Chapter 11 - The Brother Who Chose a Side
Adrian entered Hawthorne Global headquarters through the private garage.
He had spent his life believing the building would one day belong to him.
Now guards looked at him with uncertainty.
His access credentials had been suspended after the leaked trust documents.
He used Margaret’s emergency code to reach the executive elevator.
The biometric succession vault was located three levels beneath the main tower.
Adrian intended to reach it before Victor.
He did not know whether he was Elena’s first child, second child, or one of Thomas’s replacements.
He only knew that Victor had controlled his entire life.
That control would end tonight.
The elevator doors opened on level minus three.
Victor Sloane stood in the corridor.
He wore a dark suit and held no visible weapon.
Age had not weakened his posture.
“You look like Julian,” Victor said.
Adrian stepped out.
“You knew my father?”
“I selected him.”
“What does that mean?”
“Julian Mercer possessed the genetic characteristics Meridian needed for Elena’s children.”
“You arranged their relationship?”
“Not completely. Attraction is difficult to manufacture, but easy to encourage.”
Adrian moved closer.
“You speak about my parents as if they were animals in a breeding program.”
Victor smiled.
“Your anger resembles Gabriel’s.”
“Elias.”
“Names are useful masks.”
“Why did you give me to Margaret?”
“To place one Hawthorne child inside the Whitmore line.”
“Why?”
“Sebastian trusted Margaret. Her family controlled media and political influence. You were insurance.”
“Against Elias?”
“Against everyone.”
Adrian’s fists tightened.
“Which twin am I?”
“Lucian.”
“Was I born second?”
Victor did not answer.
“That means Elias is the legal heir.”
“Under the original trust, yes.”
Adrian looked toward the vault doors.
“And the Continuity Protocol?”
“Older than the trust. More powerful.”
“Who is the protected successor?”
Victor smiled.
“Open the vault with me and you will know.”
“You need my blood.”
“I need blood from one confirmed descendant.”
“Why not Vanessa?”
“She does not know how to activate the system.”
“But she is Alexander’s daughter.”
“Yes.”
“So she is a Hawthorne.”
“Biologically.”
“You raised her to marry me.”
“Charles and I raised her to obey.”
Adrian’s disgust deepened.
“Did she know we might be related?”
“She believed you were Margaret’s natural son.”
Victor approached the biometric scanner.
“You may hate me, Adrian, but I am offering you the only path to survival.”
“You mean power.”
“In families such as yours, they are the same.”
Adrian looked at the scanner.
“What happens to Elias if I open it?”
“Gabriel becomes irrelevant.”
“Will you kill him?”
Victor’s silence answered.
Adrian laughed quietly.
“What?”
“You miscalculated.”
“I rarely do.”
“You expected me to hate him because he is the true heir.”
“You have hated people for less.”
Adrian remembered Elias’s reddened cheek in the banquet hall.
He remembered forcing a man to kneel because his own pride had been wounded.
For years, everyone around Adrian had encouraged that cruelty. Margaret excused it. Charles rewarded it. Vanessa admired it when it benefited her.
Now he understood why.
A cruel man was easy to control.
He stepped toward the scanner.
Victor relaxed.
Adrian placed his palm on the glass.
The system activated.
“Voice authorization,” the computer announced.
Adrian leaned toward the panel.
“Lucian Hawthorne.”
“Identity pending.”
Victor entered a sequence.
The outer vault opened.
Inside was a second chamber containing a circular platform.
A metal case rested at the center.
Victor stepped forward.
Adrian struck him from behind.
Victor fell against the platform.
Adrian seized the case.
Alarms sounded.
Victor recovered quickly and drew a hidden pistol.
“You emotional fool.”
Adrian held the case between them.
“You need this intact.”
“I need you alive. The case is replaceable.”
The gun fired.
Pain tore through Adrian’s side.
He dropped to one knee.
Victor approached.
“You could have had everything.”
Adrian pressed one hand against the wound.
“I already thought I had everything.”
“And what did it make you?”
Adrian looked up.
“A man who hit his own brother because he wore a waiter’s vest.”
Victor aimed at his head.
“Then perhaps guilt will make your death meaningful.”
The lights went out.
A second gunshot echoed.
Victor cried out.
Detective Ortiz emerged from the outer chamber with two officers.
“Drop the weapon!”
Victor fired toward them and ran through a maintenance exit.
Ortiz knelt beside Adrian.
“Stay awake.”
He handed her the metal case.
“Do not let him take this.”
“What is it?”
“The name of the protected successor.”
Medics rushed in.
As they lifted him onto a stretcher, Adrian caught Ortiz’s sleeve.
“Find Elias.”
“We are trying.”
“Tell him…”
His voice weakened.
Ortiz leaned closer.
Adrian looked ashamed.
“Tell him I knelt because Sebastian struck me.”
She frowned.
“He knows.”
“No.”
Adrian swallowed.
“Tell him next time, I will kneel because I owe him an apology.”
At Hawthorne House, Elias woke beneath fallen stone.
Dust filled the destroyed chamber.
Sebastian lay several feet away, protected by the heavy desk that had fallen across a gap in the floor.
Thomas was gone.
Elias crawled toward Sebastian.
The old man opened his eyes.
“Did he escape?”
“Yes.”
“The address.”
Elias remembered.
An abandoned Bellamy Medical clinic outside the city.
He helped Sebastian sit up.
The portrait passage had collapsed behind them.
A second tunnel opened beneath the damaged floor.
Cold air rose from it.
Sebastian looked down.
“Closer than you think,” he whispered.
“What?”
“Thomas said Elena’s body was closer than I thought.”
Elias aimed his flashlight into the opening.
May you like
Stone steps descended beneath Hawthorne House.
At the bottom stood a steel medical door.
