It's about time I did, too. " Daniel stood, and he took the old man's hand, and then he did something that surprised them both. He pulled Walter Prine into an embrace, and the old man held on, and two men who had hated each other for years stood in a cold kitchen in New Jersey and grieved the same woman together for the first time. "She'd be proud of you. " Prine said gruffly into his shoulder. "Both of you. Go on.
Go be with your girl. And Daniel. " He pulled back, wiped his eyes, tried to sound stern, and failed. "Bring her to see me sometime. Her grandfather's been a fool long enough. " Daniel drove home that night with the confetti of his own confession in his jacket pocket, and Roland Cross's entire leverage reduced to nothing. He should have felt triumphant.
He'd won. Cross had nothing now. The one card the man had been holding was torn to pieces on a kitchen table in Jersey, but something nagged at him the whole drive home, because Roland Cross was not a man who played one card. Cross had said, "This isn't over" in that boardroom, and he'd meant it. And a man that patient, that thorough, did not stake everything on a single piece of leverage.
Daniel's phone rang at 9:15 that night. It was Victoria. And the second he heard her voice, he knew. "Daniel. " She was trying to sound controlled and failing. "I need you to come to the tower right now.
Cross called an emergency board session tonight. He's moving for a vote of no confidence. He's going to try to remove me tonight before I can prepare, before I can rally anyone. " Her voice dropped. "And Daniel, he told me on the phone just now, he told me he knows everything about my spine, about the falls, about you being at the penthouse. He said he has documentation.
A shaking breath. How does he have documentation? Who could have possibly And Daniel understood in a single sickening rush what Cross's real play had been all along. The hotel meeting hadn't been about turning Daniel. Cross had never expected Daniel to fold.
The meeting had been a distraction, a few hours to get Daniel out of the building, chasing the forgery to Jersey, while Cross made his real move somewhere else entirely. Victoria, Daniel said slowly, his blood running cold. Where's Dr. Reyes? Where's your medical file? The real one.
The complete one. The one with everything in it. Silence on the line. Victoria, where is your medical file? Dr. Reyes keeps a copy.
In his office. Encrypted secure, but Her voice cracked. Oh God. Reyes. He's been my doctor for 11 years.
He'd never Money makes people do things you'd never believe, Daniel said grimly, already grabbing his keys, already running for the door. Cross didn't need me to betray you. He just needed me to think I was the only leak, so I wouldn't be watching the real one. He's had your whole file for days. He was in the stairwell now, taking the steps two at a time.
How long until the vote? An hour, maybe less. Then listen to me, and listen good, because we've got 1 hour to save everything. Daniel hit the street running. You're not going to hide anymore, Victoria.
That's the trap. That's always been the trap. As long as your spine is a secret, it's a weapon he can hold over you. So, we're going to do the one thing he'll never see coming. He yanked open his car door.
We're going to walk into that boardroom, and you're going to tell them the truth, all of it, before he can. You're going to take the weapon out of his hands by putting it on the table yourself. He started the engine. I'm on my way. Don't you dare go in that room without me.
We walk in together or not at all. He hung up and he drove into the night toward the tower where 11 years of secrets were about to come crashing down, and he prayed to a god he wasn't sure he believed in that 1 hour would be enough. Daniel made it to the tower in 19 minutes, and Victoria was waiting for him in the lobby, standing perfectly straight in a way that cost her. And the moment she saw him, something in her face broke loose with relief. They're gathering upstairs, she said.
Cross has already got them talking. Eleanor called me 2 minutes ago. He's telling them he has proof I've been hiding a debilitating medical condition for years. That I've deceived the board, the shareholders, everyone. Her voice was tight.
It's working, Daniel. Even the ones who defended me last time, because this time he's not making it up. Good, Daniel said. She stared at him. Good, because he can't destroy a secret you've already told.
Daniel took both her hands. They were freezing. Listen to me. We've got about 8 minutes before you walk into that room, so I need you to hear every word. Cross's entire power over you for 11 years has been one thing, the threat of exposure.
As long as your spine is a secret, he owns it. He decides when and how the world finds out, and that means he owns you. He squeezed her hands. So, we take that away. Tonight.
You walk in there and you tell them yourself, before he can. You look every one of those people in the eye and you say, yes, I have a spinal condition from an accident 11 years ago, and here is how it has affected my performance running this company for the last decade, which is to say not at all, because the numbers are right there and they don't lie. They'll say I deceived them. Then let them say it and you answer it. Daniel's voice was fierce and certain.
You say I didn't tell you because I watched what happened to my own reputation the last time someone knew, and I made a decision to let my work speak instead of my diagnosis. And then you ask them one question. He looked her dead in the eye. You ask them in 11 years, has my body ever once failed this company? Has a single deal fallen through a single quarter, come in short, a single promise gone unkept because of my spine?
And the answer is no. It's no, Victoria. You've run this company better broken than Roland Cross could run it whole. So make them say it out loud. Victoria was breathing hard.
And if it doesn't work, if they vote me out anyway, then they vote you out and you walk out of that building with your head up and your dignity intact, and you build something new, and I'll be standing right next to you when you do. Daniel didn't blink. But you will not spend one more day of your life letting a man like Roland Cross hold your own body over your head like a loaded gun. That ends tonight. One way or the other, it ends tonight and you're the one who ends it, not him.