Chapter 13 - The Mirror
Z
I kept my hands flat on the wooden table, staring at the faded photo of Julian on the beach. My heart was pounding against my ribs, but my voice remained steady, cold as ice.
“Sarah.”
“In the flesh,” she whispered, nudging the gun barrel slightly harder against my neck. “Though I suppose legally, I’ve been dead for fourteen years. It’s quite peaceful being dead. No taxes, no alimony, no federal subpoenas.”
“You set me up,” I said quietly. “You dropped Julian’s phone at the Blue Anchor Motel. You called Charlie.”
Sarah let out a light, melodious laugh that sounded eerily like my own laugh used to sound before this nightmare began. She stepped around the table so she was standing in my side vision, her gun still trained squarely on my chest. She was wearing an elegant charcoal cashmere sweater and tailored black slacks, her dark red hair pulled back into a sleek ponytail. She looked like a high-powered corporate executive on a weekend getaway.
“Oh, Charlie was a lovely touch, wasn't he?” Sarah said, her eyes dancing with wicked amusement. “I paid him five thousand dollars to find the phone in the gutter and call the lock screen contact. I knew Julian’s habits. I knew he was meeting Valerie at that sleazy motel on Highway 9 every Tuesday at three. I just picked the lock on his car while he was inside, took his phone, dropped it outside, and waited for you to do what any smart, betrayed woman would do.”
“You used me to tear down Apex.”
“I used you because you were the only variable Julian couldn't control,” Sarah corrected, leaning casually against the adjacent safety deposit lockers. “Julian was arrogant. He thought you were stupid because you were quiet. He thought because you loved him, you were blind. But I read your background file years ago, Dani. I knew who you were before Julian even picked you out in that grocery store.”
I frowned, turning my head slightly to look at her. “What are you talking about?”
Sarah’s smile widened, a cold, predatory gleam in her eyes. “You really think meeting Julian in that grocery store was an accident? Reaching for the same carton of milk?”
A sickening knot tied itself in my stomach. “Julian told me—”
“Julian didn't pick you, Dani,” Sarah interrupted smoothly. “I picked you. I planted your profile in Julian’s client database fourteen years ago after I staged my death. I needed a woman with no close family, an independent income, and a clean criminal record to serve as the ultimate contingency vault. Julian thought he was finding a naive target. He was just executing my program.”
The air felt trapped in my lungs. My entire life—my twelve-year marriage, my home, my memories, my grandmother’s sunflowers—wasn't even Julian’s design. It was a blueprint constructed by the woman standing in front of me before I had even turned twenty-five.
“Why?” I asked, my knuckles turning white against the edge of the table.
“Because I needed someone who would fight back when the trap sprung,” Sarah said simply. “If Julian had married a weak woman, she would have surrendered, taken a plea deal, and Eleanor Vance would have kept my two hundred million dollars. I needed a woman who was strong enough, furious enough, and smart enough to burn the whole house down.”
She gestured toward the brass marina key sitting in the metal box.
“And you did it, Dani. You destroyed Eleanor. You put Julian in a cage for forty-five years. You handed the feds the entire network. You were brilliant. Truly magnificent.”
“And now you’re going to shoot me in a bank vault,” I said, slowly sliding my right hand toward my jacket pocket where my revolver rested.
“I have to,” Sarah sighed, her finger tightening on the trigger of her silenced pistol. “You’re the only person left alive who understands the architecture. You’re the only one who traced the back-door code to Rainier Trust. Once you’re gone, I pick up my hundred million from the Victoria marina, take my new identity, and vanish into South America forever.”
“You forgot one detail, Sarah,” I said, stopping my hand near my coat pocket.
Sarah’s eyes narrowed slightly. “I don't forget details.”
“You checked Julian’s habits,” I said, looking her directly in the eye. “You checked Eleanor’s systems. But you haven't been watching me for the last six months.”
Before she could pull the trigger, I slammed my foot directly into the wooden leg of the heavy viewing table.
The massive mahogany table tipped forward, smashing violently into Sarah’s knees. She gasped in pain, her shot firing wildly into the acoustic ceiling tile with a muffled POOF.
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I didn't draw my gun. I grabbed the heavy brass safety deposit box from the table and swung it with all my strength straight into the side of her face.
CRACK!
