Chapter 6
Brandon laughed through the phone.
The sound was breathless and unstable.
“You think you found me?”
Emily watched the blinking signal approach the old management office.
“I know exactly where you are.”
A pause.
Then Brandon said, “You always did enjoy proving you were smarter.”
“I never enjoyed any of this.”
“Liar.”
Torres motioned for everyone to remain silent.
Technicians traced the call.
Daniel stood close enough to hear, his expression rigid.
Emily kept her voice calm.
“There are families in that shelter.”
“They were supposed to leave.”
“They didn’t.”
“That’s not my fault.”
“You placed explosives beneath them.”
“For the foundation samples.”
“You could kill children.”
Brandon’s breathing changed.
“Stop trying to make me sound like a monster.”
“I don’t need to.”
Charles closed his eyes.
Margaret pressed both hands over her mouth.
Brandon continued.
“Dad built that company by doing whatever was necessary. He bribed inspectors. He threatened unions. He buried lawsuits. But when I do what he taught me, suddenly I’m evil.”
Charles whispered, “He’s lying.”
Emily looked at him.
“Are you?”
Charles did not answer.
Brandon heard the silence.
“Ask him about Lake Briar.”
Charles’s face turned gray.
Emily frowned.
“What is Lake Briar?”
“Tell her, Dad.”
Charles stared at the phone as if Brandon could see him.
“It was a development project.”
Brandon laughed again.
“People got sick from contaminated soil. Dad paid them to leave and changed the environmental report.”
Margaret turned toward her husband.
“Charles?”
“It was handled.”
“Handled?” Emily repeated.
“No one died.”
“That you know of,” Brandon said.
Emily felt as though the floor had shifted.
The corruption did not begin with Brandon.
He had inherited it.
Then expanded it.
Charles had not refused to believe Emily because the idea of fraud was impossible.
He had refused because exposing Brandon would have exposed him too.
“You knew,” Emily whispered.
Charles’s voice broke.
“Not about South Harbor.”
“But you knew the company used fake reports.”
“Years ago. Things were different.”
“Innocent people were not different.”
Daniel looked at Charles with open disgust.
On the phone, Brandon said, “Now you understand. The great Charles Carter is just better at hiding his bodies.”
A sharp sound came through the line.
A metal door closing.
The blinking signal stopped inside the management office.
Torres silently directed tactical units toward the riverwalk exit.
Emily continued.
“What do you want?”
“My passport. Ten million dollars. A helicopter.”
“You’re not getting those things.”
“Then people die.”
Margaret made a strangled cry.
Brandon heard it.
“Mom?”
She moved toward the phone.
Emily stopped her.
Margaret pushed her hand away.
“Brandon, please.”
His voice softened.
“Mom.”
“Don’t hurt anyone.”
“I’m not trying to.”
“Then put down the trigger.”
“I can’t.”
“Yes, you can.”
“You don’t understand.”
“I understand you are scared.”
“I’m not scared.”
“You are my son. I can hear it.”
For one moment, Brandon sounded like a child.
“They’re going to put me in prison.”
Margaret began crying.
“We’ll find a lawyer.”
“Dad gave me up.”
Charles stepped closer.
“You gave yourself up.”
Brandon’s softness vanished.
“You hit me in front of strangers.”
“You endangered lives.”
“You cared more about the company than me my entire life.”
“I gave you everything.”
“You gave me tests. Every day. Every mistake meant I wasn’t worthy.”
Charles looked shaken.
Emily had heard versions of those words in her own heart for years.
The difference was that she had walked away.
Brandon had become the weapon their father wanted.
Margaret leaned toward the phone.
“Come out. We will face this together.”
“No.”
“Please.”
“You chose him too.”
Margaret stared at Charles.
“What?”
“You watched Dad tear us apart. You smiled when he praised me. You stayed silent when he destroyed Emily.”
Margaret’s tears fell faster.
“I was trying to keep peace.”
“You were protecting your life.”
The accusation struck her harder than anything else.
Emily took the phone back.
“Brandon, listen to me. The foundation is moving. You may not have time to escape.”
“I know the tunnel.”
“The riverwalk exit is covered.”
Silence.
Torres shot Emily a warning look.
Emily ignored it.
“I know about the exit,” she said. “I know about the second phone. I know about Melissa.”
A violent crash came through the line.
“Melissa is with you?”
“Yes.”
“She betrayed me.”
“She survived you.”
“She stole my files.”
“She kept evidence because she knew you would blame her.”
Brandon’s voice became low.
“Put her on.”
Melissa shook her head.
Emily waited.
Then Melissa stepped forward and took the phone.
“Brandon.”
“You ungrateful—”
“You left me in the east tower.”
“I told you to clear the archive.”
“You locked the basement door.”
Everyone looked at her.
Melissa’s eyes filled.
“You meant for me to die.”
“That’s not true.”
“I heard you tell Ray there could be no witnesses.”
Brandon said nothing.
Melissa’s voice hardened.
“I loved you.”
“You loved the money.”
“At first.”
The echo of Daniel’s confession cut through Emily.
At first.
Melissa continued.
“Then I loved the man I thought you could become. But every time someone trusted you, you used it as permission to destroy them.”
Brandon breathed heavily.
“Give the phone back to Emily.”
Melissa handed it over.
Emily spoke.
“I’m here.”
“You win.”
The words sounded wrong.
Too calm.
Emily looked at the technicians.
One of them raised a finger.
Signal activity.
“Brandon—”
“You always wanted the company.”
“No.”
“You’ll have it now.”
“I don’t want a company built on graves.”
“Then bury it.”
A click sounded through the line.
Torres shouted, “Signal spike!”
The tunnel camera flashed white.
The conference room shook from a distant explosion.
Margaret screamed.
Emily dropped the phone.
On the screen, dust swallowed the responders.
The audio became static.
Then the live map showed the east tower shifting.
“No,” Emily whispered.
Torres called the site.
No answer.
Daniel pulled Emily away from the table as she tried to stand.
“I need to see.”
“You need to stay upright.”
“There are people there.”
A voice broke through the static.
“Primary charges did not detonate.”
Everyone froze.
The responder coughed.
“Repeat. Tunnel charges partially fired. Main circuit failed.”
Melissa stared at the screen.
“How?”
The bomb technician’s voice came through.
“Water damage severed the relay.”
Emily exhaled.
But the structural engineer looked terrified.
“The partial blast may have accelerated movement.”
A red warning appeared on the east tower monitor.
The building tilted by several inches.
Torres shouted into the microphone.
“Status of shelter?”
“Still intact. Civilians trapped.”
“And Brandon?”
“Unknown.”
The phone on the table rang.
Emily stared at it.
Brandon.
She answered.
His voice was weak.
“The floor collapsed.”
“Where are you?”
“Management office basement.”
Emily pulled up the plans.
The basement sat beside the old pump chamber.
If the east tower shifted further, it would be crushed.
“You need to move west.”
“I can’t.”
“Why?”
“My leg.”
Emily looked at Torres.
“Can responders reach him?”
Torres shook her head.
“Not before the shelter.”
Brandon heard.
“You’re choosing them.”
Emily closed her eyes.
“There are children.”
“I’m your brother.”
The words tore through her.
For all the cruelty, all the lies, all the years of being treated as less, he was still the boy who had once held her hand during thunderstorms.
He was still the brother who had taught her to ride a bicycle before their father turned everything into a competition.
“I know,” she whispered.
“Then help me.”
“I will tell you how to get out.”
“I can’t walk.”
“There may be a maintenance cart.”
“Power is gone.”
“Manual release. North wall.”
She searched the blueprints.
“Pull the red lever. The cart rolls downhill toward the pump chamber.”
“What then?”
“There’s an emergency ladder.”
Brandon coughed.
“I can’t climb.”
“You have to.”
“I’m sorry.”
Emily’s eyes filled.
“For what?”
“For being exactly what they wanted.”
The line went silent.
“Brandon?”
No answer.
“Brandon!”
The call disconnected.
Charles moved toward the door.
“I’m going to the site.”
Torres blocked him.
“You will not.”
“He is my son.”
“And there are armed personnel, explosives, and a collapsing tower.”
“I don’t care.”
Emily looked at her father.
For once, she believed him.
He truly did not care about the company.
Not in that moment.
Only Brandon.
The building monitor sounded another alarm.
The east tower shifted again.
Then a site camera showed movement near the worker shelter.
A maintenance cart rolled from the dark service tunnel.
A man lay across it.
Brandon.
He had found the release.
But the cart stopped twenty feet from the shelter.
Concrete debris blocked the track.
The east tower groaned above him.
Emily watched her brother try to crawl.
He moved inches.
Then collapsed.
A group of trapped workers appeared behind a barrier.
One man saw Brandon.
He climbed over the debris and ran toward him.
“That’s Samuel Ortiz,” Melissa whispered.
Emily stared.
“The missing engineer?”
“He’s alive.”
Samuel reached Brandon, lifted him under the arms, and dragged him toward the shelter.
May you like
The man Brandon had tried to silence was now saving his life.
But above them, the east tower began to fall.
