Chapter 13 - The Last Locked Door.
Victor did not fire.
That was Samuel Shaw's first victory.
Damian saw it in the older man's eyes.
"Drop the weapon," Damian ordered.
Samuel held his pistol loosely at his side.
"If I meant to kill you, Damian, you would have died before you learned to shave."
Victor stepped forward.
"You let me think you were dead."
"I kept you alive."
"By doing what?"
Samuel looked at Damian.
"By staying close to the Cole family through you."
The words hit Victor harder than any bullet.
Samuel had groomed his own son into becoming Damian's protector so he could retain access to the mansion and company without appearing anywhere himself.
He had studied Victor's routines, copied his codes, and used old biometric templates from Henry's private security files.
Mara arrived behind them with guards.
"He's the architect of the impersonations."
Samuel smiled.
"Technology simply caught up with patience."
Damian raised his weapon.
"Did you lock Harper in the chamber?"
"No."
Harper, who had followed despite every order to stay back, stepped into the corridor.
"You're lying."
Samuel looked at her with mild curiosity.
"You heard cedar smoke."
Harper froze.
He knew exactly what she had told Damian.
Samuel touched his coat pocket.
"An old habit."
Victor looked sick.
"Why her?"
"Because she found the ledger."
Samuel explained that Harper had entered Henry's study while one of his operatives copied the final pages.
She took the bank key before being struck.
Samuel ordered her held for a few hours while he recovered it.
"Three days," Harper said.
"You left my daughter thinking I was dead for three days."
Samuel's expression did not change.
"That was not the plan."
"Whose plan was it?"
Samuel glanced upward.
The corridor lights went out.
Emergency red lamps flickered on.
A door slammed behind Harper.
Mara shouted that the network had been breached again.
Damian realized Samuel was not controlling the system.
Someone else was.
Samuel used the distraction to run.
Victor pursued him.
Damian stayed with Harper and Mara.
"There is still another person," Harper said.
"I know."
Mara pulled up access logs.
"Every override tonight came from a device labeled LEGACY-01."
Damian recognized the name.
It was his father's original office terminal, supposedly destroyed after the crash.
Martin Vale appeared on Mara's comm link.
"Legacy-01 is not in Henry's study."
"Where is it?"
"There is one room none of you have opened."
The final locked door stood at the end of the underground platform beneath the mansion.
It required three separate keys.
Damian had one.
Lucas had inherited the second.
Victor's father carried the third.
Victor returned alone ten minutes later.
Samuel had escaped through a drainage tunnel.
But Victor held a small iron key in his palm.
"He dropped this."
They descended together.
The three keys turned.
The door opened.
Inside was a perfectly preserved office.
A computer terminal glowed on the desk.
Beside it sat a woman in a dark coat.
Damian stopped.
His mother, Evelyn Cole, had been declared dead five years earlier after a stroke overseas.
May you like
She looked at him calmly.
"You took longer than your father expected.
