Chapter 7 - THE RED BOXNobody spoke.
Claire placed the red box on the table.
There was a lock.
No key.
No visible combination.
Just a small engraved symbol on the lid.
A circle with three lines through it.
I recognized it.
My grandfather had used the symbol on old documents.
“What is it?”
Claire answered quietly.
“The reason your father is terrified.”
I stared at her.
“Open it.”
“I can't.”
“Why?”
“Your grandfather designed the lock.”
“What does it require?”
“Blood.”
I blinked.
“You're joking.”
“No.”
She pointed to a tiny indentation.
“You need the fingerprint of someone from your grandfather's bloodline.”
I pressed my thumb against it.
Nothing.
Claire tried.
Nothing.
Willa stepped forward.
“Juniper.”
Everyone froze.
“What?”
Willa looked at the box.
“Maybe it was never meant for Ethan.”
I stared at my daughter.
Claire's face changed.
“No.”
“What?”
“She is the heir.”
Juniper was four.
She placed her tiny finger against the scanner.
A red light flashed.
Then green.
The lock clicked.
The lid opened.
Inside was a stack of documents.
A flash drive.
And a photograph.
I picked up the photograph first.
It showed my grandfather holding baby Juniper.
I turned it over.
A handwritten message was there.
To my great-granddaughter.
My hands trembled.
“What the hell?”
Claire picked up the documents.
Her eyes widened.
“These are trust papers.”
“How much?”
She looked at me.
“Enough to destroy your father.”
The flash drive contained encrypted files.
Names.
Accounts.
Property transfers.
Insurance documents.
Medical records.
Then one file caught my attention.
CLAIRE WHITMORE.
I opened it.
A date.
The day of her supposed death.
Then a note.
Subject survived. Retrieval unsuccessful.
I felt sick.
Retrieval.
Not rescue.
Not treatment.
Retrieval.
Someone had tried to take my wife.
Claire whispered, “They weren't trying to kill me.”
I looked at her.
“What were they trying to do?”
“Use me.”
“For what?”
She opened another document.
It showed a list of family members.
My father.
Tabitha.
Me.
Claire.
Juniper.
Beside every name was a status.
ACTIVE.
Except one.
My name.
UNSTABLE VARIABLE.
Then Willa gasped.
“There.”
A line near the bottom.
Remove Ethan if necessary.
My father had authorized it.
I stared at the screen.
Before I could speak, the farmhouse lights turned on.
All of them.
Someone was controlling the electrical system.
A speaker crackled.
My father's voice filled the room.
“Hello, son.”
Juniper screamed.
Then my father's voice continued.
“You have five minutes to bring me the box.”
A pause.
“Or I start telling Juniper exactly what happened to her mother.”
The speaker clicked off.
May you like
Claire stared at me.
“He found us.”
