Chapter 17 - THE FINAL CONFRONTATION
I rushed back down the steps and opened the panel.
Sophie looked up as I stepped inside.
“Daddy?”
I knelt beside her.
“Sweetheart… I need to borrow your locket for just a moment. May I?”
Sophie unclasped it carefully and placed it in my hand.
“Be careful, Daddy. It’s very special.”
“I will be gentle,” I promised.
I opened it. Between the two photographs, tucked neatly into a tiny hollow space behind them, lay a microchip.
Claire had hidden the most powerful evidence of all… inside the gift she left her daughter.
I carried it upstairs.
The Guardian examined it gravely.
“She planned everything. Every possibility. She knew Marcus might steal copies. So she kept the most important proof safe… where no one would ever think to look.”
“We broadcast it,” I said. “Everywhere. Tonight.”
“Not yet,” the Guardian said. “We lure Marcus back. We make him believe he has won. And then… we destroy him with Claire’s own words.”
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We set the trap at dawn.
The Guardian sent word through his remaining loyal contacts: Surrender. Meet at the warehouse at midnight. Bring nothing. Take Sophie. Leave in peace.
