Chapter 6 - SOMEONE KNEW I WAS COMING
The photograph had been taken before Vanessa's guards touched me.
Someone knew I had returned.
I was standing near a bus stop across from Bellmont Cove, wearing the same jacket.
On the back, written in black ink:
SHE REMEMBERED.
"Who took it?"
"That," I said, "is finally the right question."
At 9:14 a.m., a gray sedan stopped near the bus station.
At 9:23, the sedan entered an employee road using executive clearance.
Badge assigned to Nathan Bellmont.
Nathan was supposedly in Geneva.
Nathan's suite was empty.
His passport had not been scanned out of the country.
Vanessa whispered, "Dad was here?"
"You didn't know."
"No."
"Then why attack me?"
"You came into the private lobby looking insane. You demanded the founder elevator. You called me a thief."
"You are a thief."
"I thought you were a con artist."
"You ordered chains."
"Preliminary fingerprints match archived records."
I was Amelia Bellmont.
The board meeting was set for 6:00 p.m.
My founder shares remained frozen.
Nathan's proxies were suspended pending investigation.
Then a message appeared on the command screen.
INCOMING FOUNDER CHANNEL.
Only three people had ever possessed access.
Me.
Our mother, before she died.
"Amelia."
"If you're hearing this, you made the same mistake twice."
"What mistake?" I whispered.
"You came home."
"He's destroying it."
By the time the elevator reached Level B, smoke filled the corridor.
May you like
And inside, someone had painted one sentence across the wall.
YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO STAY DEAD.
