CHAPTER 6 — THE OTHER HEIR
No one moved.
Sophie stood inside the barn doorway with her weapon aimed at Charles’s chest.
She appeared to be about twenty-five, perhaps twenty-six.
Too old to be Ethan’s daughter.
Yet the resemblance was undeniable.
The shape of her eyes.
The line of her jaw.
The slight tilt of her head when she was angry.
My father took a step forward.
“You said you were Ethan’s daughter.”
Sophie did not look away from Charles.
“I said that’s what I was told.”
“By whom?”
“Grant Walker.”
Charles’s expression hardened.
“Then everything you know is a lie.”
Sophie tightened her grip.
“You disappeared after Ethan died. You were seen near the crash site. Your blood was found in his car.”
Rachel moved slightly to the side.
“Sophie, lower the weapon.”
“You know me?”
“I know who you are.”
That shook Sophie.
“How?”
Rachel opened her tablet.
“Because your name appears in Charles’s protected files.”
Sophie’s eyes flickered toward the screen.
Charles spoke calmly.
“You are not Ethan’s daughter.”
Her face tightened.
“Stop.”
“You were born six years before Ethan.”
“Stop.”
“You are Grant’s daughter.”
The gun trembled.
“That’s not true.”
“Your mother was a clinical researcher named Laura Hayes. Grant had an affair with her. When Laura discovered his illegal testing program, she threatened to expose him.”
Sophie’s breathing changed.
“Grant said my mother died giving birth.”
“She died when you were four.”
Sophie looked as if the floor had shifted beneath her.
Charles continued.
“I found you living with one of Grant’s employees. I arranged for a foster family in Indiana.”
“You abandoned me.”
“I hid you.”
“You sent birthday cards with no name.”
“I couldn’t risk contact.”
“Then why did Grant find me?”
Charles looked toward Rachel.
She answered.
“Because three years ago, someone accessed your sealed adoption records.”
Sophie lowered the gun by an inch.
“Grant said Charles killed Laura and then Ethan.”
“Grant killed them both,” I said.
She looked at me.
“Who are you?”
“Emma.”
Her expression changed.
“The missing daughter.”
“The daughter Grant wanted erased.”
Leo stepped beside me.
“And I’m Leo.”
Sophie stared at him.
“The boy.”
I pulled him slightly behind me.
“Don’t call him that.”
Outside, distant sirens echoed through the hills.
Sophie looked toward the road.
“I didn’t come alone.”
Charles moved toward the barn door.
“Whose deputies?”
“County tactical unit.”
“Commanded by whom?”
“Captain Doyle.”
Rachel raised her weapon.
“Sophie, Doyle is working for Grant.”
“That’s impossible.”
“He covered up Ethan’s murder.”
The sirens grew louder.
Sophie glanced from Charles to Rachel.
Confusion and fear battled across her face.
“Grant told me Leo had been kidnapped and that Emma was trying to steal the company.”
“I am the company’s legal heir.”
“No. Grant said Samuel’s descendants were dead.”
“I’m Samuel’s daughter.”
Sophie stared at me.
Then she looked at Leo.
“And the boy?”
“My son.”
Ethan’s son, I did not add.
There would be time for the rest later, assuming we survived the next ten minutes.
Rachel held out the tablet.
“Watch the video.”
Sophie hesitated.
“Watch it.”
Rachel played the laboratory recording.
Grant’s voice filled the barn.
“If the trial fails, change the cause of death.”
Sophie’s face lost its color.
The video continued.
Captain Doyle entered the frame.
“What about the families?” he asked.
“Pay the cooperative ones,” Grant replied. “Discredit the others.”
Sophie lowered her weapon completely.
“That lab closed years ago.”
“Because twelve patients died,” Rachel said.
“My mother worked there.”
“Yes.”
Sophie looked at Charles.
“Was she one of the patients?”
“No. She was collecting evidence.”
“Then how did she die?”
Charles’s voice softened.
“Grant injected her with an experimental compound and called it an overdose.”
Sophie staggered backward.
The barn doors burst open.
Floodlights blinded us.
“Sheriff’s department!” a voice shouted. “Drop your weapons!”
Captain Doyle entered wearing a tactical vest.
Six deputies followed him.
Sophie turned toward them.
“Captain, wait.”
Doyle aimed his pistol at Rachel.
“Deputy Hayes, step away from the suspects.”
“I’ve seen evidence.”
His expression did not change.
“Evidence fabricated by fugitives.”
“It shows you inside Grant’s laboratory.”
Doyle’s eyes shifted toward the tablet.
That single glance told Sophie everything.
She raised her weapon.
Not at us.
At him.
“Everyone lower your guns.”
Doyle smiled coldly.
“You’re confused, Sophie.”
“You told me you barely knew Grant.”
“I know many donors.”
“You were in his lab.”
“Sophie—”
“You helped him cover up deaths.”
Doyle’s face hardened.
“Deputy Hayes, stand down.”
“No.”
The deputies looked uncertain.
Most were young. They had followed Doyle because he was their commander, not because they understood what he was protecting.
Rachel spoke clearly.
“The tablet contains evidence of federal crimes. Any officer who assists Captain Doyle after being notified may be charged with conspiracy and obstruction.”
Two deputies lowered their rifles slightly.
Doyle shouted, “Do not listen to her!”
He lunged toward Sophie.
A shot fired.
For one terrifying second, I thought Sophie had been hit.
Then Doyle collapsed, clutching his thigh.
My mother stood behind the truck with the revolver.
“I didn’t miss this time.”
Everyone froze.
Sophie kicked Doyle’s weapon away and ordered the deputies to secure him.
Three obeyed immediately.
The others followed.
Doyle screamed threats as they handcuffed him.
“You have no idea who you’re protecting! Grant will bury every one of you!”
Sophie looked down at him.
“I think Grant is finished.”
But Rachel shook her head.
“Not yet.”
She checked the time.
“Four hours and seventeen minutes until the board meeting.”
Charles looked toward Sophie.
“Can you get us through the roadblocks?”
She nodded slowly.
“Yes.”
The convoy toward Columbus consisted of Sophie’s patrol car, Rosa’s old pickup, and two deputy vehicles whose officers had agreed to protect the evidence.
Doyle remained locked in the back of another patrol car under guard.
As dawn began to lighten the sky, I sat beside Leo in Sophie’s vehicle.
My parents rode behind us.
Charles and Rachel traveled with the deputies.
Sophie drove in silence for several miles.
Finally, she said, “Was Ethan a good person?”
I looked through the windshield.
“Yes.”
“Grant said he was unstable.”
“Grant says that about everyone who threatens him.”
“Did Ethan know about me?”
“I don’t know.”
She nodded, disappointed.
Leo leaned forward from the back seat.
“He left a recording.”
Sophie looked at him in the mirror.
“Did he mention me?”
“Not in the part we heard.”
Rachel’s tablet contained other files, possibly other messages. I made a mental promise that we would search them when we were safe.
Sophie gripped the steering wheel.
“I spent three years believing Charles murdered the only family I had.”
“Grant is good at turning grief into a weapon,” I said.
She looked toward me.
“So are you really my aunt?”
“Biologically, we’re half-sisters.”
Sophie blinked.
“Because Samuel was your father.”
“And Grant was yours.”
A bitter laugh escaped her.
“That family tree should be set on fire.”
Leo spoke quietly.
“I think enough things have burned.”
Sophie glanced at him again.
For the first time, she smiled.
At 10:42 a.m., we reached the outskirts of Columbus.
Then traffic stopped.
Police vehicles blocked every lane of the highway.
Not local police.
State patrol.
Sophie slowed.
A trooper approached her window.
“Deputy, turn around. Chemical spill ahead.”
Rachel called through the radio from the vehicle behind us.
“There is no spill. Satellite traffic shows vehicles moving normally two miles beyond the blockade.”
Sophie showed her badge.
“We’re transporting evidence in an active federal case.”
The trooper’s expression changed slightly.
“Orders are to close the road.”
“Whose orders?”
He did not answer.
Then I saw a man standing beside a black sedan beyond the patrol cars.
Grant.
He held a phone to his ear.
My father’s phone rang in the vehicle behind us.
Seconds later, Rachel’s voice came over the radio.
“Grant is calling Robert.”
My father answered on speaker.
Grant’s voice filled every vehicle through the shared channel.
“Robert, this has gone far enough.”
My father stared through the windshield at his brother.
“You killed my son.”
“Ethan forced my hand.”
“You burned my house.”
“You’re insured.”
My father’s face twisted.
Grant continued.
“Send Emma and Leo to me. You and Helen can walk away.”
My mother leaned toward the radio.
“You threw away your own daughter, Grant. Don’t pretend you understand what it means to protect a child.”
Grant paused.
Sophie’s face went still.
“He knows I’m here,” she whispered.
Grant’s voice came again.
“Sophie is not my daughter.”
She closed her eyes.
The words struck her harder than any bullet could have.
“She is the product of an unstable woman who tried to destroy my family,” Grant said. “I protected Sophie out of charity.”
Sophie picked up the radio.
“You told me you loved my mother.”
Grant’s voice softened artificially.
“Laura was troubled.”
“You killed her.”
“Charles filled your head with lies.”
“I watched the video.”
Silence.
Then Grant spoke with no warmth at all.
“Bring me the tablet.”
“No.”
“You have always wanted a family, Sophie. Don’t make the mistake Emma made.”
Sophie’s eyes filled with tears, but her voice remained steady.
“My mistake was believing you.”
She ended the call.
The troopers at the blockade began moving toward us.
Rachel’s voice came over the radio.
“We need another route.”
Leo looked out the window.
“What about the airport?”
Sophie glanced back.
“What airport?”
“We passed a sign for a small county airport five miles ago.”
I understood immediately.
“Do you know anyone with a plane?”
Sophie shook her head.
Charles answered over the radio.
“I do.”
Twenty-eight minutes later, we reached a private airfield.
A twin-engine plane waited near the hangar.
The pilot was an elderly man who embraced Charles without asking questions.
We boarded.
The flight to downtown Columbus took less than twenty minutes.
Grant’s roadblocks became useless beneath us.
At 11:47 a.m., the plane landed at a municipal strip nine minutes from Walker Medical headquarters.
We raced toward the waiting vehicles.
Rachel checked her watch.
“Thirteen minutes.”
We arrived at the glass tower at 11:58.
Security guards blocked the entrance.
Rachel held up the court petition.
“Stand aside.”
They refused.
Then every screen inside the lobby turned on.
Grant appeared on the monitors, seated at the head of the boardroom table.
“Emma,” he said through the speakers, “you are late.”
The digital clock above reception changed to 12:00.
Grant smiled.
“Under the terms of the trust, your claim is now void.”
Charles stepped forward.
“No.”
Grant’s smile faded.
Charles raised Samuel’s original trust document.
“The deadline applies only if the claimant fails to appear on company property.”
He pointed toward the marble floor beneath my feet.
“She arrived at 11:58.”
Rachel looked at the lobby cameras.
“And your own security system recorded it.”
The screens went black.
The guards stepped aside.
We entered the elevator.
As the doors closed, Leo looked up at me.
“Are we going to win?”
I took his hand.
“We’re going to tell the truth.”
The elevator reached the top floor.
When the doors opened, the boardroom was empty.
Only one chair remained at the long table.
On it sat a bloodstained envelope addressed to Leo.
May you like
Beneath his name, Grant had written one sentence.
YOUR FATHER BEGGED TOO.
