Chapter 2 - The Call Lucas Couldn’t Make
Lucas moved faster than anyone expected.
His hand shot toward the phone lying near the edge of the black marble table.
But Jaden was already moving.
He stepped between Lucas and the table, catching Lucas by the wrist before he reached it.
“Let go of me!”
Jaden remained calm.
“Sit down.”
Lucas pulled back.
“I said let go.”
Jaden released him immediately.
But Paulie had already picked up the phone.
Lucas stared at it.
Jason watched everything.
“Who were you going to call?”
“Nobody.”
Jason almost smiled.
“You nearly knocked over my table trying to call nobody?”
Lucas looked away.
Paulie examined the screen.
“It’s locked.”
Jason held out his hand.
“Give it to me.”
Lucas shook his head.
“That’s my private phone.”
Paulie handed it to Jason anyway.
Jason looked at the device.
Then at Lucas.
“Interesting.”
“What?”
“You brought two phones.”
Lucas froze.
The phone Jason held was not the one Lucas had used when entering.
That phone remained in his jacket.
Jason remembered seeing it.
Paulie noticed too.
“A second phone,” Paulie said.
Lucas immediately reached toward his pocket.
Two security men stepped closer.
Lucas stopped.
Jason extended his hand.
“Give me the other one.”
“No.”
Jason’s eyes hardened.
“Then keep it.”
Lucas seemed surprised.
Jason leaned back.
“I don’t need your phone to know you’re scared.”
Lucas gave a humorless laugh.
“Scared of what?”
“The person you were trying to warn.”
Nobody spoke.
Lucas looked toward Emmanuel.
“You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?”
Emmanuel shook his head.
“No.”
“I should have known you would betray everyone.”
Emmanuel stared at him.
“I didn’t betray Stephanie.”
Lucas’s eyes flashed.
“You betrayed me.”
The words escaped before he could stop them.
Jason’s head lifted.
There it was again.
Another crack.
Another moment when Lucas forgot the story he was supposed to maintain.
Emmanuel nodded.
“Exactly.”
Lucas said nothing.
Emmanuel turned toward Jason.
“He’s right about one thing.”
Jason waited.
“I did work with him.”
Benita looked shocked.
Jaden’s expression tightened.
Jason remained still.
“For how long?”
“Almost a year.”
Lucas smiled.
“Finally.”
Emmanuel ignored him.
“I needed money. Lucas knew it.”
“What did he ask you to do?”
“At first? Nothing serious.”
Emmanuel looked ashamed.
“Deliver documents. Meet people. Carry envelopes. Use my name to register companies.”
Jason’s stomach tightened.
“Companies connected to me?”
“Indirectly.”
Emmanuel nodded toward the paper.
“Lucas was careful. Everything went through layers.”
Jason looked toward Lucas.
Lucas crossed his arms.
“This man will say anything.”
Emmanuel continued.
“Then Stephanie discovered one of the companies.”
“How?”
“She recognized my name.”
Jason frowned.
Emmanuel explained.
“She saw it while reviewing records connected to a property transaction. She asked me about it.”
“And you told her?”
“Eventually.”
Lucas laughed.
“You expect us to believe you suddenly developed a conscience?”
“No,” Emmanuel said. “I became afraid.”
The honesty of the answer silenced the room.
“I knew what Lucas was capable of.”
Lucas stood.
“This is enough.”
Jason looked at him.
Lucas pointed toward Emmanuel.
“He is confessing to financial crimes in your living room, and somehow I’m the one being treated like a criminal?”
“You are being treated like a man whose name keeps appearing in everyone else’s story.”
Lucas looked at Jason.
Then he softened his expression.
“Brother.”
Jason hated that word at that moment.
Lucas continued.
“We grew up together.”
Jason said nothing.
“You know me.”
“I thought I did.”
That landed harder than shouting could have.
Lucas looked away.
Jason turned toward Emmanuel.
“What happened after Stephanie confronted you?”
“I told her enough to make her understand she was in danger.”
Benita whispered, “Why didn’t she go to the police?”
“She didn’t know who she could trust.”
Emmanuel looked at Jason.
“And she didn’t know whether Jason was involved.”
Jason stared at him.
The words hurt.
But he understood.
If the records led into his empire, why wouldn’t Stephanie wonder?
“What changed her mind?”
“She watched you.”
Jason frowned.
“She started paying attention to your reactions. Your schedule. The things you knew and didn’t know.”
Emmanuel’s voice softened.
“She realized you had no idea.”
Jason looked down.
Stephanie had been protecting him.
Perhaps from Lucas.
Perhaps from the truth.
“She planned to tell you,” Emmanuel continued.
“When?”
“The night she disappeared.”
Jason’s head snapped up.
Lucas stared at the floor.
Jason felt the room narrowing around him.
“She was coming to me?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t she?”
Emmanuel looked toward Lucas.
Nobody needed an explanation.
But Jason wanted one.
“Say it.”
Emmanuel took a breath.
“Because Lucas found out.”
Lucas stood again.
“Enough!”
This time his voice echoed through the mansion.
Jason looked at him.
Lucas pointed at Emmanuel.
“He’s lying!”
“Then sit down and let him lie.”
“You don’t understand what you’re doing.”
Jason’s expression changed.
“What am I doing?”
Lucas hesitated.
Then he looked toward the windows.
Toward the gate.
Toward the security cameras.
And Jason understood something.
Lucas wasn’t only worried about himself.
He was waiting for something.
Or someone.
Jason looked toward Paulie.
Paulie noticed the same thing.
Without speaking, he checked his tablet.
His eyebrows tightened.
He walked toward Jason.
“We have a problem.”
Lucas’s eyes shifted toward him.
Jason noticed.
“What?”
Paulie lowered his voice.
“One of the cameras at the east gate just went offline.”
Jaden stood immediately.
“How?”
“Don’t know.”
Then a second camera disappeared from the tablet.
Paulie looked up.
“Another one.”
Benita moved closer to Jason.
Lucas slowly smiled.
Jason saw it.
“You called someone before coming here.”
Lucas didn’t answer.
Jason’s voice hardened.
“Who?”
Lucas smiled wider.
“You really think you’re the only person who plans ahead?”
Jaden immediately ordered the mansion security team to secure the doors.
Paulie moved toward the window.
A vehicle was approaching the outer gate.
Then another.
But they weren’t Jason’s.
Benita looked toward Lucas.
“What did you do?”
Lucas said nothing.
The phone inside his jacket began ringing.
Everyone froze.
Lucas looked down.
Jason looked at him.
“Answer it.”
Lucas didn’t move.
“Answer it, Lucas.”
Slowly, Lucas removed the second phone.
He looked at the screen.
His face changed.
Jason noticed.
“Who is it?”
Lucas remained silent.
Jason extended his hand.
Lucas finally turned the screen around.
There was no name.
Only a number.
But Emmanuel recognized it.
His expression collapsed.
“No.”
Jason looked at him.
“What?”
Emmanuel backed away.
“We need to get out of here.”
“Why?”
Emmanuel stared at the ringing phone.
“That number.”
He swallowed.
“That’s the person Lucas answers to.”
Jason slowly looked at his brother.
Lucas’s face revealed something Jason had never expected to see.
Fear.
Not fear of being exposed.
Fear of whoever was calling him.
The ringing stopped.
For two seconds, the room was silent.
Then Jason’s own phone rang.
Jason stared at it.
Unknown number.
Lucas whispered:
“Don’t answer.”
Jason looked at him.
For the first time, Lucas wasn’t pretending.
“Jason.”
His voice shook.
“Do not answer that phone.”
Jason pressed the button.
“Hello?”
Silence.
Then a calm male voice spoke.
“Mr. Omaly.”
Jason’s eyes narrowed.
“Who is this?”
The voice ignored the question.
“You have something in your house that belongs to me.”
Jason looked around the room.
“What?”
“Several things, actually.”
The voice paused.
“But one of them is your brother.”
Jason looked at Lucas.
Lucas slowly closed his eyes.
The caller continued.
“You have ten minutes to send Lucas outside.”
Jason’s grip tightened around the phone.
“And if I don’t?”
The voice remained almost pleasant.
“Then you’ll finally understand why Stephanie was so afraid.”
The call ended.
Jason lowered the phone.
Everyone looked at him.
Lucas’s confidence was gone.
Completely.
Jason spoke quietly.
“Who was that?”
Lucas stared at him.
“You should have let me leave.”
“Who was that?”
Lucas swallowed.
And for the first time since entering the mansion, he answered without lying.
“The man who owns everything you think I stole.”
Jason stared at him.
Lucas continued.
“And if he knows I’m here…”
He looked toward Benita.
Then Jaden.
Then the witnesses.
“…none of us are safe.”
Outside, another security camera went dark.
May you like
And Jason suddenly realized the trap he had built for Lucas might have trapped all of them.
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