CHAPTER 6 — The Night Everything Burned
We reached my father's countryside estate in less than twenty minutes.
Police cars already surrounded the property.
Smoke drifted into the night sky.
The front gate hung open.
One guard lay unconscious near the driveway.
Another had been tied to a tree.
Marcus drew his pistol.
"Everyone stay behind me."
We entered cautiously.
The mansion was in ruins.
Furniture overturned.
Glass shattered.
Family portraits ripped from the walls.
The smell of gunpowder lingered in the air.
"Dad!" I shouted.
No answer.
Clara pointed toward the study.
"The safe."
We sprinted down the hallway.
The massive steel vault door had been blasted open.
Documents covered the floor like snow.
The hidden compartments were empty.
Marcus knelt beside a pool of blood.
"Fresh."
"Less than fifteen minutes old."
My chest tightened.
Then I noticed something.
A trail of bloody footprints.
Only one person had walked away.
Whoever was bleeding...
Was still alive.
The trail led downstairs.
To a secret passage I had never seen before.
"My father built this," I whispered.
"He once told me there were tunnels beneath the estate."
Marcus switched on his flashlight.
The underground corridor stretched into darkness.
Halfway through, Clara suddenly stopped.
"Listen."
Footsteps.
Someone was running ahead of us.
Marcus motioned for silence.
We continued carefully until the tunnel opened into an old underground wine cellar.
Rows of ancient barrels lined the walls.
In the center stood my father.
Alive.
His hands were tied behind his back.
A pistol was pressed against his head.
Holding the gun...
Wasn't Uncle Martin.
It wasn't Vanessa.
It wasn't Daniel.
It was my lawyer.
The same lawyer who had helped me fake the paralysis.
The one man I had trusted with every secret.
He smiled calmly.
"I've been waiting for you."
My father looked at me desperately.
"Alex..."
"I'm sorry."
The lawyer laughed.
"You still don't understand, do you?"
"I didn't betray your family."
"I created this entire game."
He slowly reached into his jacket...
...and removed a sealed envelope.
Across the front were three words written in elegant handwriting:
THE REAL WILL.
My heart nearly stopped.
Everything we had uncovered...
The poisoning.
The stolen shares.
The fake accident.
Vanessa.
Martin.
Daniel.
None of it had been the true objective.
The lawyer smiled as he aimed the gun more firmly at my father's head.
"You've been chasing the wrong villains."
May you like
"The real inheritance..."
"...has only just begun."
