Chapter 10: The Man Behind the Empire
Chapter 10: The Man Behind the Empire
The room remained silent long after the VHS tape stopped.
No one moved.
No one spoke.
Benjamin Ross stared at the blank television screen as if Richard Carter might suddenly reappear.
Finally, Daniel Mercer broke the silence.
"There's more."
He rewound the tape.
The image flickered back to life.
Richard's face filled the screen once again.
This time, his voice was lower.
More urgent.
"If this recording survives, it means they never found the basement."
"That buys you one chance."
Richard reached off camera and placed a leather notebook on the desk.
"Everything I couldn't prove is in here."
"Names."
"Bank accounts."
"Political donations."
"People who protected them."
He looked directly into the camera.
"But don't make the mistake I almost made."
"Follow the money."
"Not the people."
The recording ended for good.
Daniel immediately searched the basement.
The leather notebook wasn't there.
Every shelf.
Every cabinet.
Every storage box.
Nothing.
"It should be here," Daniel muttered.
Benjamin frowned.
"Richard never lied."
"If he said there was a notebook..."
"...there was."
Someone had taken it.
But who?
And when?
At Holloway Manor...
Edward sat alone in his library.
A servant quietly entered.
"Sir..."
"The old warehouse."
Edward slowly closed his book.
"What about it?"
"The police are there."
His face lost all color.
"So..."
"They found it."
The servant nodded.
"I believe so."
Edward leaned back in his chair.
For nearly thirty years, he had feared this day.
Now it had finally arrived.
Grant burst into the room.
"Dad!"
Edward looked up calmly.
"They found Richard's files, didn't they?"
Grant froze.
"You knew?"
"I always knew."
"Then why didn't we destroy them?"
Edward sighed deeply.
"Because I couldn't."
Grant frowned.
"What do you mean?"
Edward looked toward an old portrait hanging above the fireplace.
"There are promises..."
"...even guilty men keep."
Meanwhile...
At the operations center, forensic accountants worked through the recovered ledgers.
One analyst suddenly raised his hand.
"Director."
Benjamin walked over.
"What did you find?"
"These payments."
Columns of numbers filled the page.
Every month.
For nearly fifteen years.
Millions of dollars.
The recipient wasn't a company.
It wasn't a politician.
It wasn't a government agency.
The payments went to a private trust.
Its name appeared only once.
Blackwood Holdings.
Daniel frowned.
"I've never heard of it."
Benjamin hadn't either.
Which made it even more dangerous.
Within an hour, investigators began digging.
Corporate records.
Property filings.
International banking databases.
Nothing.
Blackwood Holdings officially did not exist.
Yet it had received hundreds of millions of dollars.
One young cyber analyst finally spoke.
"I found one reference."
Everyone looked up.
"It's from twenty-three years ago."
He projected an old newspaper article onto the screen.
The headline read:
Industrialist Charles Blackwood Dies in Private Plane Crash.
Benjamin read quickly.
"His estate was never fully settled."
Daniel folded his arms.
"So the trust survived."
"Looks that way."
"But who controls it now?"
No one knew.
Across Chicago...
Lisa Monroe continued investigating for the Tribune.
Her editor approached her desk.
"You're chasing something bigger."
Lisa nodded.
"I can feel it."
She pointed toward the Holloway financial records.
"The abuse story opened the door."
"But this..."
She tapped the article about Blackwood Holdings.
"...this is corruption."
Her editor smiled.
"Then keep digging."
That afternoon, Hannah returned to Northwestern University.
Not as a student.
As a visitor.
She met with Professor Elaine Brooks, who had once supervised her graduate research.
The professor embraced her warmly.
"I've been worried about you."
"I wasn't ready to talk."
"You are now?"
Hannah nodded.
"I want my life back."
Professor Brooks smiled.
"Then let's begin."
She handed Hannah a folder.
"I kept your doctoral application."
Hannah looked surprised.
"You never submitted it."
"I hoped one day you would."
For the first time since escaping the Holloway mansion, Hannah allowed herself to imagine a future that wasn't defined by fear.
That evening...
Grant met secretly with his attorney.
"We need to leave."
The attorney looked shocked.
"Leave?"
"The country."
Grant nodded.
"We can fly tonight."
The attorney slowly shook his head.
"You can't."
"Why not?"
"The federal court issued a travel restriction this afternoon."
Grant stared at him.
"What?"
"You've been ordered to surrender your passport."
His hands trembled.
"They're treating me like a criminal."
The attorney remained silent.
Because that was exactly what was happening.
Late that night...
Benjamin sat alone reviewing Richard's recovered files.
He opened one envelope that had gone unnoticed.
Inside was a faded photograph.
Richard stood beside a smiling little Hannah outside Carter's Table.
Written across the back, in Richard's handwriting, were nine simple words:
If anything happens to me, protect both of my girls.
Benjamin quietly closed his eyes.
He had failed once.
Richard had died before justice was served.
He wasn't going to fail again.
He reached for the phone.
"Daniel."
"I'm here."
"Tomorrow morning..."
Benjamin's voice became firm.
"We arrest Edward Holloway."
He paused before adding,
"And this time..."
"We ask him who Blackwood really is."
Outside, rain began falling over Chicago.
Inside Holloway Manor, Edward stood at the window, watching the storm.
He whispered a single sentence to the empty room.
"He's finally coming for me."
But he wasn't talking about Benjamin Ross.
He was talking about someone else.
Someone still alive.
Someone whose name had never appeared in any file.
May you like
Someone Edward Holloway had feared for more than thirty years.
End of Chapter 10
