Chapter 8: The Judge Everyone Trusted Was the Mastermind
The academy burned behind them.
Firefighters battled the flames while federal agents surrounded the mountain.
Victor Hale was finally in handcuffs.
But Professor Samuel Brooks kept repeating the same chilling sentence.
"You've arrested the wrong monster."
Everyone thought the old man had lost his mind.
Until he handed Edward a faded envelope.
Inside were dozens of photographs.
Secret bank transfers.
Court records.
Private meetings.
And in every single one...
Judge Eleanor Carter appeared beside Victor Hale.
Not once.
Not twice.
For nearly twenty-five years.
Edward's blood ran cold.
"The judge..."
"...planned all of this?"
Professor Brooks nodded.
"Victor stole Amelia's music."
"But Eleanor built the empire that protected him."
Twenty-three years earlier...
Amelia had accidentally witnessed something she was never supposed to see.
Judge Eleanor Carter wasn't simply a federal judge.
She secretly controlled an underground network that laundered billions of dollars through priceless works of art, music copyrights, and fake charitable foundations.
Victor Hale was only one of her many famous public faces.
Every artist who refused to cooperate...
Lost everything.
Some disappeared.
Some died.
Others were framed for crimes they never committed.
Amelia had been one of the few brave enough to fight back.
So Eleanor destroyed her reputation...
Then waited patiently for illness to finish what corruption had started.
Edward immediately rushed the evidence to the FBI Director.
Within hours...
Agents stormed Eleanor Carter's courthouse chambers.
Television helicopters captured the historic raid live.
America watched in disbelief.
The country's most respected judge was being investigated for conspiracy, fraud, blackmail, and multiple suspicious deaths.
But when agents entered her office...
She was calmly drinking tea.
Almost...
As if she had expected them.
The lead investigator slammed the evidence onto her desk.
"It's over."
Eleanor smiled.
"No."
"It just reached the interesting part."
She pressed a button hidden beneath her desk.
Across the city...
Every screen suddenly flickered.
Phones.
Televisions.
Billboards.
Even the giant display outside FBI Headquarters.
One video appeared everywhere at once.
It showed Amelia Carter...
Holding two newborn babies.
Then Eleanor's voice.
"One child belongs to love..."
"The other belongs to power."
The room fell silent.
Then came the sentence that changed everything.
"Neither Lily nor Ava is Edward Blackwood's biological daughter."
Edward's face turned white.
"That's impossible..."
The DNA report...
The letter...
Everything had proved he was their father.
Eleanor laughed softly.
"The DNA reports were real."
"But they weren't comparing the girls to Edward."
"They were comparing them..."
"...to someone else."
Lily felt the ground disappear beneath her feet.
"If Edward isn't our father..."
"...then who is?"
Eleanor leaned forward.
For the first time...
Her smile disappeared.
"Ask Professor Brooks."
"He delivered both of you the night you were born."
Every eye turned toward the old professor.
His hands began to shake.
Tears rolled down his face.
For twenty years...
He had protected a secret so dangerous that people had died to keep it buried.
He whispered only four words.
"Your father is alive."
Then...
A black SUV smashed through the courthouse entrance.
Masked gunmen flooded the lobby.
Their leader removed his sunglasses...
Looked directly at Lily...
May you like
And said,
"Your father sent us."
