Chapter 9 - The Serpent Ring

Vanessa stared at the photograph.

“That isn’t my ring.”

She removed the emerald serpent from her finger.

“My grandmother gave this to me.”

Daniel examined it.

Inside the band were two initials.

E.C.

Vanessa frowned.

“My grandmother’s name was Eleanor Cole.”

Detective Monroe looked at her.

“Is she alive?”

Vanessa went silent.

“My family says she died when I was twelve.”

“Says?”

“I never attended a funeral.”

Her parents told her Eleanor died overseas.

There had been no body.

No grave.

No obituary.

We searched old photographs.

Eleanor Cole had been one of Charles Harrington’s earliest business partners.

Thirty years earlier, she helped create the Harrington Foundation.

Then her name vanished from every official record.

Noah discovered why.

Eleanor had been accused of embezzlement.

Charles forced her out.

Or that was the public story.

Samuel’s encrypted files showed something different.

Eleanor had created the secret network.

Charles discovered it and removed her.

But instead of disappearing, Eleanor rebuilt the network behind the scenes.

Richard and Victor worked for her.

Politicians owed her.

Corporate leaders feared her.

Even after Charles supposedly destroyed her power, she continued controlling millions.

Vanessa stood trembling.

“My grandmother is the Chairman?”

“We don’t know yet.”

Then Detective Monroe found security footage from the night Vanessa received the envelope.

The man in the baseball cap had been identified.

His name was Peter Cole.

Vanessa’s father.

Vanessa covered her mouth.

“That’s impossible.”

Her father had told her he was in London.

Monroe placed a photograph on the table.

Peter leaving Richard Sloan’s Manhattan office three hours earlier.

Vanessa began crying.

“My father gave me the envelope.”

Daniel stared at her.

“You didn’t recognize him?”

“He never looked at me.”

She shook her head.

“And I was terrified.”

We called Peter.

No answer.

Police arrived at his townhouse.

The doors were unlocked.

Inside, they found overturned furniture and blood on the staircase.

But no Peter.

On the dining table was a handwritten note.

Vanessa.

If you are reading this, your grandmother is alive.

She has controlled this family longer than you have been alive.

Do not believe anything she tells you.

Especially what she tells you about Grace.

Vanessa looked at me.

“Why would my grandmother know anything about you?”

Before I could answer, Noah opened another file from Samuel’s drive.

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It contained my birth certificate.

And the name listed under Mother was not the woman who had raised me.