Chapter 13 - Veronica’s VersionVeronica did not cry.
Ethan had seen her cry before. At memorial dinners. During charity documentaries. Once when a photographer caught her holding a premature baby at a hospital fundraiser.
Those tears had been perfect.
Now, facing the voice of a dead man, she only sat straighter.
“Yes,” she said. “I was there.”
Rosa stood.
Detective Keene stepped between them before anyone else could move.
“You were at the crash site?” Keene asked.
Veronica looked bored again, but her hands betrayed her.
“I went to talk to him.”
“About what?”
“Returning stolen material.”
Rosa lunged.
Ethan caught her gently, not restraining her so much as keeping her from destroying herself against a woman who deserved worse than hands could deliver.
“My husband stole nothing!”
Veronica’s eyes flashed.
“He stole files from my family company.”
“He exposed crimes,” Ethan said.
Veronica turned on him.
“You keep saying crimes like you understand what was happening. You don’t. You built technology so powerful hospitals begged for access and governments wanted control. Data became gold. Child diagnostics became the future. Everyone wanted in.”
“You used children.”
“We used records.”
Rosa whispered, “My daughter was not a record.”
For one second, Veronica’s composure faltered.
Then she hardened again.
“Project Lantern was supposed to identify genetic markers early. Save lives. Predict diseases. Prevent suffering.”
“Without consent,” Ethan said.
“Consent is paperwork.”
The room went utterly still.
Ethan stared at her as though seeing something inhuman beneath the skin.
Veronica continued, voice sharper now.
“You think your clean little world runs on permission? It runs on access. Data. Influence. People like Rosa sign forms they don’t read because they need help. People like you fund programs you don’t audit because applause feels better than responsibility.”
Ethan flinched.
Rosa saw it.
So did Veronica.
She smiled.
“There he is. The guilty man.”
Ethan stepped forward.
“I am guilty of trusting you.”
“No,” Veronica said. “You’re guilty of wanting to be loved for saving people without ever standing close enough to smell the smoke.”
The words hit because part of them was true.
Rosa looked at Ethan.
He looked back at her.
“I’m sorry,” he said.
Not to Veronica.
To Rosa.
Veronica’s smile vanished.
Rosa’s voice was raw.
“Sorry does not bring Miguel back.”
“No,” Ethan said. “It doesn’t.”
He turned to Detective Keene.
“But the truth might bury the people who killed him.”
Keene nodded.
Veronica laughed softly.
“You don’t have enough.”
Caleb entered then, holding a tablet.
“We found the file from the rabbit drive.”
Everyone turned.
Caleb’s face was pale.
“It has a video.”
Veronica stood so fast her chair tipped back.
“No.”
Ethan looked at her.
At last, fear.
Real fear.
Caleb placed the tablet on the table and pressed play.
The video opened inside a hospital nursery.
A newborn baby lay beneath a warmer.
A nurse scanned an orange bracelet.
The name on screen:
LILY ALVAREZ.
May you like
Then Veronica Vale entered the frame.
And beside her was Detective Paul Granger.
