Chapter 7 - THE MAN WHO NEVER DIED
Police arrived within minutes, but Vanessa was gone.
Evelyn was arrested for armed robbery. She smiled through the entire process.
"You think you've won because you found a name," she told Claire. "Blackwater is where names disappear."
Claire took the burned ledger page to Richard's attorney, Grace Monroe, a former federal prosecutor who trusted almost no one.
"Blackwater Farm is in southern Illinois," Grace said. "Private property, abandoned on paper. Owned through six shell companies."
"Owned by whom?"
Grace turned her laptop around.
Hale Protective Holdings.
Richard's company.
Claire felt betrayed all over again.
"My father owns it?"
"Maybe. Or someone used his company to hide it."
They drove through the night.
At dawn, Blackwater Farm appeared beyond a rusted gate: dead fields, a white farmhouse, and three black vehicles parked behind a barn.
Claire wanted to wait for federal agents.
Then she saw Daniel step out of the farmhouse.
He was speaking to a man with silver hair and a deep scar along his jaw.
Thomas Cole.
Alive.
Claire raised her phone and recorded.
"She has the key," Daniel said. "Richard is in custody. We can still force the transfer."
Thomas answered, "You had one job. Marry the girl, isolate her, make her doubt herself. Instead, you let her father walk into the ballroom."
Daniel's face hardened. "I didn't know she was the Hale heir until last year."
Claire's breath caught.
Last year.
That meant his love had been a lie for at least twelve months.
A floorboard creaked beneath her foot.
Thomas looked toward the window.
"Someone's outside."
May you like
Daniel drew a gun.
Claire ran for the tree line as the farmhouse door burst open behind her.
