Chapter 11 - THE HOUSE WITH NO WINDOWS
Matthew ordered me to remove my coat.
The transmitter fell onto the floor.
He crushed it beneath his heel.
Outside, federal agents could see the steel shutters.
They could no longer hear us.
“Where are the originals?”
Matthew asked.
“With my father.”
“Wrong answer.”
He pressed the gun against my ribs.
Pain spread through the fractures beneath my hospital bandages.
I refused to step back.
“You cannot shoot me.”
His eyes narrowed.
“Why not?”
“Because you need my signature.”
For the first time, uncertainty crossed his face.
Project Janus required two founders to authorize permanent transfer of the Nexus architecture.
Matthew had forged my signature before.
But the trust documents used biometric confirmation.
My fingerprint.
My voice.
A retinal scan.
He could not erase me from the company without me.
“You finally understand,” he said.
“I understood before I entered the house.”
That was a lie.
But Matthew had always mistaken confidence for certainty.
I needed him to believe I had planned everything.
“Where is Marcus?”
“Safe for now.”
“Release him.”
“Sign first.”
Matthew led me toward the study.
A biometric tablet waited on the desk.
Beside it rested a legal document transferring the Sterling Innovation Trust to a company in the Cayman Islands.
Matthew would control the company through Lauren’s name.
Or he had intended to.
“Lauren surrendered.”
His hand tightened around the gun.
“She brought Daniel to the district attorney.”
Rage flashed across his face.
“She would never do that.”
“She recorded you for three years.”
“You are lying.”
“She gave them Project Janus.”
Matthew struck me across the face.
The force sent me against the desk.
My vision flashed white.
He grabbed my hair.
“You poisoned her against me.”
“No.”
I tasted blood.
“You did that yourself.”
He pushed my face toward the biometric scanner.
“Look into the lens.”
I closed my eyes.
Matthew pressed the gun against my neck.
“Open them.”
“No.”
“I will kill Marcus.”
“You may kill him anyway.”
“I will kill your father.”
“My father is outside with half the federal government.”
“I can still destroy everything he built.”
I opened my eyes and looked at Matthew.
“No, you cannot.”
“Do you know why?”
He said nothing.
“Because my father built something that does not depend on everyone believing he is a genius.”
The insult found its target.
Matthew dragged me away from the scanner and threw me onto the floor.
He paced across the room.
“You think you built NexusCore?”
“I know I did.”
“I gave it a name.”
“I gave it a brain.”
“I raised the money.”
“I introduced you to the people who wrote the checks.”
“They invested in me.”
“They trusted my father.”
His face twisted.
Every sentence stripped away another layer of the myth he had built around himself.
“I made you.”
I shook my head.
“You spent seven years erasing me because you knew the opposite was true.”
Matthew lifted the gun.
Then a sound came through the wall.
Three knocks.
A pause.
Three more.
Marcus.
The panic room was directly behind the study.
I remembered the floor plan Lauren had shown us.
The hidden entrance stood behind the bookcase.
Matthew heard it too.
He turned.
I seized the biometric tablet and hurled it toward the fireplace.
The screen shattered.
Matthew fired.
The bullet struck the wall beside my head.
Outside, agents heard the gunshot.
The front door exploded inward.
Matthew grabbed me by the throat and dragged me toward the bookcase.
“Tell them to leave.”
I could barely breathe.
Another gunshot came from behind the wall.
Not Matthew’s gun.
The bookcase shifted.
Marcus stumbled through the hidden entrance holding a small revolver.
Blood covered his shirt.
Matthew turned his weapon toward him.
I drove my elbow into Matthew’s injured ribs.
He released me.
Marcus fired again.
The bullet struck Matthew’s shoulder.
His gun fell.
Before I could reach it, Matthew slammed a hidden switch beneath the desk.
A warning siren screamed through the house.
Lauren had mentioned the panic room.
She had not mentioned what lay beneath it.
The floor began opening.
A black space appeared under Marcus’s feet.
Matthew smiled through the pain.
“You wanted the truth, Clare?”
May you like
He kicked Marcus toward the opening.
“Then come see where I buried it.”
