Chapter 15 - The Watchers at the Gate
I lunged toward the heavy velvet curtains and pulled them aside.
Down below, through the rain-slicked darkness of the estate, the private access road wound toward the eastern perimeter.
The eastern gate was supposed to be permanently locked with industrial chains, reserved only for emergency maintenance crews.
The massive wrought-iron gates were standing wide open.
Two black SUVs with darkened windows were parked silently just beyond the stone pillars, their engines idling without headlights.
They weren't moving forward.
They weren't retreating.
They were waiting.
My phone vibrated in my palm.
It was an unlisted number.
I answered, pressing the glass to my ear while keeping my eyes locked on the ominous silhouettes of the vehicles.
"Arthur," a voice spoke, low, cultured, and resonant with aristocratic disdain.
It was Richard Ashford.
My father-in-law.
A man who had sent condolences to Elena’s funeral via a telegram from Zurich, claiming his failing heart prevented international travel.
"Richard," I snarled, my voice shaking with raw fury.
"You're in Chicago."
"I have never left Chicago, my dear boy," Richard replied with a dry, hollow chuckle.
"Switzerland is dreadfully boring after the ski season."
"I find the temperate climate of corporate manipulation much more restorative for an old man's constitution."
"You used Elena’s signature," I said, my teeth clenched until my jaw ached.
"You desecrated your own daughter’s name to loot the retirement savings of three thousand laborers."
"I didn't use her signature, Arthur," Richard answered coldly.
"Elena created that offshore entity herself six months before she entered the hospice."
"She didn't do it to loot a factory."
"She did it to pay off the men who were threatening to put a bullet through your head when Vance Capital overleveraged itself on the Baltic shipping port."
"She sold her soul to my associates so you could play the righteous billionaire in your glass tower."
"And now, by handing Julian over to Marcus Thorne, you have exposed the offshore accounts to the Department of Justice."
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"You broke the dam, Arthur."
"And the water is rising fast."
