Chapter 14 - The Trap at Cross Plaza
Damian did not open the gate.
For twelve minutes, Victoria Cross sat outside.
Alive.
Or appearing to be.
Damian watched the monitor without blinking.
Mommy stood beside him.
“You recognize her?”
He swallowed.
“She looks like my mother.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
“I was nineteen when she died.”
“Did you see her body?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“My father said the accident was too severe.”
Mommy went still.
“What accident?”
“Private plane.”
“Who identified her?”
“My father.”
“And Jonathan Pierce?”
Damian slowly looked at her.
“Yes.”
The same Jonathan Pierce who had apparently spent years stealing from the Cross family.
The same man who had used Victoria’s identity to hide money.
The same man who had now disappeared.
Mommy whispered, “Open the intercom.”
Damian did.
The woman looked toward the camera.
“Damian?”
“If you’re my mother, tell me something nobody else knows.”
Her face broke.
“You were afraid of thunderstorms until you were twelve.”
“That’s not enough.”
“You hid under the piano in the west sitting room.”
“Pierce knew that.”
“You broke your left wrist when you were nine and lied that you fell from a tree because your father told you not to climb the old water tower.”
Damian went still.
“Anyone could know.”
She looked hurt.
Then she said:
“When you were fourteen, you wanted to run away.”
Damian’s breathing changed.
“You packed a blue backpack.”
Mommy watched him.
“You put twenty-three dollars inside, three granola bars, your grandfather’s pocketknife and a photograph of me.”
Damian’s eyes filled.
“You made it to the front gate.”
She smiled through tears.
“I found you there.”
His voice came out rough.
“What did you say?”
“I said if you still wanted to leave in the morning, I’d drive you myself.”
Damian closed his eyes.
No one else had known.
He opened the gate.
Victoria entered.
When she stepped from the car, Damian remained several feet away.
Neither knew what to do.
Finally she whispered:
“My boy.”
That broke him.
He crossed the distance.
They held each other.
Mommy turned away to give them privacy.
Later, the story came out.
Victoria had not died in the plane crash.
She was supposed to be aboard.
She had discovered Damian’s father and Jonathan Pierce were laundering money through shell companies.
She planned to leave.
Pierce discovered it.
The plane exploded before departure.
One crew member died.
Victoria realized someone had tried to kill her.
Damian’s father told the world she was dead.
“He said it was the only way to protect me,” Victoria explained.
Damian stared.
“You let me believe you were dead for fifteen years.”
“I was told contacting you would put you in danger.”
“I needed you.”
“I know.”
“You had fifteen years.”
Her tears came freely.
“I know.”
Mommy quietly took the girls upstairs.
Some wounds did not need witnesses.
The next morning, Victoria explained the financial records.
Cross Mercantile Consulting had originally been her company.
Pierce stole it after her disappearance.
He used her identity to route money.
“Marcus Vale helped him?” Damian asked.
“At first.”
“And later?”
“They became competitors.”
“For what?”
“Control of your father’s old network.”
Damian looked disgusted.
“I’ve been dismantling that network.”
“That’s why they moved against you.”
Mommy sat nearby.
“So Northstar was funding what remained?”
Victoria nodded.
“And Pierce planned to frame Damian as the person running it.”
“Yes.”
“Why now?”
“Because Damian was getting too close to eliminating the last businesses they depended on.”
Damian thought.
“The merger.”
“Exactly.”
“Northstar needed Cross transportation.”
“And your refusal put them at risk.”
Mommy looked toward Lily.
“So they used his daughter.”
Victoria’s eyes filled.
“I didn’t know until recently.”
“Who told you?”
“Caleb.”
Damian stared.
“You were in contact with him?”
“Yes.”
“That’s why he knew so much.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t he tell me you were alive?”
“Because I asked him not to.”
Damian stood.
“Everyone keeps deciding what I’m allowed to know.”
Victoria flinched.
Mommy watched him walk away.
She followed.
Outside, he stood beside the fountain.
“You okay?”
“No.”
“Reasonable.”
He looked at her.
“You always have a medical answer for everything?”
“Occupational hazard.”
He turned away.
“I spent fifteen years hating my father for surviving when she didn’t.”
Mommy said nothing.
“And now I learn he may have hidden her to save her.”
“That doesn’t erase everything else he did.”
“No.”
“People can do one right thing and a hundred wrong ones.”
He glanced at her.
“Is that supposed to make me feel better?”
“No.”
“Good.”
After a minute he said, “I don’t know how to forgive her.”
“You don’t have to know today.”
“What if I never do?”
“Then at least make the choice after you know the truth.”
He looked toward the house.
“You make complicated things sound simple.”
“They’re not simple.”
“Then why say them that way?”
“Because sometimes we need one next step, not the whole staircase.”
He smiled faintly.
“That was annoyingly wise.”
“I charge by the hour.”
Their moment ended when Marco approached.
“We found Pierce.”
Damian turned.
“Where?”
“Cross Plaza.”
His expression sharpened.
“Our downtown property?”
“Yes.”
“What’s he doing?”
“Scheduled a press conference.”
Mommy stared.
“For what?”
Marco handed Damian a phone.
News outlets were already announcing it.
Jonathan Pierce planned to publicly present evidence of Damian’s alleged involvement in Northstar.
“He’s forcing the narrative,” Damian said.
Victoria stepped outside.
“No.”
Everyone looked at her.
“He’s forcing you to appear.”
Damian frowned.
“Why?”
“Because he needs you at Cross Plaza.”
“For what?”
Victoria’s face tightened.
“That building contains the original Cross Holdings archive.”
Damian understood.
“The records my father kept.”
“Yes.”
“What’s in them?”
“Proof Pierce was stealing before you ever inherited the company.”
Mommy looked at Damian.
“If investigators get that—”
“It destroys his case.”
Victoria nodded.
“And Pierce knows it.”
Damian was already moving.
Marco stopped him.
“It could be a trap.”
“It is a trap.”
Mommy followed.
“Then why go?”
Damian looked at her.
“Because he’s going to destroy the archive.”
Police were contacted.
Federal investigators were contacted.
Nobody moved alone.
By the time Damian arrived at Cross Plaza, reporters filled the sidewalk.
Jonathan Pierce stood behind a podium.
Cameras turned toward Damian.
Pierce smiled.
“My godson.”
Damian stopped twenty feet away.
Pierce continued for the microphones.
“I wish you’d listened.”
Damian’s voice remained calm.
“I wish you’d chosen a better lie.”
Pierce’s smile faded.
Federal agents began moving toward the building.
Then an alarm sounded.
Fire.
Smoke appeared behind the twentieth-floor windows.
The archive floor.
Pierce looked upward.
Damian’s face went cold.
“You burned it.”
Pierce stepped away from the podium.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Victoria appeared from the vehicle behind Damian.
Pierce saw her.
And for the first time, his confidence vanished.
“Hello, Jonathan,” she said.
His face went white.
Cameras captured everything.
Victoria smiled sadly.
“You should look more surprised to see a dead woman.”
Pierce backed away.
Federal agents moved toward him.
Then a black SUV exploded out of the underground garage.
Not with a bomb.
With speed.
It nearly hit the curb before racing into traffic.
Marco shouted:
“Vale!”
Marcus Vale had been inside the building.
And if he had started the fire, he knew exactly what evidence Damian was trying to save.
But before anyone could follow, Mommy looked up at the burning archive floor.
Then she remembered something.
“Damian.”
He turned.
“The records aren’t only there.”
“What?”
“Evelyn’s drive.”
He stared.
“She copied financial ledgers.”
“Yes.”
A slow realization passed across his face.
Pierce had burned the archive too late.
The evidence already existed somewhere else.
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And now Marcus Vale knew it too.
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