Chapter 6 - The Last Account
For the second time in two days, Rey faced evidence suggesting her father had survived his own funeral.
This time, Lucian couldn't dismiss it.
They stopped the transfer with three minutes remaining.
Then Rey demanded answers.
Lucian had none.
So they followed the foundation.
It had remained dormant for twenty years.
One administrator.
One beneficiary.
Rey.
“Why didn't I know?”
“Because it was designed to activate under a condition.”
“What condition?”
Lucian read.
“Exposure of the Fibonacci accounts.”
Rey sat down.
Her father had built a dead man's switch.
If someone restarted Viktor's financial network, the foundation would activate and pull targeted funds into escrow.
The $84 million wasn't theft.
It was a trap.
Daniel had designed it decades earlier.
But who had triggered it now?
They found the administrator.
Martin Caldwell.
Rey's boss.
Caldwell finally confessed.
Daniel had approached him years ago.
He asked Caldwell to employ Rey someday if she ever needed work.
Not to involve her.
To watch over her.
Caldwell had honored that promise.
Until Elias infiltrated the company.
“I should have told you,” Caldwell said.
“Yes.”
“I was afraid.”
“So was everyone.”
Rey looked around.
“That's how Viktor controlled all of you.”
Silence.
She was right.
Viktor's power depended on fear and secrecy.
Rey proposed something different.
Transparency.
Turn everything over to authorities.
Financial records.
Shell companies.
The ledger.
All of it.
Lucian resisted.
Some records could expose his own businesses to scrutiny.
Rey stared at him.
“Then choose.”
“Between?”
“The empire you've protected and the truth my father died protecting.”
Lucian said nothing.
Rey left.
For two days, she heard nothing from him.
Then Monday morning, news broke across Vancouver.
Lucian Zarka had voluntarily turned over years of financial records to federal investigators.
Rey stared at the television.
He had chosen.
The investigation moved quickly.
Viktor's network collapsed.
Elias was located.
Caldwell cooperated.
Belle apologized approximately eighty times.
Then investigators discovered Viktor's location.
But before authorities reached him, Rey received a message.
Come alone if you want the truth about Daniel's final night.
She showed Lucian.
“Absolutely not.”
“I knew you'd say that.”
“You're not going.”
“I knew you'd say that too.”
“Rey.”
She looked at him.
“I spent twenty years accepting a lie because adults decided I couldn't handle the truth. I'm done letting other people choose what I'm allowed to know.”
Lucian's expression softened.
“Then you won't go alone.”
They gave the message to investigators and followed their instructions.
The meeting took place in an empty waterfront restaurant under surveillance.
Viktor arrived.
Older.
Tired.
No longer powerful.
Just a man running out of places to hide.
He looked at Rey.
“You found the ledger.”
“Yes.”
“Daniel always was better than me.”
“What happened to him?”
Viktor sat.
And finally told her.
Daniel survived the highway crash.
Barely.
Lucian moved him secretly while Viktor searched for him.
For three months, Daniel lived under another identity.
During that time, he created the foundation.
Then his injuries worsened.
He died in a private medical facility.
Lucian had known.
Rey turned slowly.
“You knew he survived.”
Lucian's face revealed the answer.
“Yes.”
Pain became anger.
“You lied again.”
“I promised him.”
“Promised what?”
“That you would never know his last months were spent hiding and afraid.”
Rey stood.
“That wasn't your decision.”
“No.”
Lucian didn't defend himself.
“That was my mistake.”
Viktor laughed quietly.
“You see? Even now, Zarka decides what truth people deserve.”
Rey looked at Viktor.
“And you think that makes you better?”
His smile vanished.
“My father spent his final months hiding because of you.”
Viktor said nothing.
“You stole from people. Manipulated them. Used me to reach Lucian. You paid Belle to create that dare.”
Silence.
“You thought I'd become Lucian's weakness.”
Viktor looked at Lucian.
“I was right.”
Rey shook her head.
“No.”
She stepped beside Lucian.
“You misunderstood something.”
Viktor waited.
“Caring about someone isn't weakness.”
Police entered moments later.
Viktor didn't resist.
As he was taken away, he looked back.
“You think this ends with me?”
Rey felt cold.
“What does that mean?”
Viktor smiled.
“Check Daniel's ledger.”
That night, Rey did.
Page by page.
Until she found a sealed section.
One final account.
It contained no stolen money.
Instead, it held something Daniel had saved specifically for his daughter.
A letter.
And on the envelope, in her father's handwriting:
May you like
For Rey—when she finally finds the man with 1597 on his wrist.
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