Beneath the Billionaire Mask - Chapter 8: Chapter 8

They drove north in silence.
Elena could feel the tension bleeding off Adrian like static—every mile carved from the frozen roads only tightening the coil inside him. The key he’d pulled from Evelyn’s lockbox lay between them, gleaming in the dashboard light like it knew what it unlocked would hurt more than heal.
He didn’t speak until they were deep into the woods again, past the last trace of cell reception and civilization. Then, finally:
“She hid it in a train station locker,” Adrian said, voice taut. “Beacon Falls. Abandoned since the derailment ten years ago. Only she and I ever knew the combination.”
“And the key?”
“She left it for me the night before she died.”
Elena turned to him. “Why didn’t you open it sooner?”
Adrian’s jaw clenched. “Because I wasn’t ready to know what she died hiding.”
Beacon Falls – 5:17 AM
The station was a skeleton of its former self—metal tracks swallowed by weeds, roof half-collapsed, and silence stretching in every direction like fog.
Adrian led the way down the crumbling platform, flashlight in hand, every step echoing through the hollow building. Elena followed, adrenaline pulsing with every footfall.
Locker #108.
He stopped in front of it, fit the key into the rusted lock, and turned.
It clicked.
Inside was a slim black envelope and a burner phone wrapped in cloth.
Adrian pulled both out, hands steady.
Elena’s breath caught. “What’s inside?”
He tore the envelope open.
There were only two things inside:
1. A USB drive.
2. A single sheet of paper with five words, handwritten in Evelyn’s unmistakable scrawl:
“Don’t trust the inner circle.”
Adrian’s face paled.
“What does that mean?” Elena whispered.
But before he could answer—the phone in his hand buzzed violently.
They both stared at it.
An untraceable number.
He answered, voice cold. “Blackwood.”
A long pause.
Then a voice Elena didn’t recognize—but would never forget.
“You never did learn when to stay buried, Adrian.”
Elena froze.
Adrian didn’t blink. “Marcus.”
“You found her message, didn’t you? I knew she’d leave you breadcrumbs. I also knew you’d choke on them.”
“You’re slipping,” Adrian said. “Every move you make leaves a trail.”
“That’s the point,” Marcus said, calm. “I want you to follow. Right to the end.”
There was a short, crackling silence.
Then Marcus said:
“The girl’s not the only thing you’ve been lying to.”
And the line went dead.
Ten Minutes Later
Elena stared at the USB drive, heart racing. “We need to know what’s on that.”
Adrian nodded, already pulling out his secured laptop.
The drive loaded quickly—no encryption, no decoy.
Just a folder labeled: “InnerCircle.”
Inside: documents. Names. Transfer receipts. Meeting logs.
And video clips.
Elena clicked the first file.
A grainy surveillance feed of a familiar face.
Julia.
Adrian leaned in. “Your editor?”
Elena’s breath caught. “My best friend.”
The footage showed Julia sitting across from Marcus in a dim bar. The date stamp was two weeks ago.
Julia looked tense. Reluctant. But not surprised.
They were speaking too low for the camera to pick up, but the body language said everything.
At the end of the clip, Marcus slid a file across the table.
Julia took it.
And walked away.
Elena’s stomach dropped.
“No,” she whispered. “No, she wouldn’t—”
Adrian touched her shoulder. “Elena—”
“She wouldn’t,” she said louder, eyes filling with something she didn’t want to name.
But the evidence didn’t lie.
Another file opened—this time, audio only. Julia’s voice, frantic:
“If she finds out I took the file, she’ll never trust me again. But you promised no one would get hurt. Marcus, you promised—”
Elena stopped the recording with a shaking hand.
For a moment, all she could hear was her heartbeat in her ears.
“I trusted her.”
Adrian was silent beside her.
Then: “That’s what Marcus does. He doesn’t just destroy your life. He infects the people inside it.”
Elena wiped her eyes, fierce. “Then we bring this into the light.”
“Not yet,” Adrian said. “If we move too fast, we lose control. We need Julia to talk—to confess. Otherwise it’s just another scandal we can’t stop.”
Elena swallowed hard. “Then we make her talk.”
Meanwhile — Back in the City
Julia King stared at her office wall, hands pressed against her desk.
She’d heard nothing from Elena in three days. Her inbox was flooded. The press was turning. Her reputation—cracking.
And she knew it was only a matter of time before Elena found the video.
Found the truth.
And hated her forever.
A text popped up.
Blocked ID.
“They found the locker. You have one hour to clean your side.”
Julia closed her eyes.
Then opened the drawer where she’d hidden the file Marcus gave her.
And began to burn it.
Beacon Falls – 6:12 AM
The flames on Julia’s side might’ve been real, but on Elena’s end—trust was already ash.
She sat frozen in the passenger seat as Adrian navigated their descent from the woods, the cold morning light sharpening every edge of her thoughts. The silence between them had shifted. No longer weighted by secrets.
Now, it was grief.
“She was the only one who believed in me,” Elena said softly. “When my name got dragged through the mud, when the station fired me—Julia stood by me.”
Adrian’s voice was measured. “That might still be true. Belief doesn’t always mean innocence.”
“But she lied.”
“She tried to protect you. In the worst way.”
Elena swallowed hard. “Marcus has a way of offering what people want most. Power. Protection. Relevance.”
Adrian gave a bitter smile. “Redemption.”
They didn’t speak again until the skyline of New York emerged in the distance, golden and cold.
Midtown Manhattan – 9:00 AM
They entered the back stairwell of a brownstone near Julia’s apartment—an old building Adrian’s network maintained as a safe house. The walls were concrete, the hall unmarked.
Adrian stopped Elena before the door. “Let me ask the first questions. She may talk more freely to me.”
Elena nodded, eyes sharp but unreadable. “Just don’t go soft.”
“I don’t plan to.”
Inside, Julia sat at the table.
She looked different.
Disheveled. Wrung out. Like someone halfway between guilt and desperation.
“Elena,” she whispered when she saw them.
Elena didn’t move.
Adrian shut the door behind them. “We know about the meeting, Julia. The file. The footage.”
Julia’s face crumbled. “I didn’t want to betray her. I was trying to protect her.”
“By feeding her to Marcus?” Adrian’s tone was ice.
Julia’s voice broke. “He said if I didn’t deliver the file, he’d leak what I knew anyway. He made it sound like Elena was already compromised. That he had proof she was working with you.”
“He plays both sides,” Elena said. “And you let him.”
Julia stood. “You think I haven’t paid for it? I’ve been followed, blackmailed—he used me because I was close to you.”
“You still had a choice,” Adrian said flatly.
Silence.
Then Julia reached into her coat and pulled out something wrapped in parchment.
A flash drive. Charred around the edges.
“I burned most of what he gave me,” she said. “But not this. I couldn’t.”
Elena took it with trembling hands. “What’s on it?”
Julia’s gaze flicked to Adrian.
“Proof that Evelyn didn’t just uncover Marcus’s dealings… she tried to cut a deal to protect you.”
Adrian blinked. “What kind of deal?”
Julia hesitated. “She was planning to turn herself in. Leak what she knew to the feds in exchange for immunity—for you. But she never made it to the meeting. Marcus found out.”
Elena’s breath caught.
“That’s why she died,” Julia whispered. “Not for the truth. But for you.”
Adrian sat down slowly, as if the weight finally hit.
“She didn’t tell me,” he murmured.
“She knew you’d stop her,” Julia said. “Or worse—go down with her.”
Elena met Julia’s eyes. “Why are you telling us now?”
“Because whatever Marcus is planning next—it’s bigger than we thought. The video of Evelyn? It wasn’t just to rattle you. He’s going to release it publicly.”
Adrian’s head snapped up.
“When?”
Julia’s voice was almost a whisper.
“Tonight.”
Downtown Manhattan – 10:34 AM
Marcus stood at the press staging area beneath a luxury high-rise. Reporters were already gathering. Cameras were being set. And in his pocket, a drive waited—containing the heavily edited footage of Evelyn Blackwood’s final hours, doctored to suggest betrayal, not bravery.
He checked his watch.
Seven hours to go.
And Adrian Blackwood would never recover from what came next.
Unless…
Marcus turned slowly to his aide. “Leak a copy of the footage to a fringe news site. Let it go viral before the official release. Make it messy.”
“Won’t that taint the impact?”
Marcus smiled coldly.
“No. It’ll make the fall look like justice.”
Adrian’s Safehouse — 11:12 AM
Adrian stood by the window, jaw tight, watching the street two stories below. Marcus’s move wasn’t just tactical—it was personal. And public.
“Tonight,” he repeated under his breath. “He’s releasing a manipulated execution.”
Behind him, Elena studied the newly recovered flash drive from Julia—its edge scorched, but the metal still intact.
She plugged it into Adrian’s encrypted laptop.
A single file appeared.
evelyn_finalvoice.m4a
She clicked it.
Nothing.
Then a password prompt blinked on-screen.
“Of course,” Adrian muttered. “She always protected her recordings.”
“What would she use?”
He stared at the screen, then down at the silver key still resting on the table from the Beacon Falls locker.
And he whispered, “Ouroboros.”
Elena’s brows lifted. “The serpent eating its own tail?”
“She was obsessed with it near the end,” he said. “Said it was the only symbol honest about power and destruction.”
He typed it in.
The file opened.
And Evelyn’s voice—low, raw, resolute—filled the room.
“If you’re hearing this, it means I failed. Or maybe… it means I finally did the right thing.”
Elena froze.
Adrian gripped the table.
“Marcus was never just manipulating money. He’s been building something—offshore contracts, black ops teams, paid erasures. I traced them to an address in Brooklyn. But if I expose him, Adrian goes down too. They’ll call it conspiracy. They’ll say I funded it all. Because my name’s on the documents. Because I was stupid enough to trust him once.”
She exhaled shakily.
“So this is my choice. I give myself up… I tell them I acted alone. Maybe it’ll clear Adrian’s name. Maybe not. But if anything happens to me—don’t trust the foundation’s inner circle. Someone in it is still feeding Marcus intel.”
The recording paused.
A click. Then Evelyn’s voice again, softer.
“Tell Adrian… I’m sorry I couldn’t save him.”
The file ended.
Adrian sat perfectly still, eyes hollow.
Elena touched his arm. “Adrian…”
But he shook his head once. Not yet.
Then—his burner phone buzzed.
A message. No number.
You still have time to surrender your legacy. Or I burn it for you.
Adrian looked up, the fire returning to his gaze.
“He wants me to disappear,” he said quietly. “To walk away, to vanish into the smoke so the world only remembers his version of the story.”
He turned to Elena.
“But we’re not walking away.”