Chapter 8
Within two hours, Sabrina’s story collapsed.
Hospital security footage showed the attack.
Financial records showed Christian’s payments.
Dr. Feld’s confession confirmed the medication manipulation.
Victor Lang’s original will proved Sabrina had no legal authority over Apex Media.
Public opinion turned violently against her.
But I didn’t celebrate.
Desperate people make dangerous choices.
Rebecca filed an emergency court motion freezing Apex assets.
Judge Alan Mercer attempted to block it.
That lasted forty minutes.
Federal investigators arrested him inside his chambers.
His banking records showed Sabrina had paid him more than three million dollars over five years.
Another wall fell.
Then federal agents raided Apex headquarters.
They found private surveillance files on dozens of performers.
Artists had been followed.
Recorded.
Threatened.
Controlled through secret contracts.
Sabrina had built an empire from fear.
One folder had my name on it.
Inside were photographs stretching back fifteen years.
I was nineteen in the oldest.
College.
Graduation.
My father’s funeral.
Christian meeting me for the first time.
Every major moment had been observed.
Gabriel stared at the photographs.
“She planned your relationship with Christian.”
Rebecca nodded.
“Looks that way.”
Christian hadn’t accidentally entered my life.
Sabrina selected him.
But why?
Julia answered.
“To get close to Jonathan’s archive.”
Christian was famous enough to attract me.
Connected enough to access my world.
Manipulable enough for Sabrina to control.
She had been building toward this for years.
Then agents found something stranger.
A list of payments marked GABRIEL STONE.
I turned toward him.
“No.”
Gabriel stared.
“I never took money from Sabrina.”
Rebecca checked the dates.
Payments began three years earlier.
Monthly.
Ten thousand dollars.
“To an account with Gabriel’s name.”
His face hardened.
“That isn’t mine.”
Investigators traced it.
The account had been opened using his stolen identity.
Another setup.
Sabrina was preparing to frame Gabriel too.
“For what?” I asked.
Then Hannah found the answer.
A draft police report.
It accused Gabriel of organizing the attack against me.
Sabrina planned to blame him if Christian became impossible to protect.
Gabriel laughed bitterly.
“She had backups for her backups.”
Julia looked terrified.
“That’s how she survives.”
Then Sabrina finally contacted me.
Not by phone.
Through a live video uploaded to my private email.
She stood somewhere tropical.
Wind moved behind her.
“Hello, little sister.”
I stared at the screen.
“You stole my mother.”
Julia flinched.
Sabrina smiled.
“No. She chose me.”
“That’s what you needed to believe.”
Her expression changed.
I continued.
“You killed Victor.”
“No.”
“We have Feld’s testimony.”
“Feld lies.”
“You forged Victor’s will.”
“I built Apex.”
“It wasn’t yours.”
Her smile disappeared.
“You always get everything.”
There it was.
Not business.
Not money.
The wound underneath everything.
“You had Jonathan.”
“You had Mom.”
“You had the normal childhood.”
“I was six when she disappeared.”
“And everyone still protected you!”
Sabrina screamed.
For a second, the polished woman vanished.
I saw a furious abandoned child.
Then she became calm again.
“You know what I want.”
“The archive.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because your father recorded my real father.”
I froze.
Julia stared at the screen.
“Sabrina…”
“Tell her, Mom.”
Julia went pale.
“Tell Emma who my father was.”
I looked at Julia.
She whispered:
“Damian Vale.”
Christian’s father.
My stomach dropped.
Sabrina was Christian’s half-sister too.
Another hidden family connection.
Christian had nearly married one half-sister while being manipulated against another.
Sabrina laughed.
“Damian abandoned me too.”
Julia started crying.
“He didn’t know about you until later.”
“He knew enough.”
Sabrina wanted the recording proving Damian Vale had participated in the old corruption network.
If released, Christian’s family empire would collapse completely.
Then Sabrina leaned toward the camera.
“Bring me the original recording.”
“No.”
“Then I’ll release something else.”
“What?”
She held up a video file.
My father appeared on the screen.
Standing beside Damian Vale.
Then a third man entered.
Gabriel’s father.
I turned toward Gabriel.
His face went white.
Sabrina smiled.
“You still think Gabriel’s family is innocent?”
The video ended.
Gabriel whispered:
“My father died when I was twelve.”
Julia looked at him.
“No.”
Gabriel turned toward her.
“What?”
She swallowed.
“Your father disappeared.”
Another dead man who might never have died.
Then Hannah received a call.
She listened.
Her expression changed.
“They found him.”
“Who?”
May you like
She looked at Gabriel.
“Your father.”
