Chapter 14 - The Echoing Crest
The executive suite fell into a dead, heavy stillness. Outside the window, the dark waters of Boston Harbor reflected the flickering red lights of passing ships.
Ethan took the leather folder from Marcus’s hands, his hazel eyes scanning the old maritime manifest line by line.
The signature at the bottom of the document was written in bold, dark black ink—the unmistakable, sweeping handwriting of Victor Vance Senior, the founder of the family empire.
Elena stood beside Ethan, her brown eyes wide as she read the dates listed on the manifest.
Elena: "Ethan... if your father is alive, then Arthur Sterling and Julian weren't running the Chicago syndicate on their own."
Ethan slowly raised his head, his face settling into a mask of stone-cold authority.
Ethan: "They were taking orders from the top."
Marcus swiped the screen on his tablet, bringing up a encrypted audio file recovered from the Bahamian server.
Marcus: "This audio message was recorded forty-eight hours ago, Boss. Automatically sent to Arthur Sterling's secondary receiver."
Ethan pressed play on the tablet.
A deep, gravelly voice echoed from the small speaker—a voice that Ethan hadn't heard in eleven long years, sounding cold, powerful, and utterly devoid of remorse:
"Ethan... if you are listening to this message, it means Arthur has failed, and you have taken the master key from Claire's sister. You always were my most stubborn son."
The voice paused, a short, chilling chuckle echoing through the quiet office.
"You think you've secured Noah's inheritance... but you've only unlocked the first gate. The Vance tech patents don't belong to a corporation, Ethan. They belong to a project your grandfather started in 1974."
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Ethan gripped the edge of the desk, his knuckles turning white as he listened to his father's ghost speaking from across the ocean.
Voice over radio: "Bring the boy to the island, Ethan. Bring his aunt with you. Because if you don't arrive by the first of the month... I’ll release the secondary protocols, and wipe your corporate network from the face of the Earth."
