Elise Ward refused to trade herself for another hostage. She and Alexander Vale returned to a marble law office moments after the divorce hearing before midnight, using the key from the ambush to enter the archive their enemy had tried to keep buried.
Inside were recordings, legal files, and a wall tracking Elise Ward's life from childhood to the previous night. Someone had planned every loss with patient precision. At the center, a line connected her to Alexander Vale, then continued toward a sealed record neither of them had seen.
Alexander Vale reached it first. The evidence proved the truth neither of them was ready to trust: Alexander is not competing for the inheritance—he is investigating the murder hidden inside the will. It also showed why he had been tied to the conspiracy long before he met Elise Ward.
Footsteps filled the corridor. Alexander Vale reached for his weapon, but Elise Ward stopped him. Running had brought her here. This time she would make the person hunting them speak.
The archive door opened. The intruder removed a hood, and Elise Ward's breath caught. The face belonged to someone whose funeral she had attended—and the hostage video had been playing from an empty room.
“You finally found the truth,” the stranger said. “Now choose: expose it and destroy Alexander Vale, or bury it and become the woman who betrays him.”
Elise Ward took Alexander Vale's hand instead.
The stranger smiled and pressed a remote. Behind them, the archive began counting down from ten.