Chapter 10 - The Empire Above the Empire
Thomas Reed was taken to a military medical facility under federal protection.
Doctors confirmed his identity through DNA.
He was Emily’s biological father.
He had severe pulmonary damage, multiple untreated fractures, and evidence of long-term exposure to sedatives and chemical restraints.
He had been imprisoned for more than three decades.
Margaret sat outside his room for two hours before finding the courage to enter.
Emily watched through the observation window.
Thomas looked at Margaret.
Margaret covered her mouth and began to cry.
“I’m sorry,” she said.
Thomas held out his hand.
She crossed the room and took it.
“You saved her,” he whispered.
“I gave you to them.”
“You saved our daughter.”
“I heard the gunshots.”
“They weren’t shooting me.”
Thomas explained that Richard Lawson’s men had staged his execution. Robert Vale intervened before Thomas could be killed, arguing that Thomas’s knowledge was too valuable to destroy.
For years, Thomas was moved between hidden facilities and forced to maintain the financial architecture supporting the Lawson network.
When Jonathan Lawson took control, he kept Thomas alive to repair the system.
When Garrett became chief executive, the imprisonment continued.
Garrett listened from a conference room across the hall.
Emily sat opposite him.
“You didn’t know?” she asked.
“No.”
“Your company paid for the facilities.”
“I saw classified research expenses. I thought they were connected to defense contracts.”
“You never asked?”
“I didn’t ask questions that might interfere with profit.”
His honesty was ugly, but it was more than Emily had received from him in years.
Garrett looked through the glass at Thomas.
“Did my father visit him?”
“Yes,” Emily said. “For seventeen years.”
Garrett rubbed both hands over his face.
“My entire life was built by people lying to me.”
“You still chose what kind of man you became.”
He looked at her.
“I know.”
Emily had expected excuses.
Instead, Garrett lowered his eyes.
“I kicked Margaret because she sat at the front family table.”
“I know why you did it.”
“No. You know what I told myself.”
He swallowed.
“I saw my mother watching me. I knew she wanted me to remove Margaret. I wanted to prove I was still in control after you challenged the board that morning.”
“So you hurt an elderly woman to impress Victoria.”
“Yes.”
He said it without softening the truth.
Emily stood.
“I appreciate the confession. It changes nothing.”
“I didn’t expect it to.”
The conference room door opened.
Claire entered carrying a sealed evidence file.
“Thomas has identified the divided-circle organization.”
Emily sat again.
“They call themselves the Meridian.”
The Meridian was not a formal corporation or secret society in the theatrical sense. It was an alliance of families, financial institutions, and political offices formed after the Second World War.
Its members believed governments were temporary but capital systems could be permanent.
They controlled economies by building structures too essential to challenge.
The Lawson empire was only one branch.
“Who leads them?” Garrett asked.
“No single person,” Claire said. “A council of nine custodians.”
“Robert?”
“A regional custodian.”
“Victoria?”
Claire looked at Garrett.
“Thomas identified her as Robert’s designated successor.”
Garrett closed his eyes.
Emily thought of Victoria’s confidence after losing the mansion, company, and accounts.
She had never believed Lawson Consolidated was the true source of her power.
“Where is she now?” Emily asked.
Claire hesitated.
The answer was visible on her face.
“She escaped during transport.”
Garrett stood abruptly.
“How?”
“The ambulance was intercepted. Two guards are dead.”
Emily looked toward Thomas’s room.
The tracker he had carried was not meant to reveal his location.
It had been designed to lead the Meridian to him.
“Move my parents and Noah,” she said.
“Already happening.”
Thomas suddenly began struggling in the hospital bed.
Alarms sounded.
Doctors rushed inside.
Emily entered behind them.
Thomas pulled away from the oxygen mask.
“The trust,” he said.
“Don’t speak.”
“The preservation choice didn’t stop the account.”
“What do you mean?”
“It stopped the economic collapse. But the account has another vault.”
Emily leaned closer.
“What is inside it?”
Thomas gripped her wrist with surprising strength.
“The names of the nine custodians.”
“That can destroy Meridian.”
“No.”
Fear entered his eyes.
“The names are not evidence.”
May you like
He looked toward Noah, who was being carried down the corridor by a security officer.
“They are successors.”
