Chapter 145 The mask slips

Chapter 145 The mask slips
Alina

Vivian. The name lodges in my throat like a stone I can't swallow. She's standing in the doorway with the morning light behind her, and for one disorienting second I try to reconcile the woman I know, the soft-spoken assistant who brought me coffee at the gala, who squeezed my hand at the hospital, who cried real tears when Sarah went missing, with whatever Daniel is about to accuse her of being."Vivian," I say, and my voice comes out smaller than I want it to. "What is this?"She doesn't answer right away. She steps further into the cabin, and I notice for the first time that she's not dressed the way I've ever seen her, no cardigan, no soft colors. She's in black, practical, like she dressed for exactly this."I was hoping we wouldn't need to have this conversation," she says. "I was hoping to finish this quietly, the way I've finished everything else."Dominic moves half a step in front of me, instinct rather than calculation, and I feel Sarah's hand find mine, cold and trembling."Finish what, exactly?" Dominic asks. His voice is level, but I know him well enough now to hear the tightly coiled violence underneath it."The work I started six years ago," Vivian says, "when Marcus Reyes came to me with proof of what your father was doing to this city, and your father had him killed for it before he could take that proof anywhere useful."Daniel makes a small, wounded sound beside her, and I understand then, the way you understand something without being told, watching the way his jaw tightens, the way his eyes never leave her face like he's still hoping she'll say something that makes this make sense."You knew my father," Daniel says. "You told me you were protecting his legacy. You told me we were on the same side.""We are," Vivian says, and for the first time her composure cracks, just slightly, just enough that I see something raw underneath the calm. "Everything I've done, I've done to bring this family down the way they should have been brought down years ago. Victor's arrest…Ashford's exposure. All of it, Daniel. All of it was for your father.""By using me," Daniel says. "By using Sarah as bait tonight.""I didn't use Sarah," Vivian says sharply, turning to him. "I protected her. I've been protecting her for weeks, ever since I realized what Ashford's people were planning.""And me?" I ask. My voice shakes now, and I don't try to hide it. "Every call tonight, every cryptic warning, that was you. You let me spend hours terrified out of my mind, not knowing if the people I love were alive or dead, and you're standing here telling me it was protection?"Vivian looks at me, and something shifts in her expression, guilt, maybe, or the closest thing to it she's capable of showing."I needed you to keep moving," she says. "Every time you stopped, every time you settled somewhere and thought you were safe, Ashford's people found you faster. I kept you running because running kept you alive.""That's not your decision to make," Dominic says, low and furious now. "You don't get to manipulate the people I love and call it protection.""I didn't have the luxury of asking permission," Vivian snaps back, and for the first time I hear something almost desperate underneath her control. "You have no idea what I've sacrificed to get this family exposed. What I've given up. What it's cost me to watch Victor sit in a cell knowing he still doesn't understand what actually brought him down.""Then tell us," I say. "Stop hiding behind half-truths and cryptic warehouse texts. Tell us everything, right now, or so help me…""Or what?" Vivian says, and there's a coldness in her voice I've never heard before, not once, in all the months I've known her. "You'll call the police waiting outside? Go ahead. I'm not the one who should worry about them finding me here."Something in the way she says it, quiet, certain, sends ice through my veins like everything I had been scared of was now making itself known and especially in a time like this where I knew that everything was going to end up this way. It was scary when I thought about it but here I was going through my worst fears."What does that mean?" Dominic asks.Vivian's eyes move past him, toward the cabin's back window, toward the tree line beyond it, and for the first time since she walked through that door, I see something that looks almost like fear cross her face."It means we don't have much time," she says. "Because I wasn't the only one following Daniel's trail here tonight and the other person isn't interested in exposing your family's corruption, Dominic. She's interested in making certain none of us live long enough to testify.""Who?" Sarah breathes, her grip tightening painfully on my hand.Vivian opens her mouth to answer, and that's when the first gunshot shatters the cabin's front window, sending glass raining across the floor, and every one of us drops instinctively as Officer Reyes's voice erupts from outside, shouting orders I can't fully process over the sudden ringing in my ears.Dominic's arms are around me before I've even registered moving, pulling me down behind the overturned table, and through the chaos I catch one last glimpse of Vivian, already moving toward the back door, already reaching for something concealed beneath her jacket, her expression utterly transformed from moments ago, sharp now, focused, someone who has clearly done this before."Stay down," Dominic says against my ear, his voice steady despite everything. "Whatever happens, stay down."Another shot rings out, closer this time, and somewhere beyond the shattered window, I hear Officer Reyes screaming for backup, her voice cutting through the pre-dawn quiet like a blade and I knew it was time.