Chapter 13 - TWENTY-TWO YEARS OF LIES
Emergency lights blinked red.
Emily lay on the floor.
Margaret crawled toward her.
“Emily!”
“I’m okay!”
The bullet had hit the vault.
Ruiz fired back.
Thomas disappeared behind the shelves.
Smoke thickened.
The building groaned.
Samuel shouted, “Two minutes until midnight!”
Emily crawled behind a concrete pillar.
Her phone was recording.
She had started it when Thomas began talking.
His confession was on it.
If she lived long enough to use it.
Thomas’s voice came from the darkness.
“You always were stubborn, Margaret.”
Margaret shouted, “Come out!”
“You first.”
Emily whispered to Ruiz, “He wants her angry.”
“I know.”
“He’ll use it.”
“I know.”
Emily looked toward her mother.
“Mom.”
The word slipped out.
Margaret froze.
So did Emily.
There was no time to discuss it.
“Don’t go after him,” Emily said.
Margaret’s eyes filled with tears.
Then she nodded.
Thomas heard.
“Oh, that’s beautiful.”
He stepped from behind a shelf with his gun aimed at Emily.
Margaret moved instinctively.
“No!”
Thomas smiled.
“Still predictable.”
Claire appeared behind him.
“Thomas.”
He turned halfway.
Claire held the old cassette player.
“You forgot something.”
She pressed play.
Thomas’s younger voice filled the room.
SHE’LL NEVER RECOVER FROM LOSING THE BABY.
Thomas stared.
Claire said, “You spent my whole life telling me I was weak.”
“You are.”
“You made me think I needed you.”
“You did.”
Claire shook her head.
“No. You needed all of us afraid.”
Thomas raised the gun toward her.
Ruiz stepped out.
“Drop it.”
Thomas swung back.
Emily threw a metal file box at his arm.
The gun fired into the ceiling.
Margaret tackled him.
They crashed to the floor.
Thomas struck her.
Emily saw red.
She ran at him.
“Get off her!”
Thomas shoved Margaret aside and grabbed Emily around the throat.
His face was inches from hers.
“You should’ve stayed dead.”
Emily slammed the silver locket into his eye.
Thomas screamed.
She broke free.
Ruiz aimed.
“Do not move!”
Thomas looked at the clock.
11:59:52.
He laughed.
“Too late.”
“What?”
“The trust requires proof of identity filed before the twenty-third birthday.”
Margaret stared.
“No, it doesn’t.”
Thomas’s smile vanished.
“You never read it, did you?” Margaret said.
“My father knew you’d try something.”
11:59:58.
“He wrote a survival clause.”
Thomas’s face changed.
11:59:59.
Midnight.
A digital alarm beeped.
Margaret looked at Emily.
“Happy birthday.”
Samuel laughed weakly.
Thomas stared at them.
Ruiz’s phone regained signal.
Messages flooded in.
One from the Ashford family attorney.
IDENTITY VERIFIED.
TRUST TRANSFER EXECUTED.
Emily now legally owned thirty-five percent of Ashford Industries.
Thomas raised his gun.
“If I can’t have it—”
Claire rushed him.
A shot exploded.
She staggered.
Thomas stared at his sister.
Blood spread across her chest.
For the first time, he looked shocked.
Claire collapsed.
The fire reached the archive.
May you like
And the ceiling started coming down.
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