Chapter 7 - Beneath the Burned Courthouse
The church had been condemned after its bell tower was struck by lightning.
Its doors were chained, its windows painted black, and its graveyard swallowed by weeds. Vivian arrived shortly before midnight with Elise, Elena, two private security specialists, and both Harts transported under police supervision.
Malcolm smiled when he saw the building.
“So she remembered.”
Lorraine refused to look at him.
The entrance lay beneath the baptismal platform.
A circular iron plate opened when Vivian inserted the key from St. Orison. Beneath it, a staircase descended farther than the beam of any flashlight could reach.
Malcolm’s handcuffs clicked as he walked.
“You’ve always been curious,” he said to Vivian. “That was your worst quality.”
“No. Trusting you was.”
They reached a corridor lined with cream-colored tiles. Though the courthouse above had burned decades ago, the underground structure remained untouched.
Electric lights activated automatically.
Seven black doors appeared along the corridor.
Each bore the divided-circle symbol.
A speaker crackled.
“Welcome home, Beneficiary.”
Vivian stopped.
A red light moved across her face.
The security team raised their weapons.
The speaker continued.
“Place the key into Door 7. All other doors are irrelevant.”
Malcolm whispered, “Don’t.”
Vivian looked at him.
“Why?”
“Because once it recognizes you, there is no reversing it.”
Elena stepped forward.
“Vivian, the archive may be our only chance to recover Miriam.”
“You told her that?” Malcolm asked. “You still haven’t explained what happens when the vault opens?”
Elena’s face hardened.
“This is not the time.”
“It is exactly the time.”
Vivian turned to her.
“What happens?”
A scream came through the speaker.
Miriam’s scream.
The countdown clock appeared on a wall monitor.
Twenty-eight minutes remained.
Vivian approached Door 7.
Elise scanned the walls.
“There are cameras everywhere.”
“There have always been cameras everywhere,” Vivian replied.
She inserted the key.
A panel opened.
PLACE RIGHT PALM.
Malcolm began struggling against the officer holding him.
“Take her away.”
Vivian pressed her palm against the glass.
A blue light scanned her skin.
IDENTITY CONFIRMED.
VIVIAN ELEANOR VALE.
PRIMARY BENEFICIARY.
The door opened.
Inside stood rows of filing cabinets and climate-controlled servers. At the center of the room, a glass table displayed hundreds of names.
Some were highlighted in white.
Others in red.
Vivian approached.
She found her own name near the top.
VIVIAN VALE.
STATUS: ACTIVE KEY.
CUSTODIANS: MALCOLM HART, LORRAINE HART.
MATERNAL ASSET: ELENA VALE.
SECONDARY OBSERVER: MIRIAM VALE.
Beneath it was another entry.
ADRIAN CROSS.
STATUS: INTIMATE INFLUENCE ASSET.
Vivian’s chest tightened.
Adrian.
The man she had nearly married.
The man who disappeared after convincing her to share preliminary information about the trust.
The man her parents claimed had abandoned her because she was too ambitious and emotionally cold.
“He worked for them,” she whispered.
Elena stood beside her.
“Yes.”
“You knew?”
“We discovered it after he left.”
“And you said nothing.”
“We thought telling you would drive you back to him for answers.”
Vivian laughed bitterly.
“So everyone decided lies were the safest way to protect me.”
The table changed.
A video appeared.
Adrian sat in a dark room across from a man whose face remained outside the frame.
“She suspects the Hart accounts are not truly theirs,” Adrian said.
“Can she access the primary ledger?”
“Not knowingly.”
“Can she be induced to marry?”
“Yes.”
“Then proceed.”
Vivian felt sick.
The video date was two weeks before Adrian proposed.
She forced herself to keep watching.
“And if she refuses?” Adrian asked.
The unseen man answered.
“Use the parents. They have always been effective.”
The recording ended.
Malcolm looked away.
Vivian turned on him.
“You helped Adrian.”
“He kept you stable.”
“He monitored me.”
“You were becoming suspicious.”
“So you brought a stranger into my life.”
“He made you happy.”
“He was paid to make me compliant.”
Malcolm shrugged.
“Most marriages are built on worse.”
Lorraine slapped him again.
This time, he laughed.
The countdown reached nineteen minutes.
Elise searched the system.
“We need Miriam’s location.”
A map appeared when Vivian selected Site 7.
The location was directly beneath them.
A hidden elevator opened behind the server cabinets.
The security team entered first.
The elevator descended three levels.
When the doors opened, they found a circular chamber containing seven chairs.
Six were empty.
Miriam sat in the seventh.
The restraints around her wrists released as Vivian approached.
Miriam looked older than Vivian remembered. Her hair was almost entirely silver, and one lens of her glasses was cracked. Yet her eyes remained sharp.
“You came.”
Vivian knelt before her.
“Of course I came.”
Miriam’s gaze moved to Elena.
“You should not have brought her.”
A gunshot exploded from behind them.
One of the security specialists collapsed.
The second turned, but Malcolm drove his shoulder into the officer escorting him and seized the fallen man’s weapon.
He pointed it at Vivian.
Lorraine screamed.
Malcolm stepped backward toward the control panel.
“I warned you not to open the vault.”
Vivian stared at him.
“You delivered the case to Meridian.”
“I delivered it to the only people capable of stopping you.”
Miriam struggled to stand.
“Malcolm, you fool. They will kill you the moment she is dead.”
“No. They promised protection.”
A different voice filled the chamber.
The Curator.
“Mr. Hart, your service is complete.”
The gun in Malcolm’s hand emitted a sharp electric crack.
His body convulsed.
He fell, unable to move.
The weapon had been remotely disabled.
Panels opened along the circular walls.
Armed figures stepped into the chamber.
At their center stood a tall man in a dark coat.
He removed his gloves.
Then his mask.
Vivian recognized him.
Peter Dorsey.
The banker who had arrived at her parents’ house.
The man who had confirmed the account freeze.
May you like
He smiled.
“You finally opened the door for us.”
