Chapter 11 - The list contained thirteen names.Nine were crossed out.
Four remained.
Charles Whitmore.
Elena Vale.
Luca Moretti.
Eleanor Whitmore.
Adrian stood beside them.
“The people who remain are the ones who know where the original Blackwell ledger is.”
Eleanor looked at him.
“Where is it?”
“I don't know.”
Charles laughed bitterly.
“I do.”
Everyone turned.
Charles reached into his jacket.
He pulled out a small brass key.
“The ledger is hidden beneath the Whitmore mausoleum.”
Eleanor stared.
“My grandfather?”
“Yes.”
“Why would he hide it there?”
“Because he wanted the family to kill each other before anyone found it.”
Adrian stepped closer.
“That ledger contains every payment Blackwell ever made.”
“To whom?”
“Judges. Politicians. Bankers. Criminal organizations. Governments.”
Luca's expression hardened.
“If the ledger becomes public, half the people who matter will fall.”
Adrian nodded.
“And the other half will try to kill us.”
They went to the mausoleum before sunrise.
The family cemetery sat behind iron gates.
Fog covered the graves.
Eleanor's mother's name was carved in marble.
She stopped.
Her mother had never been buried there.
The grave had always been empty.
Now Eleanor understood why.
They entered.
Charles found a hidden lock beneath the altar.
He inserted the brass key.
A compartment opened.
Inside was a metal box.
But the box was empty.
Eleanor frowned.
“Someone got here first.”
Adrian looked at Richard's list.
“No.”
He pointed to the inside of the compartment.
A tiny symbol had been carved there.
A blue rose.
Eleanor recognized it.
Her mother's necklace.
“It's a message.”
She touched the symbol.
A mechanism clicked.
The floor moved.
A hidden staircase appeared.
They descended.
The room below was enormous.
Banks of monitors.
Archived documents.
Photographs.
And one chair.
Someone had been sitting there recently.
Eleanor noticed a cup of coffee.
Still warm.
Adrian's face changed.
“He was here.”
“Who?”
“Richard.”
The lights turned on.
A recording began.
Richard appeared on the central screen.
“By the time you see this, you'll have reached the ledger.”
He smiled.
“But you'll find something unexpected.”
A second screen displayed Eleanor's birth records.
Then Luca's.
Then Adrian's.
Three files.
One connection.
Richard spoke.
“Eleanor isn't just Adrian's daughter.”
Eleanor's stomach tightened.
“She carries the last legal bloodline capable of dissolving Blackwell.”
Luca frowned.
“Meaning?”
Richard smiled.
“She can destroy it.”
Adrian's expression hardened.
“But only if she reaches the age of thirty-three.”
Eleanor froze.
“How old am I?”
“Thirty-two.”
Richard continued.
“Which means you're eleven months away.”
Charles whispered:
“He needs to kill her before then.”
Richard shook his head.
“No.”
His eyes became cold.
“He needs her to sign.”
A document appeared on screen.
An ownership transfer.
Eleanor's signature line.
“Once Eleanor transfers her rights voluntarily, Blackwell becomes untouchable.”
Adrian stared.
“And if she refuses?”
Richard smiled.
“Then we kill everyone she loves.”
The screen switched.
Photographs appeared.
Eleanor's office.
Her apartment.
Her favorite café.
Her daily routes.
Luca stared.
“They've been monitoring her for years.”
Richard laughed softly.
“Not monitoring.”
A final photograph appeared.
Eleanor sleeping.
Taken through her bedroom window.
Under it:
TONIGHT.
Eleanor felt cold.
Someone was already inside the mansion.
She turned.
The lights flickered.
A gunshot echoed.
Adrian fell.
Eleanor screamed.
Luca caught him.
Blood spread across his shirt.
Adrian grabbed Eleanor's hand.
“Don't trust…”
His eyes closed.
Eleanor stared.
“Dad?”
No response.
Luca looked toward the darkness.
A silhouette appeared at the end of the tunnel.
A woman.
Holding a gun.
Eleanor recognized her.
May you like
Charlotte.
Her sister.
