Chapter 9 - The RooftopThe rooftop wind hit Ethan like ice.
Manhattan roared around him—sirens below, helicopters distant, the whole city unaware that a three-year conspiracy was trying to fly away from the top of Mercer Tower.
Veronica was halfway across the helipad.
Her robe was gone. She wore a black coat over the clothes she had changed into during the confusion. Her blonde hair whipped across her face. In one hand, she clutched a small silver drive.
The helicopter’s rotors were already spinning.
Caleb raised his weapon.
“Stop!”
Veronica turned.
For one brief second, she looked exactly as she had at every gala—beautiful, wounded, betrayed.
Then she laughed.
“You still don’t understand,” she shouted over the wind. “You think I started this?”
Ethan walked toward her.
“I think you killed Miguel Alvarez.”
Her face twisted.
“I didn’t mean for him to die.”
Rosa’s name seemed to echo in the wind between them.
Ethan kept moving.
“Then what did you mean?”
“He was supposed to be scared. That’s all. Daniel hired men to force him off the road, take the files, make him understand.”
“And when he died?”
Veronica’s eyes flashed.
“He shouldn’t have run.”
Ethan stopped.
There it was.
Not guilt.
Blame.
Detective Keene emerged from the stairwell behind Caleb.
“Veronica Vale, put the drive down.”
Veronica looked at the helicopter.
Then at Ethan.
“You open this, and you destroy yourself too.”
“Good.”
She blinked.
That answer surprised her.
Ethan stepped closer.
“My name is on those foundations. My money funded them. My home protected you. My silence, even ignorant, made room for what you did. So yes, maybe it destroys me.”
His voice hardened.
“But it won’t protect you.”
Veronica’s face trembled.
“You’re choosing a maid over me.”
“No,” Ethan said. “I’m choosing a child over a monster.”
Her expression collapsed into rage.
She lifted the drive.
“Then watch it disappear.”
She moved toward the rooftop edge.
Caleb shouted.
But Lily’s voice came from the stairwell.
“Don’t throw Daddy away!”
Everyone turned.
Rosa stood there, breathless, clutching Lily against her despite the guards trying to stop her.
Veronica froze.
Lily’s eyes were red. Her hair blew across her face. In her arms, the ruined rabbit hung open.
“That’s Daddy’s,” Lily cried. “Give it back.”
For one second, Veronica looked at the child she had tried to shame into silence.
And something almost human crossed her face.
Almost.
Then Daniel’s voice came through Veronica’s phone, still connected from some hidden earpiece.
“Throw it, V.”
Veronica’s eyes hardened again.
She raised her arm.
Ethan lunged.
The drive flew from her fingers.
Not over the edge.
Into the spinning wind.
It skittered across the helipad toward the drainage grate.
Caleb dived.
The helicopter lifted.
Veronica ran.
And before Ethan could reach her, a second figure stepped from the helicopter.
A man in a gray coat.
Older.
Calm.
Powerful.
May you like
Veronica stopped dead.
“Father?” she whispered.
