PART 40: TEN MINUTES
Isabella stared through the vault glass.
“Ernesto died at the hospital.”
Patricia shook her head.
“No. I gave him the same medication Dr. Keller used fifteen years ago. It slowed his heartbeat until the monitor could no longer detect it.”
Inside the vault, Keller backed away.
“You’re weak, Ernesto.”
“But I’m not alone.”
Sofia pressed another control.
Speakers activated throughout the estate.
Every word inside the vault was now being transmitted to the police, the media, and federal investigators.
Clara had arranged the broadcast before we arrived.
Keller looked directly into the camera.
“You have nothing.”
Ernesto lifted the black ledger.
“This is the decoy. But you brought us to the real evidence.”
Keller’s expression changed.
Shelves surrounding him contained proof of illegal experiments, identity theft, bribery, and murder.
But evidence was not enough.
Ernesto needed a confession.
“You poisoned me,” he said.
“Elena poured the champagne.”
“You ordered her to do it.”
“She made her choice.”
“You stole her children.”
“I gave them purpose.”
“You murdered Sofia.”
Keller laughed.
“Sofia is standing outside.”
Ernesto stepped closer.
“That woman isn’t Sofia.”
Isabella turned toward the young woman beside the controls.
Her smile vanished.
“Who are you?”
The young woman slowly removed the necklace around her throat.
Beneath it was a surgical scar.
“My name is Lily Keller.”
Keller struck the glass.
“Be quiet!”
Lily was Dr. Keller’s youngest daughter.
Sofia had died thirteen years earlier, exactly as Isabella’s message claimed.
Keller had surgically altered Lily’s face and trained her to imitate Sofia, planning to use her whenever Isabella stopped obeying.
But Lily had secretly contacted Clara and agreed to help trap him.
Isabella covered her mouth as grief overtook her.
“My daughter is really gone?”
Lily’s eyes filled with tears.
“I’m sorry.”
Inside the vault, Keller grabbed Ernesto by the throat.
“You destroyed everything!”
Ernesto drove his shoulder into him.
Both men crashed into the shelves.
Files scattered across the floor.
The timer showed six minutes.
The real Victoria reached for the red button.
“We must destroy the vault before Keller finds the escape tunnel.”
“There’s a tunnel?” Julian asked.
Victoria pointed toward the rear wall.
Keller was already pulling aside a metal cabinet.
Behind it stood a narrow door.
Clara fired at the lock through a small access opening, but missed.
Keller dragged Ernesto toward the tunnel.
Then Isabella seized the gun from the floor and aimed through the opening.
One shot.
Keller collapsed.
Ernesto pulled himself free.
But the timer continued.
Three minutes.
“How do we stop the explosion?” I asked.
Victoria looked at me.
“We cannot.”
“There must be a way.”
“The detonator recognizes only Keller’s heartbeat. It stops if he leaves the vault alive.”
We looked through the glass.
Keller was bleeding heavily but still breathing.
Ernesto tried to lift him.
Keller laughed weakly.
“If you save me, I disappear again.”
Ernesto dragged him toward the door anyway.
The vault unlocked when Keller’s hand touched the scanner.
Police stormed inside and pulled both men out.
The countdown stopped at four seconds.
Keller was handcuffed.
The evidence was secured.
For the first time, it truly seemed finished.
Then the real Victoria looked at Ernesto.
“Tell them what you did.”
Ernesto went still.
Victoria’s voice hardened.
“Keller may have built the experiment—but you funded it.”
Everyone turned toward Ernesto.
He lowered his eyes.
And in that moment, we understood.
The man we had crossed death to save had never been an innocent victim.
He had been Keller’s first partner.
