Chapter 10 - The Bloodline Trap
Austin nearly overturned the table.
“Carla is pregnant with Crowe’s child?”
Charles nodded.
“Does she know who he is?”
“She knows him as Nathaniel Crowe.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
“No. She doesn’t know what H-24 means.”
Irene sat slowly.
“If Crowe is genetically Evelyn’s son…”
“Half-brother,” Charles said.
“To me.”
“Yes.”
“And his child would also qualify under the Harrow bloodline.”
“Yes.”
Austin’s fury became focused.
“That’s why there are two pregnancies.”
“Correct.”
“Crowe created a competing heir.”
Charles’s mouth tightened.
“Likely.”
Irene looked sick.
“Did he know who he was when he started seeing Carla?”
“Yes.”
Austin lunged.
Charles stood quickly.
Grant stepped between them.
Austin pointed at his father.
“You knew and did nothing?”
“I learned about the pregnancy three days ago.”
“You knew what Crowe was.”
“Yes.”
“You let him near her.”
“I did not control Carla’s relationships.”
“You controlled everything else.”
Charles did not answer.
Irene asked the question that mattered.
“What happens at nine?”
Charles looked at his watch.
“Crowe must certify the viable heir.”
“Which one?”
“That is the crisis.”
“If both qualify?”
“The trust enters disputed succession.”
“And then?”
“Asset control freezes until adjudication.”
“That doesn’t sound catastrophic.”
“It is if the companies involved operate military systems, hospitals, banking networks, and communications infrastructure.”
Austin understood.
“Someone could exploit the freeze.”
“Yes.”
“Who?”
Charles looked at him.
“The other trustees.”
“You said one survives publicly.”
“Crowe is public.”
“And secretly?”
Charles paused.
“I never said I knew all of them.”
Austin laughed bitterly.
“Convenient.”
The penthouse intercom sounded.
Grant checked.
“Detective Quinn.”
She entered with another officer.
“We found Carla.”
Austin turned.
“Where?”
“Her apartment.”
“Is she okay?”
“Physically.”
“What happened?”
“She says Crowe came to her at five this morning.”
Charles stood.
“What did he want?”
“Her signature.”
“On what?”
“A declaration recognizing her unborn child as primary Harrow successor.”
Irene closed her eyes.
“Did she sign?”
Quinn shook her head.
“She refused after he mentioned Irene.”
Austin exhaled.
“Where is she now?”
“Protective custody.”
“And Crowe?”
“Gone.”
Charles checked his watch.
8:31.
“We have twenty-nine minutes.”
Irene stood.
“What do I need to do?”
Charles looked at her.
“Appear before the trust registrar.”
“Where?”
“Wentworth Tower.”
Austin stared.
“Our headquarters?”
“The trust registry has been maintained beneath your family office for decades.”
“You built a secret government under my company.”
“Your grandfather did.”
They arrived at Wentworth Tower at 8:47.
Security had been doubled.
The underground archive required three biometric confirmations.
Charles provided one.
Austin, unexpectedly, provided the second.
“You registered me?”
“When you turned twenty-one.”
“For what?”
“Witness authority.”
Irene supplied the third through a blood verification scanner.
The vault opened.
Inside sat a circular table.
Screens activated automatically.
At 8:54, Nathaniel Crowe appeared remotely.
He looked exhausted.
“Austin.”
“Where are you?”
“That no longer matters.”
Irene stepped forward.
“You used my sister-in-law to create a competing heir.”
Crowe looked at her.
“No.”
“No?”
“I loved Carla.”
Austin laughed once.
“Try another lie.”
“It wasn’t planned.”
“Then why hide who you are?”
“Because telling a Wentworth I was the engineered Harrow contingency seemed complicated.”
Irene leaned toward the screen.
“Certify my pregnancy.”
Crowe’s expression tightened.
“I can’t.”
“Why?”
“Because your child may not be the first heir.”
“You told Austin there were two pregnancies.”
“There are.”
“Mine and Carla’s.”
Crowe shook his head.
“No.”
Charles stepped forward.
“What are you doing?”
Crowe looked at him.
“For once, Charles, I’m ending one of your lies.”
The clock read 8:57.
Crowe uploaded a document.
A genetic report.
Irene opened it.
Her eyes moved rapidly.
Then stopped.
Austin came beside her.
“What?”
She handed him the page.
The report concerned Irene’s unborn child.
Paternal lineage analysis.
Austin Wentworth.
But beside Austin’s genetic profile was another notation.
PATERNAL HAPLOGROUP MATCH: HARROW CONTINGENCY LINE.
Austin stared.
“That’s impossible.”
Charles said nothing.
Austin looked at his father.
“Dad.”
Charles’s face had gone white.
May you like
Crowe smiled sadly from the screen.
“Ask him who your biological mother was.”
