Page 166 of Kai
“Talk to us,” Kai said. “Maybe we can help.”
“Okay.” I filled my lungs with a breath. “Father had a dream. This dream was important to him. Somehow, the NWO caught wind of this. Someone who knew Father, who was close to him, told Li.”
“Probably his brother, Uncle Arthur,” Thena offered. “He joined the NWO and murdered Father.”
“He’s dead,” Missy pointed out. “So, we can’t corroborate Cece’s conclusions.”
“Let’s assume it’s true for now.” I rolled with my instincts. “Knowing that Father’s dream was his weakness, Li leveraged the dream and blackmailed him into joining the NWO.”
“So far, so good.” Dash inclined his head. “Go on.”
“Father gave them what they wanted, but he was no fool. In the clip, he said he needed time to decide on an ‘itinerary.’” I replayed his exact words in my head. “Behind Li’s back, he made a plan to remove the leverage that tied him to the NWO and ‘restore’ his dream. He also said that once he settled on this plan, ‘the whole damn thing went sideways.’ I think Father fought back. He never shied away from a fight. He always fought back and won.”
“But he didn’t win this time.” Missy deepened her frown. “He lost. His plan ‘went sideways.’”
“Exactly.” The numbness spread to my toes and fingers, but it spared my brain. “Father failed in whatever action he tried to take. They caught him and identified him as a traitor. This is why he was a captive in his own house. This is also how he knew his time was short. He knew they were going to kill him first, and then us.”
“But why kill us?” Thena asked.
“Because Li knew that whatever leverage he held over Father would be important to us,” I theorized. “Li suspected Father had gotten a message out to us telling us the secrets Father learned from the NWO.”
“That would be an existential threat to Li,” Kai pointed out.
“Precisely.” I agreed. “This is why Li wanted the photo box, and also the reason he sent Levine and his crew to search for it. When he didn’t find it, he came after us.”
“That all makes sense.” Dash gestured for me to continue.
“Condemned to death, Father faked a call to me, ostensibly to yell at me, as usual.” I reconstructed the scenarioin my head. “To anyone aware of our family’s dynamics and my terrible relationship with him, the message would sound normal. Father took great care not to activate Li’s surveillance system with his words. Did you all notice he avoided names, places, and any mention of Li and his NWO?”
A look around showed me everyone nodding in agreement.
“Sometime after Father recorded his message and returned the photo box to my room, Li or his minions took him to his New York City office, where his own brother killed him, most likely in a show of loyalty to Li,” I reminded everyone. “But Father’s goal in recording that video was not to warn us of the danger.”
“Then what was it?” Javier asked.
“He wanted to protect whatever ‘leverage’ Li had on him.”
“Why?”
“Because he believed Li would keep this ‘leverage’ in place until we were all dead, just in case he needed it to get to us.”
“Very Machiavellian,” Kai observed.
“Father in a nutshell.” I shrugged. “He also had a second reason to keep us alive. This is why he engaged Dash to protect us.”
“What was the second reason?” Missy asked.
“He wanted us to ‘restore’ his dream.”
“Back to Father’s precious but mysterious dream.” Thena sighed.
“He worked all his life to create the Astor conglomerate.” My thoughts unraveled like a spool, leading me somewhere, and fast. “His dream was for the Astor empire to go on forever…” My voice ebbed. My stomach got colder and colder.
God, I hoped I was wrong.No!I hoped I was right. But if I was right…
Horror washed over me, terror so consuming I couldn’tdraw breath. I didn’t know what was worse, to hope or not to hope.
“She figured it out,” Missy realized.
