CHAPTER 10 — THE MIDNIGHT EXCHANGE
The old courthouse had been abandoned after a fire destroyed its upper floors.
At eleven forty-five, Evelyn entered alone.
At least, that was what Julian believed.
Mara monitored her through a hidden earpiece. Nathan watched from a neighboring rooftop. Celeste and Gabriel waited beneath the building in an old prisoner tunnel.
Julian stood in the ruined courtroom.
His bruised jaw had turned dark purple.
“You always did enjoy dramatic entrances,” he said.
“Where is my father?”
“Close.”
“You used him for ten years?”
Julian smiled.
“I didn’t know he was alive until last night.”
That answer surprised her.
“My mother kept more secrets from me than she kept from you.”
“Then why are you helping her?”
“I’m not.”
He stepped closer.
“I want Nightingale.”
“You don’t understand it.”
“Neither do you.”
Julian held out his hand.
“Give me the files, and you get Daniel.”
Evelyn looked toward the dark balcony.
“Show him to me.”
A screen lit up behind the judge’s bench.
Daniel appeared live.
He was older and painfully thin, but alive.
“Evelyn,” he said.
Her heart stopped.
“Dad.”
“Do not give him anything.”
Julian struck the screen controls.
The image vanished.
Evelyn’s hands curled into fists.
“If you hurt him—”
“You already hit me once. We both know how that ended.”
“It ended with your empire falling.”
“No. It ended with my mother losing control of it.”
A shot rang out from the balcony.
Julian’s body jerked.
Blood spread across his white shirt.
Evelyn caught him before he hit the floor.
His eyes widened in shock.
“I didn’t order that,” Mara said in Evelyn’s earpiece.
Nathan appeared on the opposite balcony.
“It wasn’t me.”
Another figure moved through the shadows.
Beatrice.
She lowered the gun.
Julian stared at his mother.
“Why?”
Beatrice walked down the aisle.
“You opened a door you were never meant to touch.”
She looked at Evelyn.
“Give me the archive.”
Evelyn slowly stood.
“Where is my father?”
Beatrice smiled.
“The man on that screen was not Daniel Vance.”
Behind her, the courtroom doors opened.
A second man entered.
He had Daniel’s face.
Daniel’s voice.
And a scar Evelyn had never seen before.
May you like
Beatrice spread her hands.
“Now,” she said, “let us discuss which version of your father you would like to save.”
