All Chapters of THE MAN THEY TRIED TO ERASE: Chapter 91
- Chapter 100
108 chapters
90
The hum of the jet engines filled the cabin like a restless whisper. Outside, the dawn had begun to tear open the clouds, painting the sky in pale streaks of gold. Finn hadn’t slept. He sat upright in his seat, jaw tight, fingers drumming the armrest in rhythmic impatience. Across from him, Clara had dozed off with her head tilted against the window, the glow of the rising sun softening her sharp features.For a brief moment, he studied her. The irony burned quietly in his chest — Ruth’s “daughter,” his half-sister, the one secret that could undo every lie and every justification he’d clung to.He reached into his coat pocket and pulled out the photo — Ruth, Shawn, and his father. He couldn’t stop staring at William Hargrove’s faint smile. There was pride there, arrogance, and the same cold intelligence that had once terrified him as a boy.He remembered that voice — “Power isn’t inherited, Finn. It’s taken.”And now, it seemed, his father was trying to take everything back.When the
91
The sirens still echoed through the bank’s lower halls as Finn and Clara slipped out through a service corridor, the metallic clank of security shutters closing behind them. The air outside was knife-cold; Zurich’s skyline gleamed under a gray, unforgiving sky. Steam curled from Finn’s breath as he dragged Clara into a narrow alley behind the building.“Finn—wait,” she gasped, clutching her side. “We can’t just keep running. He’s tracking every step we take.”Finn leaned against the brick wall, chest heaving. His knuckles were raw and bleeding. “If he’s tracking us, that means he’s afraid. He’s moving too fast—too visible. That’s not his style.”Clara’s eyes darted toward the main street, where the faint glint of black SUVs appeared in the distance. “You said it yourself—he’s unpredictable. If he wants you alive, he’ll keep you cornered until you make a mistake.”Finn turned to her sharply. “Then I’ll make the first move.”“Finn—”But he was already pulling out his phone. The screen w
92
For a moment, the entire room went silent—so quiet that even the faint hum of the chandelier above seemed deafening.Clara stared at her phone, her face drained of all color, eyes wide with disbelief. Finn could barely process what he’d just heard. Every drop of blood in his body seemed to stop moving, frozen in place.“All… transferred?” he asked, his voice low, dangerously calm.Clara’s lips trembled as she scrolled through the report. “Every major share. Callahan Group no longer exists. The stock index… it’s being renamed. Hargrove Global Holdings just filed the merger minutes ago.”William Hargrove leaned back in his chair, his smile widening like a knife slowly unsheathing. “You see? It’s remarkable what one can accomplish with the right timing. While you were playing detective in Zurich, I was signing your legacy into my hands.”Finn took one step forward, his fists clenched so tight that his nails cut into his palms. “You think you’ve won because you moved some numbers around?”
93
Rain still clung to the edges of Finn’s hair when he opened his eyes again.The room around him was small — wooden walls, the faint smell of salt, and the soft creak of a ship rocking against the current. His throat burned when he tried to speak, but a familiar voice reached him first.“You’re awake.”Clara sat on the edge of the narrow bed, her clothes still damp, her expression taut with exhaustion and fear. A bandage wrapped around her arm. “You stopped breathing for a minute back there,” she whispered. “I thought—”Finn sat up slowly, wincing as pain shot through his shoulder. “How long?”“Six hours,” she said quietly. “We’re halfway down the Rhine. The fisherman who found us—he dropped us at a riverside inn before the police arrived.”Finn rubbed his temples, the memory of the villa flashing like a nightmare — William’s cold smile, the forged contract, the fall. He could still feel the echo of the river swallowing him whole.“He took everything,” Finn murmured. “The company, the
94
The wind howled across the ruins of the Callahan estate. Smoke rose in lazy plumes from the scorched garden, the scent of ash mingling with rain. Clara leaned against the broken wall, coughing hard, every breath edged with soot.Finn stood a few feet away, still gripping the encrypted drive like it was the last thing tethering him to sanity. His coat was torn, his hair plastered to his face, and his eyes—dark, furious, and too calm—didn’t blink for a long time.Clara finally caught her breath. “You—” she coughed again, “—you still think we can win this?”Finn didn’t answer immediately. He was watching the wreckage, his jaw clenched so tight that the muscles in his neck strained. “He burned Ruth’s legacy to the ground,” he said quietly. “He didn’t even hesitate. That means he’s running out of moves.”Clara shook her head. “Finn, he just tried to kill us. That doesn’t sound like someone who’s running out of moves—it sounds like someone who’s winning.”Finn turned toward her, rain drippi
95
The storm hadn’t stopped since dawn. Zurich trembled under the weight of thunder and chaos—the streets half-empty, the sky split with flashes of white. Inside the café, the power flickered, and with each pulse of light, Finn could see the reflection of himself in the cracked glass—tired, pale, and far too quiet for a man whose entire life had just been rewritten.Clara sat a few feet away, her laptop glowing dimly against the dark. Her voice was small, careful. “Finn, we need to process this before we do anything. What Ruth said—maybe she was wrong, maybe—”“She wasn’t wrong,” Finn interrupted, his tone flat. “She never was.”Shawn was leaning on the counter, arms crossed, watching Finn with that same unreadable calm. “You believe her that easily?”Finn’s jaw tightened. “She’s the only one who ever told the truth.”“Or,” Shawn said evenly, “she knew exactly what kind of lie would keep you loyal.”Finn turned toward him slowly. “You think this is about loyalty? You think this is some f
96
The night after the breach was unnaturally quiet. No sirens, no wind, no voices. Just the eerie hum of Zurich’s dying grid as emergency lights flickered across the river.Clara hadn’t slept. She couldn’t. She sat on the café floor, her back against the cold wall, her laptop cracked open in front of her. Every few seconds she checked the same screen—blank, no signal. The global network was fractured. Finn was gone.She didn’t cry anymore; the tears had dried hours ago, leaving behind only exhaustion and disbelief. “You stupid, brilliant man…” she whispered, tracing her thumb across the burned edge of the keyboard where he’d last typed.Behind her, Shawn poured himself another glass of whiskey from a half-empty bottle. His shirt was bloodied, his face shadowed with guilt he didn’t bother to hide. “You should stop staring at that screen,” he muttered. “It won’t bring him back.”Clara didn’t look up. “I know.”“But you’re still hoping it will.”“I’m not hoping.” Her voice cracked slightly
97
The first thing Finn noticed inside the system was the silence. Not the absence of sound, but a silence that listened back. It pulsed with electricity—alive, sentient, hostile.He wasn’t standing anywhere; he was floating in an expanse of shimmering code, the architecture of the Hargrove Network stretching infinitely in all directions like a city made of light and memory.Every thought he had translated into motion. Every emotion, into energy. And somewhere, far deeper than he could yet see, he could feel him.William.“Welcome home, Finn.”The voice came from everywhere and nowhere, deep as thunder, smooth as oil. The entire system vibrated when William spoke, and Finn could see data threads twisting into his image—a shadowed figure made of pure code, face half-formed but eyes bright with arrogance.Finn steadied himself. “You survived.”William smiled faintly. “Did you think I’d die so easily? You learned from me, remember? I don’t die—I adapt.”Finn’s digital form flickered; his vo
98
Rain slicked the windows of St. Mary’s Medical Research Wing. The air inside was sterile and humming with machines. A nurse pushed a gurney through the corridor, flanked by two silent technicians in white. On the bed lay a man—pale, breathing shallowly, a small biometric tag attached to his wrist that read F. Hargrove.His heart monitor beeped in slow, deliberate rhythm.At the far end of the corridor, Clara stood frozen, drenched from the storm. Her eyes locked on the man behind the glass panel. For a moment, she couldn’t move. Couldn’t breathe.It had been forty-eight hours since the system rebooted. Forty-eight hours since Finn’s digital presence vanished from the servers. And now… this.“Is it really him?” she whispered.Shawn stood beside her, his hands buried in his pockets, face unreadable. “DNA matches. Neural response’s faint, but consistent. If it’s not him, it’s one hell of an imitation.”Clara stepped closer to the glass. His hair was longer, darker than before. His face t
99
For a moment, Clara forgot how to breathe.The voice that came from Finn’s mouth wasn’t his—it was colder, older, carrying that same metallic resonance she’d once heard echo through the dying network.“Finn?” she whispered, her fingers tightening around his wrist.He blinked once. When his eyes opened again, they gleamed white—pure, luminescent, like two shards of electricity trapped in flesh. “He’s inside,” he said flatly, his tone not quite human. “He found a way back.”“Who—William?”Finn nodded slowly, the movement jerky, like someone adjusting to a new body. “The link… it never broke. The reset didn’t erase him. It rewired him. He’s rebuilding through me.”The hospital lights began to flicker again, one by one, the monitors glitching into lines of green code instead of vital signs. Nurses outside the glass noticed the disturbance and started shouting, but Clara barely heard them.“Finn, listen to me,” she said, grabbing both sides of his face. “You’re stronger than him. You beat