shield. "My parents were good people. They were just doing their jobs. They didn't deserve to die in a ball of fire. Why would you hurt them?"
Henry took a slow, calculated step forward. The sound of his leather shoes on the damp concrete was like a death knell. "They weren't just doing their jobs. They were going to leak information that would have bankrupted our family and sent our partners to prison. I did what I had to do to protect Arthur's future. To protect his inheritance."
"By killing his soul?" Alicia's voice rose, trembling with a mix of grief and rage. "He has spent his life in a prison of pain because of the world you built on lies! He thinks he's broken, but the only thing broken in this family is your heart, Henry."
Henry's face didn't flinch. He gestured to the two burly guards standing behind Alicia. "Take the folder. And make sure Miss Mendes understands that her silence is the only thing keeping her brother's expensive medical treatment funded. If she speaks, the 'superhero' medicine stops. Tonight."
The threat was clear. The medicine that was saving Léo's life had just become a golden cage.
Suddenly, the screech of tires echoed through the warehouse district. A black car roared out of the fog, headlights cutting through the darkness like twin swords. It skidded to a halt, nearly hitting Henry's guards. The door flew open before the engine even died.
Arthur stepped out. He didn't look like a CEO. He looked like a man who had seen his entire world catch fire and was ready to walk into the flames. He was holding his phone—he had tracked Alicia's GPS the moment she stopped answering his messages.
"Father?" Arthur's voice was a low, wounded growl that vibrated in the cold air. He looked from Henry to the folder on the ground, and then to Alicia's tear-stained face. "Tell me it isn't true. Tell me you didn't do what I think you did."
Henry turned to his son, his expression softening for a fraction of a second. "Arthur, I did it for you. Everything I've done for thirty years was to ensure you would never have to struggle."
Arthur let out a sound that was half-laugh, half-sob, a chilling noise of pure heartbreak. He walked over and picked up the scattered papers from the wet ground, his eyes scanning the logs he had seen in his father's private safe years ago but never dared to question.
"You didn't do this for me," Arthur said, looking at his father with a look of pure, unadulterated loathing. "You did this for power. And you used my trauma—my kidnapping, my pain—as a shield to hide your crimes. You're not a protector, Henry. You're a monster."
Arthur walked to Alicia, pulling her firmly behind his broad shoulders. He looked at the guards, his eyes flashing with a dangerous, predatory light. "If any of you touch her, or even look in her direction, I will spend every cent of the 'inheritance' my father is so proud of to make sure you never see the sun again. Move."