Return to the Fortress

Arthur Vance wasn't dead. He wasn't even in the hospital. He was sitting in a suite at the St. Regis, wearing a silk robe and drinking a twenty-year-old scotch, looking very much like a man who had orchestrated his own resurrection.

Elena stood in the doorway, her hand still gripping the key card, her mind reeling. She had seen him on the gurney. She had seen the gray skin, the open, lifeless eyes.

"Close the door, Elena," he said. His voice wasn't weak or rattling. It was the same baritone that had commanded boardrooms and family dinners for forty years. "You're letting the draft in."

Elena stepped inside and let the door click shut. The room was silent, insulated from the chaos of the city below.

"How?" she whispered.

"Money," Arthur said simply. "And leverage. The paramedics were on the payroll. The coroner is an old friend. It's amazing what you can accomplish when you control the pension fund for half the city's emergency services."

He took a sip of his drink, watching her over the rim of the glass.

"I have to say, I'm impressed. You found the tape. You found the ledger. You even figured out the riddle of the lamp."

"You wanted me to find them," Elena said.

"Of course I did. What good is a legacy if no one is smart enough to claim it?"

"A legacy of murder?"

"A legacy of survival," Arthur corrected. "Halloway wanted me dead. He knew I had the ledger. He knew I was a liability. So I had to become a ghost."

He stood up, walking to the window. He looked down at the city lights, a king surveying his kingdom.

"But ghosts need agents in the living world. Julian is too greedy. Sarah is too emotional. But you, Elena... you have the one thing they lack."

"What's that?"

"Hatred," Arthur said. He turned back to her. "Pure, unadulterated hatred. It's a powerful fuel. It got you out of the fire. It got you past the police. And it brought you here."

"I came here to destroy you," Elena said.

"And yet, here we are. You, me, and the ledger."

He pointed to her pocket.

"Julian thinks he has it," Elena said. "I gave him a decoy."

"Smart girl," Arthur smiled. "But Julian is a distraction. The real threat is Halloway. And as long as he's Governor, neither of us is safe."

He walked to the desk. He picked up a file.

"I have a proposition for you, Elena. We take him down. Together."

"Why would I help you?"

"Because he's your father," Arthur said.

The words hung in the air, heavy and suffocating.

"I know," Elena said. "I saw the photo."

"Then you know he abandoned you," Arthur said. "He abandoned Meredith. He let her rot in prison to protect his career. I was the one who raised you. I was the one who kept you safe."

"You kept us as leverage!" Elena shouted. "You used us as insurance against him!"

"And it worked," Arthur said calmly. "You're alive, aren't you?"

He held out the file.

"This is everything I have on Halloway. The wiretaps. The emails. The bodies. Combine this with the ledger, and he goes away for life. Maybe even death row."

Elena looked at the file. It was thick. Heavy.

"And what do you get out of it?"

"My life back," Arthur said. "My name cleared. And my money."

"The money is gone."

"The money in the accounts is gone," Arthur said. "But the money in the trust... the trust Halloway set up for his bastard children to keep them quiet... that's still there. Untouched."

He smiled.

"Billions, Elena. Split three ways. Or two... if we decide Sarah isn't part of the family anymore."

Elena stared at him. He was offering her the world. Revenge. Wealth. Freedom.

All she had to do was make a deal with the devil.

"What about Mom?" she asked.

Arthur's face hardened. "Meredith made her choices."

"She's innocent."

"Innocence is a luxury we can't afford right now," Arthur said. "She's a liability. Halloway will use her to get to us."

He stepped closer.

"Give me the ledger, Elena. And I'll give you the head of the man who destroyed our family."

Elena reached into her pocket. She felt the cool leather of the book.

She pulled it out.

Arthur's eyes lit up. He reached for it.

But Elena didn't hand it over.

She opened it. To the last page. To the photo of Meredith and Halloway.

And then she ripped it out.

She held the photo over the flame of the candle on the desk.

"What are you doing?" Arthur hissed.

" renegotiating," Elena said. "You want the ledger? You want your life back? Then you're going to do one thing for me first."

"What?"

"You're going to call the police," Elena said. "And you're going to confess. To everything. On live TV."

Arthur laughed. "You're bluffing."

"Am I?"

Elena dropped the photo onto the candle. The face of the Governor began to curl and blacken.

"This photo is the only proof of paternity," Elena said. "Without it, Halloway has no reason to pay the trust. And you have no leverage."

She held the burning photo over the wastebasket.

"Make the call, Arthur. Or watch your billions burn."

Arthur stared at the flame. The greed in his eyes warred with the fear.

He reached for the phone.

But before he could pick it up, the door to the suite burst open.

It wasn't the police. It wasn't Julian.

It was Sarah.

She was soaking wet, her hair matted to her skull. And she was holding a gun.

Not just any gun.

The gun from the crypt. The one Arthur had left for the survivor.

"Put the phone down, Dad," Sarah said. Her voice was dead calm. "We're done making deals."