Chapter 14 - The StationEmily did not go alone.
She let Victoria believe she did.
Michael waited in a vehicle two blocks away.
Police surrounded the abandoned station from a distance.
Richard argued.
Emily ignored him.
At 8:17 p.m., she entered.
Thomas sat under one hanging light.
Hands tied.
Mouth taped.
Victoria stood beside him.
“No police?”
Emily raised her hands.
“No.”
Victoria smiled.
“Good.”
Emily looked at Thomas.
“Let him go.”
“Give me the trust documents.”
“No.”
Victoria’s expression hardened.
“You don’t understand what you’re holding.”
“Apparently I own your future.”
“You own paper.”
“I own fifty-one percent.”
“You own nothing until the board recognizes the claim.”
Emily stared.
“That’s what this is about?”
Victoria laughed.
“This has always been about control.”
“No.”
Emily stepped closer.
“This is about you being terrified that a maid owns what you thought was yours.”
Victoria slapped her.
The sound echoed through the station.
Emily’s face turned.
Thomas struggled against the chair.
Victoria whispered, “Don’t call yourself that.”
Emily slowly looked back.
“Why?”
Victoria’s breathing had changed.
“Because you’re not a maid anymore.”
Emily almost smiled.
“I was a maid yesterday.”
“You were pretending.”
“I wasn’t pretending anything.”
“You had blood.”
Emily stared.
“Blood?”
“Whitmore blood.”
Emily laughed quietly.
“My grandfather was Jonathan Hale.”
Victoria’s eyes flashed.
“No.”
Emily caught it.
“You don’t believe that.”
Victoria stepped back.
“What did Daniel write?”
Victoria said nothing.
“The missing pages.”
Silence.
Emily moved closer.
“Thomas said you know the truth about your father.”
Victoria’s jaw tightened.
Thomas groaned.
Emily looked at him.
He was shaking his head desperately.
Warning her.
Victoria saw.
She pulled a gun from her coat.
Emily froze.
Police outside would move if they saw it.
But the building’s broken windows made visibility poor.
Victoria pointed the weapon at Thomas.
“Stop talking.”
Emily lifted both hands.
“Okay.”
Victoria’s eyes were wet now.
For the first time, Emily didn’t see arrogance.
She saw panic.
“What did Charles do to Daniel?”
“Nothing.”
“Thomas said—”
“He lies.”
“Then why are you afraid of the journal?”
Victoria’s hand trembled.
Emily’s voice softened.
“Your father wrote something about Charles.”
Victoria looked at her.
“He wrote that Charles wasn’t his father.”
Emily froze.
“What?”
Victoria laughed bitterly.
“All these noble bloodlines. All this obsession with names.”
She looked toward the dark tracks.
“Daniel discovered when he was seventeen that Charles wasn’t his biological father.”
Richard had never known.
Emily whispered, “Who was?”
Victoria looked at her.
“Jonathan Hale’s father.”
Emily stared.
“That would make Daniel…”
“A Hale.”
Emily’s mind raced.
Daniel and Jonathan had been related?
Victoria continued.
“Charles raised another man’s child.”
“And Eleanor?”
“Charles was obsessed with protecting the family name.”
Emily frowned.
“That still doesn’t explain Anna.”
Victoria’s eyes narrowed.
“Jonathan and Eleanor having a child created a legal nightmare.”
“Why?”
“Because of the old Hale-Whitmore merger trust.”
Emily stared.
“What merger trust?”
Victoria laughed.
“Of course Richard never told you.”
“Tell me.”
“If a direct Whitmore heir and direct Hale heir produced a lawful descendant, certain dormant assets reverted to that descendant.”
Emily’s heart hammered.
“Anna.”
“Yes.”
“And then me.”
“Yes.”
Emily understood.
The trust wasn’t just fifty-one percent of Whitmore Holdings.
There was more.
“How much?”
Victoria smiled without humor.
“Enough to make the castle look cheap.”
Thomas suddenly kicked the chair sideways.
Victoria turned.
Emily lunged.
The gun fired.
A deafening crack.
Everyone froze.
Thomas fell.
Emily screamed.
Police flooded the station.
Victoria dropped the gun.
Thomas lay on his side.
Blood spread across his sleeve.
Not his chest.
He was alive.
Officers restrained Victoria.
She didn’t fight.
As they dragged her away, she shouted at Emily.
“You still don’t know why your mother came back!”
Emily stared.
Victoria twisted against the officers.
“She wasn’t trying to claim the money!”
Emily’s chest tightened.
“What was she trying to do?”
Victoria smiled.
May you like
“To destroy it.”
Then she was gone.
Related Stories
