Chapter 6: The Longest Day
The car pulls away from the curb smooth and silent, some high-end black SUV with tinted windows and a driver who doesn't speak. Marcus sits in the back beside me, looking sharper than I remember. Tailored suit, hair cut short, that same cocky half grin he's had since we were kids.
"Looking good for a ghost," he says, clapping me on the shoulder.
I don't smile back. "Let's just get this done."
He nods, all business now. We ride in quiet for a while, city lights blurring past. I watch the familiar streets disappear behind us. The neighborhood I've hidden in for five years shrinking in the rearview until it's gone.
We're headed downtown. To the Lockwood Tower. The building that used to be mine. The one Ethan's been playing CEO in while I played dead.
The plan is simple. Midnight entry through a service tunnel Marcus's team secured. Biometrics already spoofed. Security feeds looped. By the time anyone knows I'm there, I'll have what I need. Hard proof of the forged documents, the offshore transfers, the emails between Ethan and Vanessa that lay out every detail of the frame job.
Then tomorrow morning, at the emergency shareholders' meeting Ethan himself called to shore up his failing control, I walk in. Alive. Loaded. Ready to take it all back.
One night. One last risk.
Should be easy.
But my mind isn't on the tower or Ethan or even the revenge that's kept me going all these years.
It's on Bella.
On the way she felt curled against me hours ago. The soft sound she made in her sleep when I kissed her forehead. The note I left that probably feels like a gut punch right now.
Trust me. Wait.
I stare out the window, jaw tight.
Marcus notices. "You tell her yet?"
"No."
He exhales slow. "You sure about bringing her into this? Once you step back into the light, everything changes. Paparazzi. Boardroom wars. Vanessa crawling out of whatever hole she's in. It's gonna be ugly."
"I know."
"And she's… what? A nurse? From a regular family? You really think she's ready for that world?"
I turn to him then, voice low. "She's the only thing that kept me human these five years. The only thing worth any of this. So yeah. I'm sure."
He holds my stare for a second, then nods. "Alright. Just checking."
The rest of the ride is quiet.
We reach the tower just after one a.m. The building looms dark against the sky, all glass and steel and cold power. My name is still etched in the lobby floor, buried under five years of dust and lies.
Marcus's team meets us at the service entrance. Three guys in black, no names, no small talk. We move fast. Down a maintenance corridor, up a freight elevator that opens straight into the executive floor.
My old office is locked, but the keycard Marcus hands me works like it never stopped.
The door swings open.
Everything's different and exactly the same. New desk. New art on the walls. But the view, the city sprawling out below, is still mine.
I go straight to the hidden safe behind the bookshelf. The combination hasn't changed. Ethan's too arrogant to think anyone would ever come looking.
Inside: a slim drive. Exactly where my source said it would be.
I plug it into the laptop Marcus sets up. Files load. Emails. Bank records. Audio clips. A video of Vanessa laughing with Ethan the night before the "fraud" went public, talking about how easy it was to fool me.
Proof. All of it.
I copy everything to an encrypted drive, wipe my traces, and close the safe.
Thirty minutes in and out. Clean.
Marcus checks his watch. "We're ahead of schedule. Want to swing by Ethan's office? Leave him a little welcome gift?"
I shake my head. "Tomorrow's soon enough."
We're back in the SUV by two thirty, heading to the safe house Marcus set up on the outskirts. A nondescript condo, fully stocked, no paper trail.
I shower off the night, change into fresh clothes he left for me. Suit, crisp shirt, shoes that actually fit right. I look in the mirror and almost don't recognize myself. No more worn jeans and tired eyes. The man staring back looks like the one who used to run empires.
But I feel different.
Heavier.
Because now it's real. Tomorrow I walk into that boardroom and blow Ethan's world apart. The media storm will hit by noon. My name will be everywhere again. For the first time in five years, I'll be visible.
And Bella will see it all.
I sit on the edge of the bed in the spare room, phone in hand, the real one, not the burner. I stare at her contact for a long time.
I could call. Explain. Tell her I'm safe, that it's happening, that I'll be back for her by evening.
But I don't.
Because if I hear her voice right now, hurt, confused, maybe angry, I'm not sure I could go through with tomorrow.
So I power it off instead.
I lie back and stare at the ceiling. This one doesn't have cracks.
Sleep doesn't come.
I watch the hours tick by.
Four a.m.
Five.
Six.
Sun starts to rise, painting the sky gold over the city.
I get up, make coffee, pace the floor.
Marcus leaves me alone. He knows.
By eight, I'm in a fresh suit, hair cut short by the barber he brought in, face shaved clean.
I look like Damian Lockwood again.
The real one.
At nine, the car takes me back downtown.
The tower gleams in the morning light.
I step out onto the curb, adjust my cufflinks, and walk through the front doors like I never left.
Security freezes when they see me.
Whispers start immediately.
I don't stop.
Straight to the executive elevator. Up to the top floor.
The boardroom doors are closed, but I can hear voices inside. Ethan's loud and confident, trying to rally the last of his allies.
I pause outside, hand on the handle.
This is it.
Everything I've waited for.
Revenge.
Power.
Freedom.
And her.
I take a breath.
Then I push the doors open.
The room goes dead silent.
Ethan turns, face draining of color.
I meet his eyes and smile, cold, slow, final.
"Hello, brother."
Tomorrow starts now.