Chapter 15 - The Exchange
Grace found her mother’s phone beneath the conference table.
The screen was cracked.
A message appeared ten minutes later.
BRING THOMAS’S ORIGINAL KEY.
COME ALONE.
Grace immediately knew.
The brass key marked 217.
Adrian refused to let her go alone.
“You’re not walking into a trap.”
“He has my mother.”
“He wants you too.”
“Exactly.”
Vanessa entered.
“Julian won’t kill Helen immediately.”
Grace turned.
“How could you know?”
“Because he needs the trust.”
Julian could not legally control Thomas’s shares while Grace lived.
But there was an old contingency.
If Grace died without heirs, the shares transferred to Helen.
If both died?
The stake returned to a Blackwood charitable entity.
The foundation Julian now controlled.
Grace felt sick.
“He wants both of us dead.”
Adrian shook his head.
“He wants it to look accidental.”
Just like Thomas.
Just like Richard.
The message contained coordinates.
An abandoned Sinclair estate outside the city.
Grace insisted on going.
Federal agents followed from a distance.
Adrian hid a tracker inside the brass key.
At midnight Grace entered the estate alone.
Julian waited in the ballroom.
Helen sat tied to a chair.
Behind Julian stood an older man.
Thin.
Gray-haired.
Serpent ring on his hand.
Victor Sinclair.
Alive.
Grace stopped.
Julian smiled.
“Family reunion.”
Victor looked at Grace.
“You have your father’s eyes.”
“You followed him?”
“No.”
“Martin did.”
Victor stepped closer.
“I tried to save Thomas.”
Grace stared.
“Then why hide?”
“Because your father discovered something worse than stolen money.”
Julian’s expression tightened.
“Enough.”
Victor ignored him.
“He discovered Richard and Charles planned to frame me.”
Julian pulled a gun.
“I said enough.”
Grace looked between them.
“You’re not working together.”
Victor smiled sadly.
“No.”
Julian’s eyes burned.
“My father abandoned me.”
Victor whispered.
“I was trying to keep you alive.”
“You disappeared for thirty years.”
“To keep Charles from using you.”
Julian laughed.
“Charles raised me.”
Grace understood.
Julian believed Charles Sinclair was his benefactor.
Victor believed Charles had manipulated Julian.
The family war had started before Grace was born.
Julian aimed the gun at Helen.
“The key.”
Grace held it up.
“Release her.”
“Key first.”
Grace tossed it across the floor.
Julian picked it up.
Then smiled.
“You really think this opens room 217?”
Grace said nothing.
Julian’s expression changed.
He finally realized.
The key was never the valuable thing.
It was the tracker.
Sirens exploded outside.
Julian raised the gun.
“Big mistake.”
Grace looked directly at him.
“No.”
She repeated the words she had told Vanessa.
May you like
“You’re not going to hit her.”
Then she lunged.
