Chapter 6 - THE FIRST WARNING
We returned to the hotel after midnight.
I didn't tell Elena about the phone call.
Not yet.
She had already endured enough.
Julian was asleep.
His small hand was wrapped around one of his new toy cars.
The sight almost broke me.
I sat beside him.
For five years, I had imagined coming home.
But never like this.
Never with fear sitting beside me.
Elena entered quietly.
“You're hiding something.”
I looked up.
She knew me too well.
I told her.
She went pale.
“Richard Black?”
“Yes.”
“What does he want?”
“The trust.”
She stared at me.
“How much?”
“Twenty-six million.”
She sat down.
“Oh my God.”
“Money isn't the important part.”
“What is?”
“He may have been connected to your suffering.”
Elena looked toward Julian.
“Then he needs to be stopped.”
I reached for her hand.
“He will be.”
The next morning, Daniel filed emergency legal protections over my assets.
Marcus began tracing the unknown calls.
Then something happened.
A package arrived at the hotel.
No return address.
Inside was a photograph.
It showed Elena and Julian leaving the hotel the previous evening.
Someone had been watching us.
Behind the photograph was a message.
Stop digging.
I felt ice move through my veins.
I immediately called Marcus.
“We're leaving.”
“Where?”
“Somewhere they can't predict.”
Within an hour, we moved Elena and Julian to a secure property Daniel owned outside the city.
Then I returned to the mansion alone.
My mother and Victoria were still there.
They had ignored my order to leave.
I walked into the foyer.
“Pack.”
My mother stared at me.
“We need to talk.”
“No.”
“Julian—”
“I said pack.”
Victoria stepped forward.
“We're your family.”
I looked at her.
“You stopped being my family when you helped them erase me.”
She began crying.
“I was scared.”
“So was Elena.”
Victoria looked down.
“I know.”
“No, you don't.”
I walked toward her.
“You don't know what it feels like to hear your child say he's hungry.”
She covered her mouth.
“You don't know what it feels like to realize your wife has been sleeping in a shed.”
My mother interrupted.
“Enough.”
I turned.
“No.”
She flinched.
“You don't get to tell me when enough is enough.”
I pointed toward the staircase.
“This entire house is being investigated.”
Her face changed.
“For what?”
“Fraud.”
She whispered:
“You'll destroy us.”
“No.”
I looked at her.
“You destroyed yourselves.”
Then Daniel entered.
He held a stack of documents.
“We found the original bank records.”
My mother froze.
Daniel placed them on the table.
“Every payment.”
Victoria stared.
“Where did you get those?”
“From the bank.”
Daniel turned toward me.
“The money went to Blackridge.”
I looked at my mother.
“How much?”
“Almost half a million.”
“And the rest?”
Daniel hesitated.
“Personal accounts.”
“Whose?”
He looked at Victoria.
My sister started crying.
I didn't need to ask.
She had spent my money too.
Luxury apartments.
Cars.
Designer clothing.
Trips.
Everything.
She had lived the life I had worked myself sick to provide.
Then she had watched my wife starve.
“I'm sorry,” she whispered.
I looked at her.
“Sorry isn't enough.”
“What do you want me to do?”
“Tell the truth.”
She looked terrified.
“About everything?”
“Everything.”
She shook her head.
“They'll kill me.”
I stepped closer.
“Who?”
She looked toward the window.
Then whispered:
“Richard Black.”
Before I could respond, every light in the mansion went out.
Darkness swallowed the room.
Then we heard glass breaking upstairs.
Marcus shouted from the hallway.
“Get down!”
A second window shattered.
Someone had entered the house.
May you like
And they weren't looking for money.
They were looking for the documents.
