Chapter 9 - THE SON HE NEVER LOVED
Julian agreed to assist police only after receiving formal protection.
He wore a transmitter beneath his coat.
The plan required him to reach the crash memorial alone.
Officers would follow through the tree line.
I remained at the command vehicle.
Sloane stood beside me.
She had refused to leave the mountain.
“I need to see who he really is,” she said.
“You already know.”
“I need to stop pretending I do not.”
Julian reached the memorial shortly before dawn.
Snow covered the bronze plaque bearing my father’s name.
Thomas stepped from behind the trees with a gun.
“Where is Elena?”
“She did not come.”
Thomas’s face twisted.
“You were supposed to bring her.”
“You said you needed me.”
“I need your access code.”
“Everything has been frozen.”
Thomas aimed the weapon at him.
“You wore Daniel’s ring.”
“You demanded a place in this family.”
“Now earn it.”
Julian stared at the man he had spent his life trying to please.
“You never planned to give me the lodge.”
“I gave you a career.”
“You used me to forge Elena’s signature.”
“You benefited.”
“You told me my mother abandoned me.”
“She was unstable.”
“You made her unstable.”
Thomas stepped closer.
“You are becoming sentimental.”
“That weakness comes from Claire.”
Julian’s face changed.
For the first time, he no longer looked afraid of losing Thomas.
He looked disgusted by him.
“Did you ever love my mother?”
Thomas laughed.
“She was convenient.”
“And me?”
The pause lasted only a second.
It answered everything.
Thomas looked toward the mountain road.
“You were useful.”
Julian closed his eyes.
The confession broke the final bond.
He removed his access badge and dropped it into the snow.
“I am done.”
Thomas fired.
The bullet struck Julian’s side.
Officers moved from the trees.
Thomas ran toward the crash slope.
The snow beneath him cracked.
An unstable cornice separated from the ridge.
Thomas fell and caught the edge of a broken maintenance platform.
Below him was a hundred-foot drop into the ravine.
I left the command vehicle before anyone could stop me.
By the time I reached the platform, deputies had secured ropes.
Thomas hung from one arm.
He looked up at me.
“Help me.”
For twelve years, he had hidden my father’s death.
He had stolen employees’ futures.
He had imprisoned Claire.
He had used Julian.
Part of me wanted the mountain to decide.
Instead, I attached a safety line and helped the deputies pull him up.
Thomas collapsed onto the snow.
“You should have let me fall.”
“No.”
I stood over him.
“You do not get to become another accident.”
“You will answer while everyone is watching.”
Thomas was arrested.
Julian survived surgery.
The bullet missed his major organs.
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When he woke, his first question was not about Sloane or the resort.
He asked whether Claire knew he was alive.
