Chapter Six: Old Wounds, New Fire
Later that week, Elena and Kian sat across from a federal agent in a discreet office on the upper floor of a nondescript government building. The agent, a no-nonsense woman named Agent Mira Chen, skimmed through the folders Elena brought.
“These are copies?” she asked.
“Yes,” Elena said. “The originals are with my attorney.”
Chen glanced up. “Smart. You’re taking a risk, going this public.”
“I don’t care about risk anymore,” Elena replied. “I care about truth.”
Chen leaned back. “Truth is dangerous. And a lot of people in power are allergic to it.”
“What happens now?” Kian asked.
Chen folded her hands. “Now? Now we dig. Quietly. If what’s in here is real, we’ll bring them down brick by brick. But you need to be ready. They’ll come for you.”
Elena didn’t hesitaThe soft knock at the federal office door startled Elena more than it should have. She turned, half-expecting another threat, another stranger. But it was only Agent Chen returning, this time with a sealed folder in her hand.
“We ran a preliminary trace,” Chen said as she sat. “You were right about the financial trail—it doesn't stop with Evelyn. There are dummy corporations, shell accounts, off-shore holdings. And at least one of them links to the Morrison Foundation... and your husband's father.”
Kian stiffened beside her. Elena glanced at him, watching his expression freeze—not with disbelief, but with reluctant confirmation.
“I had suspicions,” Kian said. “But I never had proof. My father’s always kept a tight grip on the family and the company. Too tight.”
“You’ll want to see this,” Chen added, sliding the folder across the desk. “It’s a flight manifest. Your father flew to Zurich the week after Evelyn’s death. He’s been funneling assets out of the country ever since.”
Elena took a deep breath and looked up. “Then he’s preparing for war.”
Chen gave a thin smile. “So are we.”
Back at the penthouse, Kian was quiet. Too quiet.
“You don’t have to protect him anymore,” Elena said. “Even if he’s your father.”
“He stopped being a father when he started choosing power over people,” Kian said. “But what scares me isn’t what he did... it’s what he’s planning to do next.”
The following day, Elena met with her attorney to authorize a full media dump if anything happened to her. A dead man’s switch, as they called it. Her insurance policy.
At the same time, Julian and a trusted tech analyst decrypted more of Evelyn’s archived files. In one chilling video, Evelyn spoke directly to the camera:
“If you’re watching this, I’m either dead or in prison. And if so, the people who truly run this empire—Clive Morrison included—will erase me. But not the truth. The truth is in the foundation’s charter. Look there. Everything begins with the children.”
Elena froze the video. “What does that mean?”
Julian frowned. “I’ll dig into it. But if she’s right, it’s not just fraud. It’s exploitation.”
By sunset, Elena stood on the balcony of her penthouse, watching the city’s orange glow descend into twilight. Kian joined her, holding out her favorite tea.
She took it silently.
“I’ve been thinking,” he said.
“About what?”
“How far we’re willing to go.”
Elena looked over. “You still want to stop?”
He shook his head. “I want to make sure we survive it.”
And for the first time, she believed they might.
---
te. “Let them.”