Chapter 10 - The Third Heir
Helena survived the gunshot.
The bullet passed through her shoulder, missing the artery by less than an inch. Marcus sealed the tower and called a private emergency team loyal to Richard. By dawn, Helena was unconscious in a secure surgical suite, Arthur had vanished, and Sienna's ring was moving east according to a tracker hidden inside it.
Sienna stared at the map.
"He took it on purpose."
Brooke shook her head. "Arthur does nothing without three purposes."
The ring stopped at a private airfield.
They arrived minutes after a jet departed. Security footage showed Arthur boarding alone. The manifest listed a destination in Geneva, but the flight path turned south over the ocean.
Eleanor examined the timestamp.
"Someone cleared his escape before the dinner began."
Marcus nodded. "The shooter and the pilot were coordinated."
Richard sat in a wheelchair beside the monitor, his face gray. "Only board-level security can authorize that runway."
Sienna looked at him. "How many board members knew about the dormant trust?"
"Three."
Richard named them: himself, Helena, and Conrad Voss, chairman of the Bellamy Foundation.
Eleanor knew the name. Voss had attended the wedding. He had stood near the gift table when the black box arrived.
They searched the wedding footage again.
At 6:12 p.m., Conrad Voss entered the ballroom carrying nothing.
At 6:19, he stood beside the gift table.
At 6:21, the black box appeared.
But another camera showed that Voss never touched it.
A waiter placed it there.
Sienna recognized the waiter as a temporary employee hired through a charity staffing program operated by the Bellamy Foundation.
Conrad had sent the gift.
Or wanted them to believe he had.
Brooke used Helena's passports to access a hidden archive. The names connected to safe-deposit boxes across five countries. One box contained correspondence between Helena and Conrad.
The final letter was dated six weeks before Helena's staged death.
Conrad knows there are three heirs. He believes one can be turned against the others. If I disappear, do not let him decide which one.
Sienna read it twice. "He chose Arthur."
"No," Eleanor said. "Arthur is not an heir."
"He married one and almost married another."
Brooke understood first. "Spousal control was temporary. Conrad needed conflict among us to prevent joint activation."
Richard said, "The trust requires unanimity."
"Then the black box was designed to expose Arthur at the exact moment Sienna would hate Brooke," Eleanor said. "The certificate made Brooke look like the other wife. It divided us before we ever met."
Sienna's gaze went to Brooke. "It almost worked."
A notification appeared on the tracker map.
The ring was moving again.
Not overseas.
It had never left the airfield.
Arthur had placed the tracker on the departing jet and escaped in a maintenance vehicle. The ring now traveled toward the harbor.
They followed.
The signal ended at Pier 9, where a cargo ship prepared to depart. On board, they found Arthur's discarded jacket and a phone playing a recorded message.
"You are learning," Arthur said. "But not quickly enough."
The ship's horn sounded.
Containers began moving along automated cranes.
One container bore the blue symbol from Dock 14.
They opened it.
Inside was a furnished room with a bed, medical supplies, and surveillance equipment. Brooke recognized it as one of the places she had been held.
On the wall, dozens of photographs showed the three women at different ages. Eleanor at school. Brooke outside her first apartment. Sienna riding horses as a child.
Someone had watched them for decades.
A map marked three locations with black pins.
Saint Orison Hospital.
Bellamy Tower.
Vale House.
Eleanor stared at the third pin.
Vale House was the childhood home she and Brooke had inherited after Helena's funeral. It had remained locked for eight years.
Brooke touched one photograph. It showed Helena holding two babies on the front steps.
Behind her, reflected in a window, stood Conrad Voss.
Sienna's phone rang.
Conrad's voice greeted her warmly.
"I believe you have something that belongs to the foundation."
"What?"
"The third ring."
Sienna looked down. Her finger was bare.
Then Eleanor saw a thin gold chain around Brooke's neck. Hanging beneath her shirt was a ring none of them had noticed.
Brooke pulled it free, confused.
Conrad laughed through the phone.
"Your mother always did hide the most important things close to the heart."
The line ended.
The cargo ship's loading alarm changed tone.
Marcus looked toward the open container doors.
May you like
Every crane on the pier had stopped.
Then the container began to rise.
