She Laughed at His $500 Bid—Then the Auctioneer Said, “The Factory Is His.”
Chapter 6
At 2:17 in the morning, Ethan woke her.
“Get up.”
Vivian sat upright.
“What happened?”
“Someone’s outside.”
She heard it then.
A car engine.
Idling.
Ethan handed her a coat.
They left through the bathroom window.
Behind the motel, a narrow drainage ditch led toward the highway.
Vivian crawled through mud, her coat catching on a rusted fence.
She almost fell.
Ethan caught her.
For one second they were face to face.
His breath fogged in the cold air.
“Keep moving.”
They reached an abandoned diner two blocks away.
Ethan pulled out his phone.
“No signal.”
Vivian leaned against the brick wall.
“What are we doing?”
“Going back to the factory.”
She stared at him.
“Are you insane?”
“Your father’s key opens something there.”
“Someone searched the building.”
“They searched the offices.”
“What makes you think they didn’t search everything?”
Ethan looked at the brass key.
“Because your father was paranoid.”
That almost made her smile.
Almost.
“My father trusted almost nobody.”
“Exactly.”
They returned before sunrise.
The factory doors were sealed by police tape.
Ethan led her around the rear wall to an old maintenance entrance.
The lock opened with the brass key.
Inside, the air smelled of metal, oil, and rainwater.
Their footsteps echoed through the abandoned production floor.
Machines stood beneath plastic sheets.
Dust covered everything.
Vivian stopped near a wall.
There were children’s drawings pinned behind an old safety board.
She recognized one.
A little girl.
A factory.
A man holding her hand.
Her father had kept it.
She touched the paper.
“You drew this?”
“When I was seven.”
Ethan smiled faintly.
“He kept it here.”
Vivian looked at him.
“You knew him better than I did.”
Ethan’s smile disappeared.
“I knew a version of him you never got to see.”
Then he walked toward a steel staircase.
At the bottom was a locked door.
Above it, faded letters read:
ARCHIVE — AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY
Ethan inserted the key.
The door opened.
Inside sat one red metal box.
Vivian whispered:
“The ledger.”
Ethan reached for it.
A voice behind them said:
“Don’t.”
They turned.
Richard Vale stood in the doorway.
And he was holding a gun.
