Chapter 3 - THE DEAD MAN AT THE DOORDavid stared at Richard Vale like he'd seen a ghost.
Richard calmly removed his gloves.
“You look well.”
David didn't move.
“How?”
Richard smiled.
“You sound exactly like your father.”
That sentence changed everything.
My father.
Not me.
Not my inheritance.
My father.
David stepped backward.
“You can't be here.”
“But I am.”
Margaret appeared at the top of the stairs.
The color disappeared from her face.
“Richard.”
He looked at her.
“Hello, Margaret.”
She gripped the railing.
“You said…”
“I know what I said.”
Richard took one step forward.
“You paid me to disappear.”
My stomach twisted.
David turned toward his mother.
“What is he talking about?”
Margaret didn't answer.
Richard laughed.
“Don't pretend, David.”
He lifted the folder.
“She deserves to know.”
David's voice dropped.
“You don't understand what you've done.”
Richard looked toward the hallway leading to my bedroom.
“Oh, I understand perfectly.”
My blood ran cold.
Had he come for me?
Did he know I was awake?
I couldn't risk moving.
Richard continued.
“Your wife isn't as helpless as you think.”
David froze.
Margaret looked at him.
“What does that mean?”
Richard smiled.
“It means the game is already over.”
David rushed toward him.
Richard pulled a small device from his pocket.
The lights in the house went out.
Every security system shut down.
Cameras.
Phones.
Alarms.
Everything.
Except mine.
My hidden system switched to emergency power.
I watched through the tiny camera.
Richard walked toward the stairs.
David followed.
“Where are you going?”
Richard stopped.
“To see her.”
David grabbed his shoulder.
Richard turned.
The expression on his face was suddenly terrifying.
“Touch me again,” he said, “and I'll release everything.”
David released him.
Richard walked upstairs.
He stopped outside my bedroom.
Then opened the door.
He looked at me.
For several seconds, he said nothing.
I stared back.
He whispered:
“Edward was right.”
My heart slammed against my ribs.
“What?”
“You really are his daughter.”
David appeared behind him.
“Get away from her.”
Richard ignored him.
He walked to my bedside.
“I spent eleven years wondering whether Edward had hidden the truth from everyone.”
He leaned closer.
“Now I know.”
David stepped forward.
“What truth?”
Richard looked at him.
“The one your father killed people to protect.”
Silence.
Margaret appeared in the doorway.
“Richard, stop.”
“No.”
He opened the folder.
Inside were photographs.
Documents.
Bank transfers.
A map.
And one photograph that made my breath catch.
My father.
Standing beside another man.
David's father.
I had never seen the picture.
Richard placed it on my blanket.
“Your father and David's father were partners.”
David stared.
“That isn't possible.”
“They created Blackwell.”
Margaret whispered:
“Richard…”
He continued.
“Blackwell wasn't a foundation.”
He pointed to the documents.
“It was a financial network.”
I stared at the photographs.
“What did they do?”
Richard's eyes darkened.
“They manipulated construction contracts.”
“Government contracts.”
“International projects.”
“Entire cities.”
David looked sick.
“And my father?”
Richard nodded.
“He was the public face.”
“My father built the machine,” he said.
“Yours inherited it.”
Then he looked at me.
“But Edward betrayed them.”
“Why?”
“Because he discovered what the money was funding.”
Silence.
“What?”
Richard answered:
“Political assassinations.”
My blood turned cold.
David backed away.
“That wasn't us.”
Richard laughed.
“You didn't know.”
“No.”
“But your mother did.”
Everyone turned toward Margaret.
She looked at David.
Then me.
Then Richard.
Her face crumpled.
“I never wanted this.”
Richard shook his head.
“You wanted the inheritance.”
Margaret whispered:
“I wanted my son to have what belonged to him.”
I understood.
David hadn't married me because of my money.
He had married me because he believed my father had left something else.
Something much more valuable.
A network.
A secret.
A weapon.
Richard placed another document on my bed.
“This is why they poisoned you.”
I stared at him.
“Because of the money?”
“No.”
He tapped the final page.
“Because of what your father hid inside the company.”
I looked at the page.
At the bottom was my father's signature.
And beneath it, a handwritten sentence.
ONLY MY DAUGHTER CAN OPEN THE VAULT.
I stared at the words.
David's face changed.
Richard whispered:
“And your husband knows exactly where that vault is.”
My eyes moved to David.
He was staring at me.
Not like a husband.
Like a man who had just realized his victim might be the only person who could expose him.
Then his expression hardened.
“You know what?”
He smiled.
“We don't need the vault anymore.”
Richard's eyes narrowed.
“What do you mean?”
David reached into his pocket.
He pulled out a tiny black remote.
Pressed one button.
The house exploded with noise.
Smoke alarms.
Security sirens.
And somewhere downstairs, a gasoline smell flooded the air.
Richard turned pale.
“David…”
David looked at me.
“You should have died tonight.”
May you like
He pressed the button again.
Flames erupted in the hallway.
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