Chapter 8: The Father’s Last Choice
Richard staggered backward.
Julian caught him before he struck the floor.
Blood spread across Richard’s white shirt just below the collarbone.
For a moment, father and son stared at each other in stunned silence.
Then Richard whispered, “That was unpleasant.”
Julian lowered him carefully.
Thomas kicked Edmund’s weapon away and forced the old man to the floor.
Federal agents stormed into the nursery, shouting commands.
Edmund did not resist.
He looked at Richard with mild disappointment.
“You sacrificed yourself for sentiment.”
Richard pressed one hand over the wound.
“No. I invested in a better outcome.”
Even bleeding, he could not admit love.
Julian almost laughed.
Almost.
Medics entered moments later. They treated Mara first, then Richard and Margaret.
Margaret remained conscious.
As paramedics lifted her onto a stretcher, Celeste approached.
Their mother looked smaller now. Not harmless, but human.
“You could have helped us,” Celeste said.
Margaret’s breathing was shallow.
“I kept you alive.”
“You kept me afraid.”
“I gave you everything.”
“You gave me another woman’s name.”
Margaret’s eyes flickered.
“You would have been nothing as Celeste.”
Celeste leaned closer.
“I would have been myself.”
For the first time, Margaret had no answer.
She was carried away under armed guard.
Dawn approached as guests gathered on the east lawn. Firefighters battled flames in the upper floor, while federal agents separated witnesses and suspects.
The wedding flowers lay crushed across the grass.
White lilies floated in the fountain.
Julian stood beneath an oak tree while a medic bandaged the graze along his ribs.
Celeste waited several feet away, wrapped in a gray emergency blanket.
Her wedding gown was streaked with soot and blood.
Elena sat beside Mara’s ambulance, refusing to leave until her sister was transported.
Thomas moved among agents, issuing orders and collecting devices.
The nightmare should have been ending.
Instead, Julian felt the weight of everything beginning.
Investigations.
Trials.
Public scandal.
The collapse of families and companies.
The exposure of Richard’s survival.
The destruction of Celeste’s identity.
Marcus joined him.
“You all right?”
“No.”
“Good. I’d be concerned if you said yes.”
Julian looked toward Celeste.
“What would you do?”
Marcus followed his gaze.
“About marrying a woman who used a dead sister’s name because her criminal family manipulated her into targeting your hidden inheritance?”
“That’s the issue.”
“I’d probably start with coffee.”
Julian gave a tired laugh.
Then Thomas approached.
“We have a problem.”
Julian’s brief relief disappeared.
“What now?”
“The digital archive is intact, but the original ledger is missing.”
“Elena said the archive contained everything.”
“It contains copies. Defense attorneys will challenge authenticity. The original ledger has Edmund’s handwritten codes and signatures.”
“Who took it?”
“Elena believes it was removed eleven years ago.”
Mara spoke from the ambulance.
“She took it.”
Everyone turned.
Despite the medication, she was awake.
“Who?” Thomas asked.
Mara looked toward Celeste.
“Our youngest sister.”
Celeste shook her head.
“I was seventeen. I didn’t even know the archive existed.”
“You came to my room the night Elena disappeared,” Mara said. “You were crying. You carried a black book.”
Celeste’s face changed.
“I don’t remember that.”
Margaret had controlled her with doctors and medication.
How much of Celeste’s life had been erased?
Elena approached.
“What happened after she came to your room?”
Mara closed her eyes.
“Mother entered. She injected me with something. When I woke up, I was in the basement.”
Celeste pressed both hands to her temples.
“I remember the nursery.”
Julian went to her.
“What do you see?”
“A storm. Elena was bleeding.”
Elena stepped closer.
“You saw me that night?”
“I think so.”
Celeste squeezed her eyes shut.
“You gave me something.”
“The ledger?”
“I don’t know.”
“Where did you put it?”
Celeste opened her eyes.
“The coffin.”
Everyone went silent.
“What coffin?” Julian asked.
“Our father’s,” Celeste whispered.
Edmund’s funeral had occurred four years after Elena disappeared.
But Edmund had faked his death.
“The casket was empty,” Elena said.
“Not completely.”
Celeste stared toward the family cemetery beyond the garden.
“I remember Mother telling me to place a book beneath his head.”
Thomas called for agents.
Within thirty minutes, a federal excavation team surrounded Edmund Vale’s mausoleum.
The marble crypt stood at the edge of the estate beneath black pine trees. Julian watched as workers removed the sealed stone panel.
Inside was a polished mahogany coffin.
They opened it.
No body lay inside.
Only an old black ledger beneath a white silk pillow.
Thomas lifted it with gloved hands.
“This can bring down the entire network.”
Richard’s voice came from behind them.
“Or start a war.”
He stood supported by a medic, his shoulder heavily bandaged.
Julian stared at him.
“You should be in an ambulance.”
“I dislike hospitals.”
“You were shot.”
“I noticed.”
Thomas held the ledger against his chest.
“You’re under arrest, Richard.”
Richard nodded.
“I assumed so.”
Agents approached.
Julian stepped in front of them.
“Give me one minute.”
Thomas hesitated, then moved away.
Richard looked at his son.
“You saved the archive.”
“Celeste did.”
“You chose well.”
“I didn’t choose her. You and Margaret arranged everything.”
Richard shook his head.
“They arranged the meeting. They could not manufacture what followed.”
Julian wanted to reject the words.
But he knew they were true.
Richard looked toward the burning mansion.
“I spent my life believing control was the same as safety.”
“And now?”
“Now I understand control is merely fear wearing an expensive suit.”
Julian studied him.
“Why did you step in front of the bullet?”
Richard smiled faintly.
“You’re an architect. Repair the answer yourself.”
The agents handcuffed him.
As they led Richard away, he turned once.
“Julian.”
“What?”
“The detonator.”
Julian felt his stomach drop.
“What about it?”
“My charges were never disabled.”
A low rumble came from beneath Blackthorn Manor.
The ground shook.
Everyone turned toward the mansion.
Flames burst from the basement windows.
Firefighters shouted and ran backward.
Celeste was still inside.
She had returned to retrieve something from the bridal room.
May you like
Julian began running before anyone could stop him.
Behind him, the east wing collapsed.
