Chapter 17 - The Archive in the WoodsThe storage facility sat off a quiet highway three hours outside Albany. Using the second key found inside the lodge timber box, Claire opened Unit 12B.
It was not filled with old furniture or corporate boxes. Instead, the small room was lined with climate-controlled shelving units, holding hundreds of audio cassettes, financial audits, and personal journals dating back to the 1990s.
As Claire scanned the labels, a shadow fell across the doorway.
She didn't turn around. “You took your time getting here, David.”
A low chuckle echoed from the corridor. Stepping into the light was not David—he was still behind bars—but a young man with David’s exact sharp jawline and cold, calculating eyes.
“I’m Julian,” the man said, sliding his hands into his coat pockets. “David’s son. The cousin you were never supposed to know existed.”
Claire kept her distance from the doorway. “David kept a lot of secrets.”
“He kept his masterpiece hidden,” Julian replied, walking past rows of filing cabinets. “You thought you won, Claire. You dismantled Vivian, you put Ethan away, you even got a nice little employee trust going for Morgan Urban. But you left the foundation rotting on a cracked foundation.”
“If you’re here to kill me, you’re about twenty minutes too late,” Claire said calmly, tapping her phone screen where a live GPS ping was already transmitting directly to Reyes’s private terminal. “If you aren’t, you’re wasting your breath.”
Julian stopped walking. He didn't look panicked; instead, he smiled. “Kill you? Why would I kill the person holding the golden ticket? Do you think the federal government seized all of David’s assets? Think again. The shell companies that now own forty percent of Blackwood Holdings aren't registered to him. They’re registered to an heir.”
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Claire felt a cold draft sweep through the unit. “You.”
“And now,” Julian stepped closer, his voice dropping to a whisper, “you’re going to help me legally merge what’s left of Blackwood into Morgan, or I release every single medical and personal record your father tried to bury to protect your mother’s reputation.”
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