Chapter 7 - The ChaseWe ran.
Adrian grabbed my arm and pulled me between the graves.
Behind us, doors slammed.
Men shouted.
Flashlights swept through the fog.
“Who are they?”
“People who work for your grandfather.”
“My grandfather is dead.”
Adrian didn't answer.
That frightened me.
We reached an abandoned maintenance building.
Adrian kicked the door open.
Inside was a narrow staircase leading underground.
“You knew this was here?”
“Yes.”
We descended.
At the bottom was a tunnel.
“How does a cemetery have a tunnel?”
“It was built before the cemetery existed.”
The tunnel opened into a concrete room.
A laptop sat on a table.
Adrian switched it on.
“There's one way to stop the transfer.”
“How?”
“We need the original trust key.”
“Where is it?”
“Your father's study.”
I laughed bitterly.
“That's crawling with police.”
Adrian looked at me.
“You're forgetting something.”
“What?”
“You own the house.”
I stared.
“What?”
“Check the deed.”
I pulled up the property records.
My name appeared as the legal beneficial owner of Blackwood Manor.
Transfer date:
My eighteenth birthday.
I felt a strange chill.
“They transferred the house to me.”
“They had to.”
“Why?”
“Because the trust required an asset to remain in your name.”
“So they were using my house to hide the trust.”
“Yes.”
The laptop beeped.
TRANSFER COMPLETE.
$12 million gone.
I stared at the screen.
“It's too late.”
“No.”
Adrian opened another file.
“They moved the money.”
“Where?”
“A private vault.”
“In whose name?”
He turned the screen toward me.
I read it.
THORNE FAMILY FOUNDATION.
I laughed.
“The foundation is theirs.”
“Not anymore.”
He typed something.
A second document appeared.
The foundation had one controlling beneficiary.
Me.
I stared at him.
“How?”
“Your grandfather anticipated betrayal.”
Then the screen changed.
CONTROL TRANSFER REQUIRED.
“What's the password?”
Adrian looked at me.
“Your mother's maiden name.”
I typed it.
Wrong.
Second attempt.
Wrong.
Third.
Locked.
Then I remembered something.
The phrase my mother whispered whenever she thought I was asleep as a child.
A name.
“Eleanor.”
I typed it.
The system unlocked.
A massive archive appeared.
Thousands of files.
Adrian's eyes widened.
“What?”
“I've never seen this.”
The first folder was labeled:
THORNE FAMILY OPERATIONS.
The second:
SUBJECT 47.
The third:
KYLE.
I opened Kyle's file.
The first page contained a psychiatric evaluation.
The second contained school records.
The third was a photograph.
Kyle at twelve years old.
Standing beside Dad.
Behind them was a whiteboard.
On it were handwritten instructions.
KEEP HIM DEPENDENT.
BREAK HIS CONFIDENCE.
EMPTY HIS ACCOUNTS.
NEVER LET HIM LEAVE.
Then one final line:
WHEN HE BECOMES USELESS, ELIMINATE HIM.
My hands went cold.
Adrian stared at the screen.
“Now you understand.”
I did.
They hadn't merely mistreated me.
They had engineered my entire life.
And then another file opened automatically.
It contained one sentence.
EXECUTION DATE: SEPTEMBER 14.
I checked the calendar.
May you like
September 13.
Tomorrow.
