Chapter 5 - The Inheritance of Shadows
Night fell over Minneapolis,
the city lights shimmering like cold diamonds on the black velvet of the horizon.
I sat in the dark,
the only light coming from the blue glow of my computer screens.
I had moved the ledger and the flash drive to a safe-deposit box at a bank they didn't know about,
leaving only decoy folders in the desk.
I felt like a spy in my own life.
Around 2 AM,
my security app sent an alert to my phone.
Motion detected in the service elevator.
I sat up,
my heart racing.
The service elevator required a key-card that only building staff and residents possessed.
Harrison must have bribed someone.
I watched the black-and-white feed as a man in a maintenance uniform stepped out into the hallway.
He was carrying a toolbox,
but he wasn't heading for the pipes.
He was heading for my door.
He didn't have a drill this time.
He had a sophisticated electronic lock-pick.
I didn't call the police this time.
I called a private security firm I had hired earlier that afternoon.
"He's here,"
I whispered into the phone.
"Room 40B."
Within seconds,
two large men appeared from the emergency stairwell,
tackling the "maintenance worker" before he could even touch my lock.
I watched the scuffle on the monitor,
feeling a grim satisfaction.
They pulled off his mask to reveal one of Harrison's personal security guards.
"Caught red-handed,"
one of my guards said,
looking into the camera.
"What do you want us to do with him,
Ms. Bennett?"
"Hold him until the police arrive,"
I said.
"And make sure you find out who gave him the key-card."
Ten minutes later,
the building manager was being led away in handcuffs alongside the guard.
Harrison’s circle was shrinking.
Every move he made was being documented,
added to the mountain of evidence Marcus was preparing.
I went to my father's video file again,
scrolling to the very end.
There was a second video,
one I had missed in my initial panic.
It showed my father sitting in a park,
looking at the camera with a sad smile.
"Claire,
there’s one more thing."
"The forty-nine percent isn't just about money."
"There’s a hidden vault in the Voss estate,
under the old library."
"The access code is your birthday."
"Inside,
you’ll find the real reason Harrison married you."
"It wasn't just for the money,
sweetheart."
"It was for the silence."
The video cut to black.
The silence.
What silence?
What could be so big that they needed to marry me to keep it quiet?
I looked at the date of the video.
It was filmed just a week before he died.
My father hadn't died of a heart attack,
I suddenly realized.
He had died of "complications" while being treated at a Voss-funded hospital.
A cold chill settled in my marrow.
They hadn't just stolen my inheritance.
May you like
They had killed the only person who could help me claim it.
And I had been sleeping in the bed of the man who ordered it.
