I selected it.
**TRANSFER TO FEDERAL CUSTODY.**
Russell exhaled.
Hayes shouted, “Emily, don’t!”
I pressed CONFIRM.
The server room filled with mechanical clicks.
Hayes lunged.
Daniel tackled him.
The transfer began.
1%.
7%.
12%.
Then the power went out.
Complete darkness.
Margaret whispered, “That wasn’t supposed to happen.”
A red emergency light flickered.
The transfer froze.
18%.
Then a phone rang.
Russell’s phone.
He looked at the screen.
His face changed.
“Rebecca.”
He answered.
“Where are you?”
Her voice came through the speaker.
“You should have
stayed dead.”
Russell’s eyes narrowed.
“You cut the power.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Rebecca laughed.
“Because Thomas was never the one in charge.”
Hayes looked up.
For the first time, he seemed frightened.
Rebecca continued.
“Tell Emily to ask Margaret what she did with the original files.”
Margaret went still.
“Rebecca—”
“And ask her,” Rebecca said, “why Eleanor really drove off that bridge.”
Then the call ended.
Russell slowly turned toward Margaret.
My mother.
The woman who had already returned from the dead once.
And for the first time since seeing her alive, I wondered if she had come back not to save us—
but to finish something.
—
# PART 5 — **MY MOTHER’S FINAL LIE**
“Tell me she’s lying.”
My voice sounded small in the server room.
Margaret stared at the dead screen.
“She’s twisting the truth.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
No answer.
Russell leaned against the wall.
“Margaret.”
She closed her
eyes.
Then she spoke.
“I did have the original files.”
Claire’s expression hardened.
“And my mother?”
Margaret looked at her.
“Eleanor knew I had copied Russell’s archive.”
Russell whispered, “You told me you only took financial records.”
“I lied.”
“What did you take?”
“Everything.”
His face went pale.
Margaret continued.
“Eleanor wanted to expose it. I wanted to disappear.”
Claire took a step forward.
“So you fought?”
“Yes.”
“Inside the car?”
“Yes.”
“What happened?”
Margaret’s eyes filled.
“Eleanor said if we survived Thomas following us, she would go straight to the police.”
Claire waited.
Margaret whispered, “I told her that would get us killed.”
