Chapter 10: The Silver Queen
Federal agents searched the silver vault beneath Hawthorne Hall.
Hundreds of pieces were inspected.
Serving trays.
Candelabras.
Goblets.
Tea sets.
Nothing.
Then Emily remembered Victoria’s favorite object.
A silver figurine shaped like a crowned woman.
It always stood in the center of the dining-room table during formal dinners.
Victoria called it the Silver Queen.
Agents found a small seam beneath the crown.
Inside was a microdrive.
The files were encrypted.
Emily supplied several possibilities for the password.
None worked.
Ethan suggested family birthdates.
Still nothing.
Then Sarah visited Emily carrying Jacob’s old scholarship letter.
“I found this in my mother’s attic,” she said. “I thought you should see it.”
The letter contained a printed foundation motto:
FORTUNE FAVORS THE BLOODLINE.
Emily stared at the words.
Victoria had spoken a variation of that phrase for years.
Blood remembers.
Blood deserves.
Blood inherits.
“Try ‘bloodline,’” Emily told Daniel.
The drive opened.
It contained the complete architecture of Project Crown.
Names of bankers.
Lawyers.
Judges.
Business leaders.
Government officials.
At the top of every authorization page was one signature.
Senator Richard Halston.
Halston had served in Washington for twenty-eight years. He chaired committees overseeing financial crimes and charitable organizations.
He had also been Charles Montgomery’s college roommate.
The ledger revealed something even darker.
Charles had faked his death after an internal dispute with Victoria.
He continued controlling the operation from a private island through Halston.
Victoria managed the American assets.
But over the last year, she had begun transferring money into accounts Charles could not access.
Their marriage had become a war.
Emily had stepped into the middle without knowing it.
Daniel opened another file.
It was labeled SUCCESSION.
The plan described Charles’s intended return to public life after Halston became vice president.
Victoria would be removed.
Ethan would become the public face of the company.
And Emily’s death would provide the fifty million dollars needed to clean several endangered accounts.
Ethan read the page.
“My father was going to use me.”
May you like
Emily looked at him without sympathy.
“Now you understand how it feels.”
