Chapter 18 - The Sister Made to Replace Me
Rose pressed her hand against a wooden panel behind Daniel’s bed.
A narrow door opened inside the wall.
Arthur had built hidden corridors throughout the estate.
“Where does it lead?” Agent Morris asked.
“To the lower archive.”
“That’s where Charles wants us.”
“It also leads behind the control room.”
David stayed with Daniel.
His wound had reopened during the climb.
I entered the corridor with Rose and Agent Morris.
The passage smelled of cedar and dust.
“You lived here your whole life?” I asked Rose.
“Until I was twenty-two.”
“Where did you go after that?”
“Arthur gave me an apartment in Boston.”
“Did he tell you about me?”
“Every day.”
“What did he say?”
“That you had the life I was created to preserve.”
I heard no jealousy in her voice.
That made it sadder.
“Were you angry?”
“Yes.”
“At me?”
“At everyone.”
Fair answer.
We crawled through the narrow passage until we reached a metal grate.
Below us, Charles stood in the archive room.
Margaret was tied to a chair.
Samuel knelt beside her with his hands behind his head.
Charles had captured him after we entered the property.
Hunter stood near the control console.
Free.
Not restrained.
My stomach dropped.
He had arrived separately with federal transport.
Or so I thought.
Now he stood beside his father.
Charles held out his hand.
“The key.”
Hunter gave him a brass object.
A duplicate.
Charles inserted it into the console.
Nothing happened.
His face twisted.
“You said you took it from Kylie.”
“I took what she wanted me to take.”
Hunter stepped backward.
Charles stared at him.
“You’re betraying me?”
Hunter laughed softly.
“No. I’m finally disappointing you on purpose.”
A gun appeared in Margaret’s hand.
Hunter had slipped it to her.
She turned and fired at the ceiling.
Samuel tackled Charles.
Chaos exploded.
Agent Morris kicked the grate loose and dropped into the room.
I followed.
Rose climbed down behind me.
Charles threw Samuel aside and grabbed Margaret.
Hunter struck his father across the face.
Charles shot him.
The bullet hit Hunter in the abdomen.
He collapsed.
I froze.
Hunter looked at me, shock spreading across his face.
Then Charles aimed at Rose.
“Another copy,” he said with disgust.
I stepped between them.
“Stop.”
He smiled.
“There’s the weakness Arthur could never remove.”
“Love is not weakness.”
“It made your father hide thirty-two liabilities instead of eliminating them.”
Rose moved toward the console.
Charles shifted the gun.
I held up the real brass key.
“You want this?”
His eyes locked on it.
“Put it on the floor.”
“No.”
Hunter pressed one hand against his wound.
Blood spread through his white shirt.
“Kylie,” he whispered.
I looked at him.
“Don’t give it to him.”
Charles kicked him.
Hunter groaned.
Something hot and furious rose inside me.
“Touch him again,” I said, “and I break the key.”
“You need it too.”
“I would rather destroy six hundred million dollars than let you own one more person.”
Charles believed me.
That was my power.
He needed the assets.
I needed people alive.
Money could burn.
He could not understand that.
Rose reached the control panel.
I tossed her the key.
Charles fired.
Agent Morris shoved me down.
The bullet struck the wall.
Rose inserted the key.
The archive activated.
Screens lit across the room.
Names appeared.
Dates.
Photographs.
Genetic profiles.
Payments.
Charles lunged toward the console.
Margaret wrapped the rope around his legs.
He fell.
Samuel grabbed the gun.
Agent Morris pinned Charles to the floor.
For one second, it looked finished.
Then the archive displayed a countdown.
DATA PURGE INITIATED — 03:00.
Rose stared at the screen.
“He triggered it remotely.”
“Can you stop it?” I asked.
“The key opened the archive. It cannot cancel the purge.”
Charles laughed from the floor.
“You’ll lose every record.”
Agent Morris tightened the cuffs.
“Where is the cancellation code?”
He smiled.
“Ask Arthur.”
Arthur was dead.
Then Daniel’s voice came through the intercom.
“No,” he said weakly. “Ask Kylie.”
A security question appeared on the screen:
WHAT DID ARTHUR RHODES FEAR MORE THAN DEATH?
May you like
We had less than three minutes to answer.
👉 Arthur’s entire archive would vanish unless Kylie could identify the fear that had driven every lie, trust, hidden child, and betrayal in her family.
