Buried Secrets

Alexandra Visser has always known that death is an art form.

Fifteen years ago, she orchestrated her own death with the precision of a maestro. A fake corpse with manipulated DNA, carefully planted evidence, even precise calculations on how the ice in the vault would preserve her “remains”. All for one purpose - to destroy the Red Lotus from within.

Now, standing in the dimly lit warehouse with a gun pointed at Victoria van der Wolff's head, he could almost feel his maestro-piece climaxing.

“Put the gun down, Max,” he ordered without taking his eyes off Vic. “Unless you want this forensic darling of yours to join 'my body' in the safe.”

Max didn't move. His hand was steady on the Glock, his eyes searching for openings - a habit they'd learned together at the secret Red Lotus academy all those years ago. “What exactly are you planning, Alex?”

“You still don't understand?” Alexandra laughed softly. “All this time you thought you were protecting me, dear sister. But actually, I was the one protecting you. From the truth that would destroy you.”

Stefan, still kneeling with his hands raised, looked at Alexandra with a mixture of shock and... understanding. “The credit card. In the safe. Not your father's.”

“Clever as ever, my first love.” Alexandra smiled. “Yes, a credit card with transactions proving that Willem Visser, our honorable father, was never involved in money laundering. He was framed. By people we trusted.”

Vic, with an astonishing calmness for someone at gunpoint, finally spoke. “My father. Professor Maharani.”

“Exactly.” Alexandra pressed the gun harder. “Your brilliant father was the real mastermind behind the Red Lotus. Willem Visser found him, and he must be silenced. But there's one thing your father didn't count on.”

“What?” asked Vic, though from the tone of his voice, he already knew the answer.

“That his favorite daughter would fall in love with the son of the target of his operation.” Alexandra glanced at Stefan. “Ironic, isn't it? You're trying to get revenge on Vic for a crime his own father actually committed.”

Max took a step forward. “Alex, stop this. We can-”

“Shut up!” Alexandra fired into the side of Max's head, the bullet grazing his pillar. “Fifteen years I've been hiding, building my own web, waiting for the right moment. And now, when all the evidence is in my hands, you want me to stop?”

“What evidence?” Vic asked, his brain spinning fast for connections.

“The flash drive in my fake corpse was just a decoy,” Alexandra smiled. “The real proof is in the chip I planted in that credit card. All the transfers, all the secret communications, even...” she glanced at Max, ”...the true identity of my dear twin sister.”

Max paled. “Alex, don't.”

“Maximilian Reeves never existed,” Alexandra continued. “His real name is Marcus Maharani. The eldest son of Professor Maharani who was sent to oversee the Red Lotus operation. Your half-brother, Victoria.”

Vic's world seemed to collapse for the second time that night. He stared at Max - no, Marcus - looking for denial. But the man's eyes, eyes so similar to his own, implied the truth.

“Well, what a touching family reunion,” a new voice broke the tension. In the doorway, a tall figure in a gray Tom Ford suit stood with natural elegance. Professor Maharani, still as handsome and charismatic as she was fifteen years ago, smiled at her separated children.

“Unfortunately,” he took out a small remote from his coat pocket, ”I cannot allow our family secrets to be spread.”

Before anyone could react, the warehouse wall exploded. Smoke and debris flew. In the chaos, Vic felt Stefan pull him down, his body hitting the floor hard.

Successive gunshots split the air. Vic saw Alexandra running towards the window, with Max chasing behind her. Professor Maharani disappeared in the smoke, leaving behind the mess she had created.

“Vic!” Stefan pulled him to his feet. “We have to go. Now!”

But Vic didn't move. His eyes were glued to the credit card lying on the floor - it had fallen out of Alexandra's hand in the chaos. With a quick movement, he picked it up.

“Do you trust me?” Stefan took her hand.

Vic stared at the man he thought had betrayed him just hours ago. The man who had fallen in love with him in the midst of his revenge plan. “I don't have any other choice, do I?”

Stefan smiled - the smile that always made him fall in love. “We always have a choice, schatje. But now, we have to make the right choice.”

They ran through the burning hallway, following the evacuation route that Stefan had memorized. Behind them, the sound of police sirens began to approach.

“Alexandra was right about one thing,” Vic said as he ran. “Death is an art form. And apparently, we're all its canvases.”

Stefan tightened his grip. “Then it's time to paint our own ending.”

On the roof of the warehouse, a black helicopter waited with its propellers spinning. But before they could reach it, Alexandra's figure appeared from behind the chimney.

“You're amazing, Vic,” she smiled, gun drawn. “No wonder Stefan fell in love with you. But unfortunately,” she pointed the gun at Stefan, ”I don't like sharing my toys.”

Everything happened in a split second.

The sound of a gunshot. Stefan's body was pushed back. Blood seeped down his white Ermenegildo Zegna shirt.

And Vic, the “Calculated Killer”, finds himself in a position he never expected - having to choose between saving the man who loves him or pursuing the truth about his own family.

But maybe, as Stefan says, he doesn't have to choose. Maybe it's time to create a third option.

Because if there's one thing she's learned as a financial forensic, it's that even in every perfect system, there are always loopholes.

And Alexandra Visser had just given him the opening he needed.

Vic gripped the credit card tightly in his hand, feeling the hidden chip inside. Amidst the roar of the helicopter's propellers and the screams from below, his brain was working at the speed of only a top-class financial forensic.

The chip. The way Alexandra mentioned it. There was something off about it.

“You know what's funny, Alexandra?” Vic shouted against the wind, slowly moving closer to the injured Stefan. “For someone who spent fifteen years planning this, you made a fatal mistake.”

Alexandra raised an eyebrow. “Oh yeah? And what was that?”

“You lied about this chip.” Vic held up the credit card. “Credit card chip technology fifteen years ago didn't allow for as much data storage as you claim. Not even by today's standards.”

For a split second, Alexandra's mask of confidence cracked. “You don't know what-”

“I know exactly,” Vic cut in. “Because I designed the encryption system for modern credit card chips three years ago. A secret project with De Nederlandsche Bank that even Stefan didn't know about.”

Stefan, still pressing on his wound, looked at Vic with a mixture of pain and admiration. “Schatje... you never cease to surprise me.”