“Shut that off!” Daniel screamed, lunging toward the lobby’s main console.
He was too late. Every guest, guard, and employee had heard it.
“I transferred the money!” Daniel yelled, backing toward the glass revolving doors. “You’re supposed to be at the bottom of the ocean, just like her!”
Vanessa stumbled backward, her arrogant sneer replaced by pure, trembling terror. “Daniel, you said it was just a corporate restructuring… you didn’t say murder!”
“Shut up!” Daniel snapped, pulling a concealed firearm from his designer jacket. The corporate guards froze. He aimed the barrel directly at my bruised face. “The Founder’s Trust defaults to me if you’re gone. I just have to finish the job myself.”
I didn’t flinch. I just smiled through my bleeding lip.
“You always were bad at reading the fine print, cousin,” I said, tapping my gold badge against the scanner one more time.
The lobby speakers chimed.
**OVERRIDE ACCEPTED. INITIATING PROTOCOL LAZARUS.**
The young receptionist in the light blue uniform—the same one who had just gasped at my badge—calmly unclipped his gold nametag. He didn’t look shocked anymore. He looked lethal.
In a terrifying blur of motion, the ‘receptionist’ swept Daniel’s legs, disarmed him, and pinned his throat to the polished marble before Daniel could even pull the trigger.
“You really should vet your new hires,” I whispered, stepping over Daniel’s writhing body. “He’s the driver you paid to kill me. I just paid him triple to fake the crash and deliver your confession on a silver platter.”
Daniel thrashed, his eyes wild with panic. “It doesn’t matter! I still have your mother’s shares!”
“Transferred upon death, Daniel,” a crisp, aristocratic voice echoed from the grand staircase.
The lobby gasped again.
Descending the marble steps was an elegant woman in a tailored black suit. On her wrist gleamed the silver bracelet.
My mother.
“But as you can see,” she said, her icy glare freezing Daniel in place, “I’m very much alive. And you’re trespassing on our property.”