CHAPTER 4 — The Voice From the Grave
The private jet continued plunging toward the ocean.
Masks dropped from the ceiling.
Passengers screamed.
The cockpit door slammed shut on its own.
Ethan rushed forward, but the controls were locked.
No one could get inside.
Then the speakers crackled.
Static.
A long burst of interference.
And suddenly...
A familiar voice filled the cabin.
It wasn't the pilot.
It wasn't Adrian.
It was Ethan's father.
The man who had supposedly been dead for fifteen years.
"If you're hearing this... then I failed."
The entire cabin froze.
Ethan's eyes filled with tears.
"No... that's impossible."
The recording continued.
"Someone in this cabin murdered me. If they failed to kill you before this message played... they'll try again before this plane lands."
Every passenger instinctively looked around.
Fear spread faster than panic.
The recording wasn't over.
"Ethan... you were never my biological son."
Silence.
The words hit harder than the turbulence.
"But I loved you as my own. I raised you because your real parents died protecting something far more valuable than my company."
Adrian lowered his head.
"You knew?" Ethan asked.
Adrian nodded slowly.
"My mother told me years ago. She said our father chose you because he believed you could save this family."
Ethan felt as though the floor had disappeared beneath him.
Everything he believed about his identity had been a lie.
Then Amelia unfolded the second letter completely.
Hidden between the pages was an old map.
In the center, a red circle surrounded a single word.
VAULT 17.
Beneath it was another handwritten message.
"The truth isn't in the inheritance... it's inside Vault 17. But never let Victor Black arrive there first."
The moment Ethan read the name...
The head of security smiled.
A cold, terrifying smile.
He slowly removed the badge from his uniform.
"My name isn't Daniel."
He reached into his jacket and revealed a black pistol fitted with a suppressor.
"My name..."
He pointed the gun directly at Ethan's chest.
"...is Victor Black."
Every guard standing beside him suddenly raised their own weapons.
They had never been Ethan's security.
They had been Victor's men all along.
Amelia quietly slipped something into Ethan's hand beneath the table.
A tiny remote with a single red button.
She whispered just four words.
"Trust me. Press it."
Ethan stared at the button.
If Amelia was lying...
Everyone aboard the jet would die.
If she was telling the truth...
The greatest secret of the Crawford empire was only seconds away from being exposed.
With trembling hands...
He pressed the button.
Outside the aircraft, a deafening explosion lit up the night sky.
But it wasn't the private jet that exploded.
It was the military drone that had been silently following them for the last twenty minutes.
Victor's smile vanished.
For the first time...
May you like
The hunter realized someone else had been hunting him.
END OF CHAPTER 4...
