Chapter 83 Finish The War I Started
Richard looked different in the gray morning light, his coat was wrinkled and his shoulders lacked the rigid posture of a man who owned the city, and he walked up the stairs with a slow, heavy pace that made him look human for the first time in twenty years.
He didn't ask for permission to enter, he just walked past Alex and headed straight for the library, and the three of them followed him into the room where the servers were still humming with the evidence of his crimes.
"You should have stayed in the car, Richard, because the police are already on their way and I have enough data on these drives to make sure you never see the inside of a Harrington building again," Alex said, his voice was a low, steady line of steel as he closed the library door.
"The police are busy with the fire at the studio, Alex, and the data you have is just a collection of numbers and names that I have already spent thirty years learning how to explain away," Richard replied, he didn't sit down, he just stood by the fireplace and looked at the photo of the thin boy on the monitor screen.
"We found the 1974 file, Richard, we know about St. Jude's and we know about the cellar," Sarah said, she sat behind the desk and watched him with a smart, observant silence.
"Then you know more than most, but you still don't know the hunger that comes from having a name that means nothing and a stomach that is always empty," Richard said, he turned to face them.
"I grew up in a world where lack was a physical weight, where the only thing that kept you from being erased was the power you could take from the people who thought they were better than you."
"So you became a monster of industry to prove you weren't that boy anymore?" Mark asked from the corner, his voice was quiet but it carried a sharp edge of curiosity.
"I became a monster because the world is a predatory place, and if you aren't the one holding the leash, you are the one wearing the collar," Richard told him, he looked at Sarah and his gaze was cold but it held a flicker of something that looked like respect.
"I viewed you as a threat, Sarah, not because of your talent, but because you were an outsider who didn't fear the name I spent my life building, and to a man who only knows safety through control, that makes you a target."
"You forged a loan and you tried to destroy my reputation because you were scared of a designer from the suburbs?" Sarah asked, her voice was flat and she didn't offer him any comfort.
"I forged the loan because I wanted to see if Alex would choose the woman or the empire, and I pushed him to the breaking point because I wanted a successor who was strong enough to survive a world that once tried to kill me," Richard said, he walked toward the desk and looked Alex in the eye, and the authoritative streak in his voice was the exact same one that drew Sarah to Alex in private.
"I didn't want a son who followed orders, I wanted a man who could take the crown by force, because that is the only way it stays on your head."
"I don't want your crown, and I don't want the life you built on the backs of people you crushed to stay safe," Alex said, he stepped into his father's space and he didn't flinch.
"You think this was a test, but it was a betrayal, and you have lost the only people who actually knew who you were."
"Perhaps, but I am not the one you should be worried about right now," Richard said, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a small, brass key with a plastic tag attached to it.
"I didn't come here to apologize for the past, I came here because Helena has gone rogue, and she has realized that I was always going to pick you over her in the end."
"What did she do?" Sarah asked, her hands tightening on the edge of the desk.
"She has the original Vane trust documents, the ones your mother signed to give you the coastal property and the maternal liquid assets, and she is planning to burn them at the city transit hub in an hour," Richard said, he held the key out toward Alex, his hand was steady but his face was pale.
"She has been moving money into offshore accounts for weeks, and she thinks if she destroys the Vane connection, she can force a partial liquidation of the Harrington Group before the audit begins."
"Why are you telling us this? Why aren't you calling your security team?" Mark asked, looking at the key with a look of deep suspicion.
"Because my security team belongs to the company, and the company currently belongs to the person who holds the chair, which is Helena until the board meets at noon," Richard told him, he looked at his son with a look of raw truth.
"She is the monster I created, Alex, and she is much colder than I ever was because she never knew the lack, she only knows the greed."
"Is this another game? Is there a bomb in the locker or a team of lawyers waiting to arrest us for theft?" Alex asked, he didn't reach for the key yet, he just watched his father's face for any sign of a lie.
"There are no lawyers, and there are no bombs, there is only the choice you have to make right now," Richard said, he set the key down on the mahogany desk and backed away toward the door.
"If those papers burn, the Vane estate is gone, and Sarah’s firm will be tied up in litigation for the next decade, and Helena will walk away with enough money to buy her way out of any courtroom in London."
"Why help us now?" Sarah asked, her voice was a whisper in the quiet library.
"Because I want to see if the man you built is actually strong enough to finish the war I started," Richard replied, he opened the door and walked out of the library without looking back, leaving the sound of his footsteps echoing on the marble as he headed back to the silver sedan.
Alex looked at the key and then at Sarah.
"We have to go," Mark said, he stood up and grabbed his jacket.
"It’s a locker at the city transit hub, the main station downtown," Alex said, he picked up the key and felt the cold metal against his palm.
"It’s a suicide mission, Helena will have her own team there," Sarah said, she stood up and walked to him, her hand resting on his chest.
"Then we go in heavy, and we don't leave until those papers are in our hands," Alex told her, and he looked at the monitor one last time at the boy in the field before he turned off the screen.