Chapter 8 - Daniel’s Inheritance
Robert’s expression transformed from surprise to hatred.
“You were supposed to be dead.”
Daniel stopped beside Emily.
“Many people have found that assumption convenient.”
Emily kept the pistol trained on Robert.
“You told me Eleanor was a social worker.”
“She was,” Daniel said. “She was also my mother.”
“And Robert?”
“My half brother.”
Robert laughed bitterly.
“You always wanted to claim the family name.”
“I wanted our mother’s murder acknowledged.”
“She died because she involved herself in matters she did not understand.”
“She understood them better than either of us.”
The countdown dropped below forty minutes.
Claire’s voice came through the hidden earpiece in Emily’s right ear.
“We confirmed Daniel’s genetic eligibility. The bank can accept him as guardian.”
Emily did not respond aloud.
Robert studied her face.
“You’re communicating with them.”
Emily removed the earpiece and crushed it beneath her shoe.
She did not want Robert hearing Claire, but she also did not want Claire stopping what came next.
“Release my mother and Garrett,” Emily said.
“Garrett can stay where he is,” Margaret said.
Despite everything, Emily almost smiled.
Robert pressed a button on the device.
A mechanical click echoed beneath the warehouse floor.
“Thirty kilograms of explosives,” he said. “If my pulse stops, this building disappears.”
Daniel’s gaze moved across the rusted beams.
“You’re bluffing.”
“Test me.”
Garrett pulled at the ropes again.
“Emily, do not open the trust. He’ll kill us afterward.”
Robert looked at him with contempt.
“You were never meant to lead the company. Your father knew it. Your mother knew it. Even your wife knew it.”
Garrett’s face darkened.
Emily saw the insult strike the deepest place in him.
“You arranged the marriage,” Emily said.
Robert nodded.
“Daniel placed you near Garrett. I ensured Garrett understood the value of marrying you.”
“And Victoria?”
“She understood before anyone.”
Emily looked at Margaret.
“Victoria threatened you because she knew I was Thomas’s daughter.”
“Yes.”
Robert walked slowly toward the glass office.
“Victoria also knew that Jonathan Lawson was not Garrett’s biological father.”
Garrett stopped struggling.
“What did you say?”
Robert glanced back.
“Ask your mother.”
Garrett’s face lost color.
Robert continued.
“Victoria was involved with Jonathan’s younger brother, Stephen. When she became pregnant, Richard forced Jonathan to marry her and claim the child. The family could not survive another scandal.”
Garrett shook his head.
“You’re lying.”
“The Lawson blood authorization failed at the bank,” Robert said. “Didn’t they tell you?”
Emily remembered Helena’s scanner.
Garrett’s sample had been accepted, but the screen had remained incomplete because the guardian was absent. She had assumed his authorization was valid.
Claire’s voice had not mentioned a failure.
Robert might be manipulating them.
Or Claire might have withheld information.
Garrett looked at Emily.
“Is it true?”
“I don’t know.”
“Of course you know. You know everything.”
“No,” she said. “That has been the problem from the beginning.”
The warehouse lights suddenly brightened.
Victoria entered through a side door.
She wore a dark coat over the champagne gown from the ballroom. Her hair remained perfectly arranged.
Two armed men followed her.
“Robert,” she said, “you always talk too much.”
Garrett stared at his mother.
“Tell me he’s lying.”
Victoria looked at him.
Her silence answered.
Garrett’s eyes filled with something Emily had never seen in them.
Not anger.
Desolation.
“Who was Stephen?” he asked.
“Your father.”
“Where is he?”
“Dead.”
“Did Jonathan know?”
“Yes.”
Garrett laughed once.
It sounded broken.
“So I’m not a Lawson.”
Victoria crossed the warehouse.
“You are the man I raised. That should be enough.”
“You spent my entire life telling me blood was everything.”
“I told you what you needed to hear to become useful.”
Robert looked toward the two armed men.
“You were instructed to come alone.”
Victoria removed her gloves.
“I stopped following your instructions twenty years ago.”
The countdown showed thirty-one minutes.
Emily adjusted her grip on the pistol.
Victoria’s gaze moved to the infant carrier.
“Where is Noah?”
“Safe.”
Victoria’s expression sharpened.
“The carrier is empty.”
One of the armed men rushed toward Emily.
Daniel stepped into his path and struck him with the metal edge of his cane.
The second man raised his weapon.
A gunshot exploded through the warehouse.
He fell.
Garrett stared at the pistol in Margaret’s hands.
She had freed one wrist from the ropes and taken a hidden weapon from beneath her chair.
Emily recognized it as the compact gun Claire had given Margaret at the safe house.
Margaret aimed at Victoria.
“Know your place.”
Victoria’s face twisted.
She lunged toward Margaret.
Garrett swung his bound body sideways, knocking Victoria off balance.
She struck the concrete floor.
For one instant, Garrett and Emily looked at each other.
He had protected Margaret.
It did not erase what he had done.
But it mattered.
Robert pressed another button.
The countdown dropped from thirty minutes to five.
“You fool!” Victoria screamed.
Robert backed toward the glass office.
“If I cannot control the choice, no one will.”
Daniel grabbed Emily’s arm.
“We need to send the authorization.”
“The bank needs the Lawson descendant,” Emily said.
Garrett looked at Victoria.
“If I’m Stephen’s son, does my blood qualify?”
Victoria said nothing.
Emily understood before Garrett did.
Stephen had been Richard Lawson’s son.
Garrett was still Lawson blood.
The family lie had concealed an affair, not eliminated his lineage.
“Your authorization counts,” Emily said.
Garrett closed his eyes.
A strange relief passed across his face.
Daniel held out his hand.
Emily took it.
Garrett extended his bound wrist toward them.
The biometric relay inside the infant carrier activated.
At Union Continental Bank, Helena would receive the three signals.
Reed.
Lawson.
Guardian.
A voice came through the carrier.
“Authorization complete. State your choice.”
Robert ran toward them.
Emily raised the pistol.
“Preservation,” Daniel said.
Garrett looked at Emily.
She thought of employees, hospitals, pensions, and families who had never heard the Lawson name.
“Preservation,” she said.
Garrett hesitated.
The countdown reached twenty seconds.
He looked at Margaret’s bloodstained bandage.
Then at Emily.
“Preservation.”
The countdown stopped.
May you like
For a moment, no one moved.
Then the glass office exploded.
