Chapter 6 - THE MAN WHO LIED BEST WAS THE ONE WHO TOLD HALF THE TRUTH
-6
Luca did not shoot.
Not immediately.
That was deliberate.
Men like him did not survive inside criminal organizations by acting before leverage ripened.
Sebastian stood between us.
“Put the gun down.”
Luca almost laughed.
“You know that doesn’t work on me.”
“It used to.”
“Everything used to.”
He looked toward the blue ledger.
“You finally found your father’s conscience.”
Sebastian said nothing.
Luca continued.
“Funny thing about Alistair. He spent twenty years building Lark, then Caroline discovered what it became and suddenly he wanted absolution.”
“You poisoned him.”
“I said I made sure he took medicine.”
“What medicine?”
“Something prescribed.”
“Altered?”
Luca smiled.
“You’ll need a toxicologist.”
Not confession.
Not quite.
He was careful.
Then I asked:
“Did you kill Gabriel?”
His eyes moved to me.
“No.”
“Gideon did?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because Gabriel stole the ledger.”
“But Gideon helped him.”
“That is what Gideon wants you to believe.”
Half-truth warfare.
I understood.
Every person in this story knew enough truth to make lies plausible.
“How do you know?”
Luca’s expression changed slightly.
“I was there.”
Sebastian went still.
“At Gabriel’s death?”
“Yes.”
My chest tightened.
“What happened?”
Luca looked at the ledger.
“Give me that, and I’ll tell you.”
“No.”
I answered before Sebastian.
Luca smiled.
“You really are Gabriel’s daughter.”
Something in me hardened.
“He died when I was five. You don’t get to use his name like we share nostalgia.”
His smile disappeared.
Good.
Sebastian asked:
“Where did Gabriel die?”
Luca leaned against the wine rack.
“Not in the car.”
We knew the car accident was staged.
“Then where?”
“St. Agnes.”
My stomach dropped.
The same building.
Gabriel reached the extraction point.
He met Nora and me.
That aligned with my fragment of him behind the blue door.
Then something went wrong.
Gideon arrived with men.
Alistair’s orders?
Luca claimed yes.
Gabriel refused to return the ledger.
Fight.
Shot.
Building evacuated.
Gabriel died in the basement.
Nora and I escaped through an old service tunnel.
Then Keene created death records.
“What happened to Gabriel’s body?”
“Burned when St. Agnes burned the next year?”
I stared.
“One year later.”
“Correct.”
“Then where was his body for a year?”
Luca’s smile vanished.
“Stored.”
The word made me nauseous.
Sebastian’s voice sharpened.
“Enough.”
I wanted more.
“No.”
I stepped around him slightly.
“Where?”
“Medical facility tied to Lark.”
“Why?”
“Gideon needed proof Gabriel was dead but couldn’t risk a normal morgue record.”
I felt cold all over.
Then Luca said:
“Your mother saw him.”
I stopped.
“What?”
“After.”
“No.”
“Nora identified the body.”
“That’s impossible.”
“She told you car accident because explaining gunshot in a secret basement is difficult to a five-year-old.”
I wanted to deny it.
Could be true.
Mom had lied about everything else to keep me functional.
Then Sebastian asked:
“Why did St. Agnes burn?”
Luca answered:
“Gideon.”
“Proof?”
“No.”
“Then shut up.”
Luca’s eyes hardened.
“You always did prefer people who sounded loyal.”
Sebastian raised his weapon.
“You have thirty seconds to walk away.”
Luca actually looked hurt.
“After twenty years?”
“You seized my tower.”
“To keep Gideon from getting the ledger.”
“You sent a man into my penthouse.”
“To warn Valerie.”
I froze.
“The messages were you?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because Gideon wants both of you together.”
“Why?”
“He needs the two Lark keys.”
We had indeed opened the compartment together.
Could Gideon have manipulated us toward it?
He knew St. Agnes.
He knew symbols.
He brought Nora.
Maybe.
Then why would he send us away to Crown Meridian? He actually did not. We figured it out.
Luca continued.
“Gideon has been looking for that ledger since Gabriel took it.”
“Then why hasn’t he killed me?” I asked.
“Because you were the only way to find it.”
He looked at Sebastian.
“And Seb was the other.”
Sebastian’s eyes narrowed.
“You expect me to believe you protected us by murdering my father?”
“I protected you from becoming him.”
That sounded insane.
Luca said Alistair had decided to destroy Lark, yes, but not because of morality.
Because federal investigators were close.
He planned to sacrifice Gideon, Gabriel, and several others.
Caroline discovered this.
She tried to take Sebastian.
Luca claimed Gideon stopped her.
Then Caroline died.
Who killed her?
Luca said Gideon.
Gideon would say Luca.
Everyone blamed everyone.
The blue ledger might tell us transactions.
Not murders.
Then Luca said:
“Read page 214.”
Sebastian did not lower the gun.
I opened the ledger.
Page 214.
A payment.
Date two days before Caroline died.
Recipient code:
G.S.
Amount:
$250,000.
Purpose:
Medical containment.
Gideon Shaw.
My stomach tightened.
Luca smiled.
“Ask your guardian angel what that bought.”
Sebastian’s face changed.
Could be anything.
Could be planted.
But ledger was Gabriel’s copy of original transactions.
Then page 331.
Gabriel’s death period.
Payment:
G.S.
$400,000.
Containment completion.
Again.
Gideon.
This was bad.
Then Sebastian said:
“Why not show me this years ago?”
Luca’s expression tightened.
“Because I didn’t have the ledger.”
“You knew enough.”
“Yes.”
“And?”
“You loved him.”
“My father?”
“Gideon.”
Sebastian went still.
Gideon had indeed been a mentor after Alistair died.
Luca claimed he feared Sebastian would choose Gideon over him.
Maybe jealousy.
Maybe truth.
Then footsteps echoed beyond the cellar.
Luca’s men?
Sebastian’s?
Luca raised his gun.
Sebastian raised his.
I hated every second.
“Stop.”
Neither listened.
So I picked up the flash drive and threw it across the cellar.
Both men’s eyes moved instinctively.
I grabbed the ledger.
Ran.
Not heroic.
Terrified.
But movement broke stalemate.
Sebastian cursed and followed.
Gunfire erupted behind us.
A bottle shattered.
Then another.
We reached the service door.
Sebastian shoved me through.
“Keep moving.”
“Are you hit?”
“No.”
“Luca?”
“Still alive.”
Of course.
We ran through the mechanical corridor.
Mara’s extraction team met us two levels up.
Not mafia soldiers.
Two former federal security contractors she trusted.
Sebastian hated that she had outside people in his building.
I loved it.
At the law office, we copied the ledger and flash drive immediately.
Mara sent encrypted duplicates to three locations.
No single-point destruction.
Good.
Nora and Gideon returned under guard.
When Gideon entered, Sebastian placed page 214 in front of him.
“What did medical containment buy?”
Gideon’s face changed.
He sat.
“Caroline’s hospital.”
“What?”
“Alistair wanted private doctors.”
“Why pay you?”
“I arranged it.”
“Did you kill her?”
“No.”
“Why does Luca say you did?”
“Because he administered what killed her.”
Here we went.
Gideon explained.
Caroline had a heart condition.
Medication kept her stable.
Luca bribed a nurse to substitute a compound that accelerated arrhythmia.
Did Gideon have proof?
Yes.
A nurse confession.
Where?
Dead nurse.
Recorded statement.
Convenient.
Mara said:
“Do you have it?”
Gideon nodded.
“In a vault.”
Of course.
Then Sebastian placed page 331.
“Containment completion.”
Gideon closed his eyes.
“That was Gabriel.”
I stood.
“You killed him.”
“No.”
“Then what?”
“I paid the men who moved Nora and Valerie after Gabriel died.”
“Four hundred thousand?”
“New identities, property, legal records.”
Possible.
“Why call it containment completion?”
“Alistair’s accounting language.”
He looked at me.
“I did not kill your father.”
“Who did?”
Gideon stared at Nora.
Mom started crying.
My stomach dropped.
She knew.
“Nora.”
I whispered.
She covered her mouth.
“Tell her.”
Gideon said.
Mom looked at me.
“Your father was shot by Alistair.”
The room went silent.
Sebastian did not move.
“Mine?”
“Yes.”
Sebastian’s face emptied.
Nora continued.
“Alistair came to St. Agnes himself.”
Gabriel had the ledger.
Alistair demanded it.
Gabriel refused.
They argued.
Gabriel accused Alistair of killing Caroline by allowing Lark to continue after she threatened exposure.
Alistair struck him.
Gabriel pulled a gun.
So did Alistair.
One shot.
Gabriel fell.
“Was it murder?”
I asked.
Nora cried.
“I don’t know.”
“What do you mean?”
“They both had guns.”
“Who fired first?”
“I looked away.”
She had been holding five-year-old me behind the blue door.
She heard one shot.
Then Gabriel on floor.
Alistair standing.
That was all.
Gideon arrived seconds later.
He helped Nora and me escape.
Then why did Luca say Gideon killed him?
Because Luca had not been in the room until after.
He saw Gideon over Gabriel’s body and Alistair leaving.
He assumed—or later exploited—the image.
Sebastian looked destroyed.
“My father killed hers.”
Maybe.
I stepped toward him.
“Don’t.”
He looked at me.
“You don’t know that.”
“I know enough.”
“No.”
I understood what he was doing.
Trying to inherit guilt.
“Your father’s choices are not yours.”
His expression tightened.
“But my empire came from his.”
“That’s different.”
“How?”
“Because now you know.”
He stared.
The same principle.
Before knowledge.
After knowledge.
Then Mara opened the flash drive.
Password prompt.
One hint:
THE NUMBER OF TIMES HE PROMISED
We all stared.
Sebastian looked at me.
I felt heat rise to my face.
“No.”
Mara frowned.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
Sebastian actually looked embarrassed.
The night before, he had joked about nine reasons.
Nine times.
Could that absurd number possibly be—
“No,” I said again.
Sebastian typed 9.
The drive opened.
I stared at him.
“You have got to be kidding.”
He looked equally disturbed.
Mara said:
“I’m not asking.”
Good.
Inside the drive was a single video file.
Recorded three days earlier.
Harold Keene.
Alive.
Terrified.
He looked into camera.
“If this opened, Valerie Bell and Sebastian Ward are together.”
My skin crawled.
Then:
“That means Luca’s plan worked.”
Sebastian froze.
Keene continued:
“He arranged their meeting eight months ago.”
I turned toward Sebastian.
He looked as shocked as I felt.
Our first meeting had not been coincidence.
Luca had placed us together.
Why?
Keene answered.
“Because Luca could not open the ledger compartment without Lark One and Lark Seven.”
Our relationship—
our attraction—
our entire collision—
had been engineered as access.
Keene leaned closer.
“Do not mistake manipulation of circumstances for manipulation of feeling.”
My breath caught.
Then:
“Luca could put two people in a room.”
Pause.
“He could not make them choose what happened after.”
I looked at Sebastian.
Neither spoke.
Keene continued.
“If you want the truth, stop asking who killed the old generation.”
A pause.
“Ask what Luca plans to do with the new one.”
Then the screen changed.
A list of names.
Children.
Current.
Twenty-three of them.
Project Lark had not ended.
May you like
It was still operating.
And three of the children were scheduled to disappear within forty-eight hours.
Related Stories
