Chapter 10 - One Minute to MidnightCharles raised the gun.
Dante moved first.
He stepped between Charles and Beatrice.
“Put it down.”
Charles laughed.
“You still think you're the strongest man in this room.”
“No.”
Dante's voice was calm.
“I know I'm the most patient.”
Charles looked at Alexander.
“Your father is dead.”
Alexander said nothing.
“I killed him.”
Maggie gasped.
Beatrice froze.
Charles continued.
“I was the one who altered the accounts.”
“The $4.8 million.”
“All of it.”
“Why?”
“Because Thomas discovered what I was doing.”
Charles smiled.
“He planned to expose me.”
“So you killed him.”
“Yes.”
Beatrice's hands clenched.
“You let my mother believe she killed him.”
“She did strike him.”
“But he wasn't dead.”
“No.”
Charles looked at Alexander.
“I finished the job.”
Alexander's face changed.
For the first time, his composure cracked.
“You lied to me.”
“I protected you.”
“You used me.”
Charles smiled.
“Of course.”
The clock read 11:59:32.
Beatrice looked at Maggie.
Her sister was trembling.
“Charles,” Beatrice said, “why involve Maggie?”
“Because people are easiest to control through what they love.”
“You don't even know what love is.”
His smile disappeared.
“I know ownership.”
Dante raised his gun.
“Drop yours.”
Charles laughed.
Then Victoria shouted:
“Now!”
The ballroom lights came on.
Every window opened.
Police flooded the room.
Charles spun.
Dante kicked the gun from his hand.
Alexander tackled him.
For one moment, the room exploded into movement.
Shouts.
Footsteps.
Weapons.
Beatrice grabbed Maggie.
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
“Mom?”
“Safe.”
The clock clicked.
11:59:58.
Beatrice looked toward the wall.
Two seconds.
One.
Midnight.
Nothing happened.
Then every light in the estate went out.
A screen descended from the ceiling.
A recording began.
Thomas Wilkes appeared.
Alive.
Younger.
Beatrice stared.
“If you're watching this,” Thomas said, “I am dead.”
The room went silent.
“I built the Wilkes empire to survive without me.”
He paused.
“But I failed.”
A document appeared on screen.
“Tonight, the trust passes to my biological daughter.”
The screen changed.
BEATRICE GALLAGHER.
Gasps filled the room.
Thomas continued.
“Beatrice, I don't know if you'll hate me.”
“I don't know if you'll forgive your mother.”
“But I need you to know this.”
His eyes looked directly into the camera.
“You were never an accident.”
Beatrice's eyes filled with tears.
“You were the reason I wanted to become a better man.”
The video ended.
A lawyer stepped into the room.
“Miss Gallagher?”
Beatrice turned.
He extended a folder.
“The transfer is complete.”
She did not take it.
“What happens to the company?”
The lawyer smiled.
“That depends on you.”
Beatrice looked around.
Charles was in handcuffs.
Alexander stood stunned.
Maggie was alive.
Her mother was crying.
Dante was watching her.
She finally took the folder.
Then she saw one final page.
A handwritten note.
Not from Thomas.
From someone else.
The handwriting was hers.
But she had never written it.
The note said:
YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOU INHERITED.
At the bottom was a symbol.
A black circle.
Beatrice looked at Dante.
“What is this?”
Dante stared at the page.
His face went completely still.
“I've seen that symbol before.”
“Where?”
“On a file in my father's private collection.”
“And?”
“It belonged to an organization called Black Crown.”
Beatrice whispered:
“What's Black Crown?”
Dante looked toward the darkened windows.
“The people who owned your father's secrets.”
Then a shot came from outside.
The lawyer dropped.
May you like
The folder fell open.
And the final page was covered in blood.
