Chapter 7 - The Digital Phantom
The small screen of the burner phone displayed a crystal-clear, high-definition video feed of Elena’s bedroom. The figure in black stood motionless beside the unmade bed, the blade of a hunting knife gleaming under the bedside lamp—the very lamp Sean had knocked over earlier that evening.
“Is that… is that inside my house?” Elena whispered, her voice trembling as she stared at the glowing screen in Vance’s hand.
“That is your room, yes,” Vance replied grimly, sliding his thumb across the screen to switch camera angles. The view shifted to the upstairs hallway, showing Sean pacing back and forth outside Amanda’s locked home office, looking frantic and utterly defeated.
“My dad doesn't know someone is in my room,” Elena said, a knot tightening in her stomach. Despite everything, the sight of her father looking so vulnerable stirred a deep, protective instinct within her.
“Your father is trapped in a web he spun himself, Elena,” Vance said, guiding her deeper into the shadows of the alley as another car engine rumbled in the distance. “Years ago, when the real estate market crashed, Sean took out private loans from an offshore conglomerate. Amanda was the broker who arranged it. When your mother found out they used our family home as collateral without her consent, it broke her heart. But the cancer… the cancer is what finally broke her spirit. Or so they wanted everyone to think.”
Elena stopped dead in her tracks, ignoring the rain soaking through her sweater. “What are you saying? Are you saying my mom didn't die of natural causes?”
Vance looked away, his jaw tightening. “I’m saying your mother was scheduled to testify before a federal grand jury the morning she passed away in the hospital. The medical examiner was on Amanda’s payroll.”
The revelation hit Elena like a physical blow. The grief she had carried for weeks suddenly morphed into a cold, blinding rage. She no longer felt like the helpless girl crying in the marbled hallway.
“We are going to that transit station,” Elena said, her voice steady and hard as flint. “Right now.”
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Vance nodded approvingly, pulling a set of car keys from his pocket. They sprinted toward an unmarked sedan parked half a block away. Just as Elena reached for the passenger door handle, the headlights of the black SUV from earlier abruptly flashed on, blinding them as the vehicle roared down the alley straight toward them at high speed.
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