Chapter 10 - The Name Nobody Spoke
They escaped through an old service tunnel.
Rebecca refused to say the name.
Carter kept asking.
She remained silent.
Finally, Eleanor spoke.
“It's your father.”
Carter stopped.
“What?”
Eleanor looked at him.
“Your father didn't die.”
Carter stared.
The words didn't make sense.
“He died in front of me.”
“No.”
“I saw the funeral.”
“You saw a funeral.”
“That was his body.”
“No.”
Carter's voice broke.
“Mom, what are you saying?”
Eleanor looked at Rebecca.
Rebecca nodded.
“Your father disappeared six years ago.”
Carter stepped backward.
“Then who was in that coffin?”
Nobody answered.
Maya whispered:
“Someone who looked like him.”
Carter covered his face.
Everything he remembered was collapsing.
His father's funeral.
His childhood.
The family company.
His uncle.
Rebecca.
Chloe.
Victor.
None of it was what he believed.
Then Carter's phone buzzed.
A new video had appeared.
No sender.
He opened it.
The screen showed a room he had never seen.
A man sat behind a desk.
Older.
Gray hair.
Tired eyes.
Carter dropped the phone.
His mother gasped.
Rebecca whispered:
“Robert.”
Carter stared at the screen.
His father looked directly into the camera.
“If you're watching this, I failed.”
The recording continued.
“I couldn't stop them from using my name.”
Robert looked down.
“Carter, there are people who believe you inherited my empire.”
He looked back at the camera.
“You didn't.”
A pause.
“You inherited the evidence.”
The screen went black.
Carter stared at his reflection.
Then another message appeared.
MEET ME WHERE IT BEGAN.
A location followed.
The old refinery.
Carter knew the place.
He had spent his childhood there.
He also knew one terrible fact.
May you like
The refinery had been abandoned for six years.
Or so everyone had told him.
