Chapter 13 - The Last SignatureWe took the documents to federal investigators.
The evidence was enough to trigger an emergency warrant.
But Odette was already gone.
Her private jet had disappeared.
Her accounts were frozen.
Her security team vanished.
And Felix's name was suddenly everywhere.
News channels were calling him a traitor.
A corporate saboteur.
A man who had betrayed his own mother.
The merger had collapsed.
Kingsley Hospitality stock crashed.
But none of it mattered.
Because Lily was still a target.
We moved her to a secure location.
The original Marlowe House trust was placed under judicial protection.
For the first time in seven years, I believed we might actually win.
Then the federal investigator entered the room.
"Ms. Marlowe."
"What happened?"
"We found Odette."
My heart jumped.
"Where?"
"At the Kingsley private estate."
"She's arrested?"
The investigator shook his head.
"She's dead."
Silence.
Felix stood.
"What?"
"She was found in her office."
"How?"
"Gunshot."
I stared at him.
"Suicide?"
"No."
The investigator placed a photograph on the table.
"Someone killed her."
My stomach turned.
"Who?"
"We don't know."
He handed Felix another document.
"She left one final message."
Felix read it.
His face changed.
I took the paper.
One sentence.
I DID NOT ORDER LILY'S DEATH.
Below it:
ASK THE FATHER.
I looked at Felix.
"What father?"
The investigator said:
"That's what we don't know."
Then the door opened.
A man walked in.
He was older.
Gray-haired.
Well dressed.
I had never seen him before.
Felix stood.
"Who are you?"
The man looked at him.
"Your biological father."
The room fell silent.
Felix couldn't move.
I stared at the stranger.
"That's impossible."
He looked at me.
"Not anymore."
He placed a folder on the table.
Inside was a DNA report.
Felix Kingsley.
Daniel Kingsley.
99.98% probability of biological relationship.
Daniel.
The man everyone thought was dead.
But he was standing in front of us.
Alive.
"Why now?" Felix demanded.
Daniel looked toward Lily.
"Because Odette was wrong."
"About what?"
"She thought killing Lily would end the trust."
He looked at me.
"It won't."
"Then what will?"
Daniel's expression changed.
"Only the death of the Marlowe heir."
My blood froze.
"The trust requires Lily's death?"
"No."
He leaned forward.
"It requires the heir to voluntarily renounce it."
Felix frowned.
"She can't legally do that at six."
"Exactly."
I looked at him.
"Then what's the point?"
Daniel smiled.
"Because there is another heir."
I felt the room go cold.
"Who?"
He pointed at me.
"You."
I shook my head.
"I'm not a Marlowe by blood."
"No."
Daniel smiled.
"But you are the original trustee."
He opened the final document.
And there it was.
My signature.
Not forged.
Real.
A trust amendment I had apparently signed twenty years ago.
Impossible.
I was ten years old.
My father had signed it for me.
And the clause stated:
If Sarah Marlowe returns to Marlowe House before Lily turns seven, all control transfers to Sarah personally.
Felix looked at me.
"Your father planned this."
I looked at the signature.
Then at Lily.
Then at Daniel.
A terrible thought entered my mind.
"Where is my father?"
Daniel's expression turned grim.
"Still alive."
I stared.
"Where?"
May you like
He answered:
"In the same place Odette hid Rachel."
