Chapter 13 - The Mastermind Gloats
Miller snatched the phone from my hand and crushed it under his heavy boot. My connection to Marcus was severed.
"You really thought you could sneak in here?" Miller laughed, shoving me roughly into a leather armchair. "Arthur pays me very well to anticipate garbage like you."
The study door opened, and Arthur Vance walked in. He had momentarily stepped away from the podium, leaving a guest speaker at the mic. He looked at me with sheer, unadulterated contempt.
"I am so tired of you, Claire," Arthur sighed, pouring himself a glass of scotch from the crystal decanter on his desk. "I burned the ledgers. I burned the letter. Yet here you are, a cockroach surviving a nuclear blast."
"You can't kill me, Arthur," I said, forcing my voice to remain steady despite the terror gripping my chest. "The reporters are right outside."
"I don't need to kill you out there," Arthur smiled. "Miller is going to shoot you right here in the study. We’ll tell the press you broke in, completely deranged, and tried to assassinate me. Miller will be a hero. And you will be the crazed, jealous sister who couldn't accept Elena's suicide."
"It wasn't a suicide!" I screamed. "You murdered her! And you locked Julian in a basement like an animal to steal his money!"
Arthur took a slow sip of his scotch. "Of course I did. Julian is weak. He didn't deserve that empire. I built it! I deserved every penny. Elena got in the way, so I removed her. You got in the way, so I framed you. It is the simple nature of power, Claire. The strong take, and the weak die."
He set his glass down. "Finish her, Miller. Make it look like a struggle."
Miller aimed his gun at my chest, his finger tightening on the trigger.
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"Arthur," I said, a slow, grim smile spreading across my face. "You really should pay more attention to your surroundings."
I pointed to the blinking red light on the intricate, expensive intercom system sitting on his desk—the system that connected to the outdoor patio speakers. I had flipped the 'Broadcast All' switch the second before Miller put the gun to my head.
