"Where?"
"Basement."
They ran.
Footsteps sounded upstairs.
Someone had entered the house.
They reached the hidden office.
Adrian inserted the second ring into a small metal slot beneath his father's desk.
A compartment opened.
Inside was a USB drive.
And a photograph.
The photograph showed Marcus standing beside a group of men.
Adrian stared at it.
"Marcus."
Victoria nodded.
"He was working for them."
A gunshot echoed upstairs.
Eli flinched.
Adrian took the drive.
"There's only one way out."
They entered an underground tunnel.
Behind them, the hidden office door opened.
Marcus stepped inside.
He looked at the photograph.
Then smiled.
"Your father always knew you would find that."
Adrian's voice came through the tunnel speaker.
"Then he also knew you would betray me."
Marcus laughed.
"You still don't understand."
"What?"
"I didn't betray you."
He held up his hands.
"I betrayed them."
Marcus had spent six years inside the network.
He had been feeding them information.
But most of the information was false.
The photograph had been planted deliberately.
The fake driver had been part of the plan.
The missing ring had been used as bait.
Adrian stared at him.
"Then why let them believe you had access?"
"Because we needed them to move."
"Who is we?"
Marcus looked toward Victoria.
She stepped forward.
"Me."
Adrian was stunned.
Victoria had been working with Marcus.
Not against him.
They had discovered that someone inside Adrian's company was preparing a hostile takeover using forged documents and stolen assets.
But the deeper they investigated, the more they found.
The conspiracy reached into Adrian's family.
And one name appeared repeatedly.
His younger brother.
Daniel.
Adrian's brother had died eight years earlier.
Or so everyone believed.
Marcus handed him a file.
"Your brother is alive."
Adrian opened it.
Photographs.
Bank transfers.
Travel records.
A new identity.
Adrian's hands trembled.
"Why?"
"Because Daniel was the one who stole the original Meridian evidence."
Victoria looked at him.
"And he's the one who hired the people waiting at your gate."
Daniel had always been the charming one.
Adrian had been disciplined.
Daniel had been magnetic.
Adrian built companies.
Daniel built relationships.
Then came the family dispute.
Daniel disappeared after a scandal involving millions of dollars.
Everyone believed he had fled.
But Daniel had not fled.
He had rebuilt himself.
He created a network of companies under different names.
He recruited lawyers, financiers, security contractors and corrupt officials.
His objective was simple.
Take control of Adrian's company.
But there was one obstacle.
The Meridian files.
The files could expose him.
Daniel finally contacted Adrian.
His voice came through an encrypted phone.
"You always were the favorite."
Adrian stared at the screen.
"Why did you fake your death?"
"Because Father wanted me gone."
"Did he?"
"He chose you."
"He chose neither of us."
Daniel laughed.
"That's what you tell yourself."
Adrian's voice hardened.
"You killed people."
"I removed obstacles."
"Samuel?"
"Alive."
"Eli's mother?"
A pause.
Then Daniel said:
"She knew too much."
Adrian's eyes hardened.
"Where are you?"
Daniel smiled.
"At the place where this began."
The old family estate.
They returned to the mansion.
The gate stood open.
No guards.
No vehicles.
No movement.
Eli stopped.
"This is where I saw them."
Adrian looked around.
"What?"
"The ring."
He pointed toward the ground.
A small metallic object lay beneath the hedge.
Samuel's missing ring.
Adrian picked it up.
There was something inside it.
A tiny storage device.
They connected it to a laptop.
A video appeared.
Adrian's father sat behind his desk.