Chapter 15 - Poison in the Archive
The revelation hung in the library like mustard gas.
Alexander stood motionless, the weight of his entire family lineage rotting beneath his feet. The foundation, the prestige, the portraits in the high hall—it wasn't an empire built on industry. It was an elaborate mausoleum designed to hide a kidnapping gone wrong.
"Where is Julianna now?" Evelyn asked, her instincts cutting through Alexander's paralysis.
"She’s at the old boathouse at Blackwater," Thomas said. "She doesn't want the money. She wants the dental records Margaret pulled from the coroner's safe thirty years ago. Those rings? They were Davies'. Benjamin took them as trophies before the crash."
"Why did she leave blood on our piano?" Alexander demanded.
Thomas’s expression darkened. "That wasn't her blood. Julianna was ambushed at the cemetery yesterday morning by two men in an unmarked van. She barely got away. Alexander... you think your mother was the only one protecting this secret?"
Thomas pointed toward the tall library windows facing the driveway.
"The trust fund board—the men Margaret put in charge of the foundation—they've been liquidating the holdings since the funeral. If the coroner's report surfaces, the federal government freezes every Whitmore asset under the RICO Act. They aren't going to let Julianna walk out of Blackwater alive. And they won't let you keep this house, either."
Suddenly, the phone on the desk shrieked.
Alexander grabbed the receiver. Elena's voice erupted on the other end, ragged with panic and gunfire crackling in the background.
"Alexander! Don't stay there! They took the boy from the garage—they knew the security codes! They knew the safe room—"
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The line went dead with a metallic click.
***
