Chapter 15 - The Sins of the Father
The night air off the Mediterranean was crisp and cold, whipping my hair across my face as the Architect forced me out onto the sprawling, deserted stone balcony overlooking the crashing waves hundreds of feet below. The heavy glass doors sealed shut behind us, muting the music of the gala. We were entirely alone in the darkness.
"Where is Elias?" the Architect asked casually, keeping the gun pressed firmly into my side. "I assumed my former protégé would be close by. He always was overprotective."
"He's not here," I lied, my eyes scanning the darkness for any sign of Elias, praying he hadn't been intercepted by the Architect's men. "It's just me."
"A shame. I was looking forward to killing you both," the Architect sighed softly. He reached into his pocket with his free hand and pulled out his encrypted phone. The screen was glowing with the cloned data transfer alert. He tossed the phone effortlessly over the balcony edge, watching it disappear into the black water below. "You're smart, Evelyn. I'll give Arthur that. His genetic material yielded a rather sharp weapon. But you are hopelessly out of your depth."
"Why are you doing this?" I demanded, trying to buy time, gripping the silver lipstick tube in my clutch. "My father wants me alive. He wants me to take over Obsidian Vanguard. You kill me, he'll kill you."
The Architect let out a low, genuine laugh. "Oh, my sweet, naive girl. Arthur doesn't want you to take over the Vanguard. He wants you to become his ultimate sacrifice."
I frowned, confusion cutting through my panic. "What are you talking about?"
The Architect stepped closer, the muzzle of the gun digging painfully into my ribs. "The two billion dollars you stole? It didn't cripple the Vanguard. It saved it. Arthur has been under investigation by a joint task force from Interpol and the CIA for three years. The walls were closing in. He needed a scapegoat. Someone brilliant, someone with a vendetta, someone who could feasibly mastermind a massive cyber-heist and launder the funds."
The realization hit me like a physical blow, knocking the breath from my lungs. Calvin. The trial. The forensic accounting firm I had built from the ashes of my marriage. Every single breadcrumb had been meticulously placed to build my profile.
"You're the patsy, Evelyn," the Architect whispered, his breath hot against my ear. "Tomorrow morning, the CIA will find an airtight digital trail linking your new charitable trusts to global terrorism funding. You will be branded the mastermind behind Obsidian Vanguard. Arthur will slip back into the shadows, a victim of his own rogue daughter's machinations. And you? You will tragically commit suicide tonight by throwing yourself off this beautiful balcony, overwhelmed by the guilt of your crimes."
My father didn't groom me to rule his empire. He groomed me to take the fall for it.
"Now," the Architect said, his voice dropping into a lethal, businesslike monotone. "Step up onto the ledge. Or I shoot you in the stomach and throw you over myself."
I looked down at the churning black water crashing against the jagged rocks below. I was trapped. I squeezed my eyes shut, my hand tightening around the silver lipstick tube in my clutch.
"I choose option three," I whispered.
I slammed my thumb down on the trigger of the EMP lipstick.
A silent, invisible shockwave erupted from my hand. Instantly, the sprawling chateau plunged into absolute, pitch-black darkness. The music died. The security lights shorted out in a shower of sparks. The Architect gasped in surprise, his night-vision optics frying instantly, temporarily blinding him.
In that microsecond of advantage, I didn't step up onto the ledge. I spun around, grabbing his gun hand with both of mine, twisting with every ounce of leverage I had. The gun fired into the stone floor, the sound deafening in the sudden silence.
Suddenly, a massive shadow emerged from the darkness of the balcony's edge. Elias had scaled the sheer cliff face.
He didn't hesitate. Elias tackled the Architect around the waist, the momentum carrying both men violently toward the waist-high stone railing. The Architect screamed, a raw sound of terror, as he scrambled for purchase on the slick stone.
"Elias, no!" I screamed.
But gravity was a ruthless judge. With a sickening scrape of fabric against stone, both men tumbled over the edge, swallowed instantly by the impenetrable black void.
"ELIAS!" I shrieked, running to the edge, peering into the dark abyss. There was no splash. There was no sound over the roaring waves. They were gone.
I collapsed onto the cold stone, the freezing rain beginning to fall, washing the blood and shattered glass across the balcony. I was alone. My father had taken my life, my reputation, and now, he had taken the only man I loved.
I slowly pushed myself up off the ground, my emerald dress soaked and ruined. The tears on my face turned cold. My father wanted a mastermind? He wanted a villain to take the blame for his sins?
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I looked out at the dark horizon, a terrifying, icy calm settling over my soul.
He was going to get exactly what he wanted. And I was going to burn his entire world to the ground.
