Chapter 5: The Billionaire Who Buried His Own Father
Richard Hawthorne couldn't breathe.
The face on the screen...
The cold blue eyes...
The unmistakable scar above his left eyebrow...
There was no doubt.
It was Charles Hawthorne.
The father Richard had buried eight years earlier.
The funeral had been broadcast on national television.
Thousands had attended.
Richard himself had carried the coffin.
So how...
How could a dead man be smiling at him now?
Charles adjusted his tie and looked directly into the camera.
"If you're seeing this, Richard..."
"It means you've finally become desperate enough to look for the truth."
Richard whispered,
"No..."
"You died."
Charles laughed.
"No."
"I simply disappeared."
The room fell silent.
Every executive stared at the screen in horror.
Charles continued.
"People only fake their deaths for two reasons."
"To escape justice..."
"Or to build something too dangerous for the world to see."
Richard's hands clenched into fists.
"What did you build?"
Charles smiled.
"You."
The room froze.
Richard's eyes widened.
Charles continued calmly.
"You thought you built Hawthorne Technologies."
"You thought you became America's youngest billionaire through hard work."
"You were wrong."
"Every company."
"Every investment."
"Every political connection."
"I arranged all of it."
Richard felt his entire world collapsing.
"My entire life..."
"...was planned?"
Charles nodded.
"You were never the architect."
"You were the product."
Emily's recorded voice suddenly interrupted.
"Don't listen to him, Richard."
The screen split in two.
On one side was Charles.
On the other...
Emily.
Charles rolled his eyes.
"You always talked too much."
Emily ignored him.
"Richard..."
"If Ethan and Lily are with you..."
"Never tell them where the key is."
Richard frowned.
"What key?"
Emily closed her eyes.
"The Crimson Key."
Every person in the room looked confused.
Charles was no longer smiling.
For the first time...
Fear crossed his face.
Emily continued.
"You remember the silver key Ethan brought?"
Richard nodded.
"It doesn't open a bank vault."
"It opens something much worse."
Charles suddenly shouted,
"TURN THE VIDEO OFF!"
His calm voice was gone.
His face twisted with rage.
Emily smiled sadly.
"I knew you'd panic."
"Because Richard..."
"The Crimson Key doesn't unlock money."
"It unlocks the evidence."
Richard stared at Ethan.
"The evidence of what?"
Emily answered.
"The evidence that Charles Hawthorne has secretly controlled judges, senators, billionaires..."
"...and ordered dozens of murders over the last thirty years."
The room exploded.
One FBI agent immediately grabbed his phone.
"We need Homeland Security."
Another whispered,
"This is bigger than corporate crime."
Richard could barely stand.
"My own father..."
Emily nodded.
"He created an organization."
"They called themselves..."
"The Raven Circle."
Every person in the room immediately remembered the raven tattoo.
Daniel Mercer.
The killer outside Ethan's apartment.
The men who had followed Emily.
They all belonged to the same organization.
Meanwhile...
Hundreds of miles away...
Inside an underground bunker...
Charles Hawthorne watched the live security feed.
Beside him...
Lily remained tied to the chair.
Charles smiled at her.
"Your father finally knows the truth."
Lily stared back defiantly.
"My dad is coming."
Charles chuckled.
"Oh..."
"I'm counting on it."
He walked toward a massive steel vault embedded in the concrete wall.
On the front...
A crimson-colored keyhole.
Exactly the same shape as Ethan's silver key.
Charles gently touched the vault.
"One family."
"Two children."
"One key."
Then he whispered something that made even his own guards look terrified.
"The vault doesn't contain documents."
"It contains Project Genesis."
Back at Hawthorne Tower...
Richard turned toward Ethan.
"Do you know anything about Project Genesis?"
The boy hesitated.
Then slowly nodded.
"My mom..."
"...made me memorize a sentence."
Richard knelt beside him.
"What sentence?"
Ethan closed his eyes and repeated it exactly as she had taught him years ago.
"When the Raven opens the Crimson Gate... only the child carrying the blood of both kings can stop Genesis."
The room became eerily quiet.
Richard frowned.
"What does that mean?"
Before Ethan could answer—
The building shook violently.
BOOM!
An explosion ripped through the lower floors.
Emergency alarms screamed throughout the tower.
Smoke filled the hallways.
A security guard burst into the command center.
"They're inside!"
"Who?"
"The Raven Circle!"
"There are dozens of them!"
"They're not here to kill Mr. Hawthorne..."
The guard looked directly at Ethan.
"They're here..."
"...to take the boy alive."
Outside the shattered windows, black helicopters surrounded the skyscraper.
Masked men began rappelling down the sides of the building.
Their uniforms all bore the same symbol.
A black raven with crimson eyes.
Richard pulled Ethan behind him.
His voice was calm.
"If they want my son..."
"They'll have to walk over my dead body."
At that exact moment—
A sniper's laser dot appeared on Richard's chest.
Then a second.
Then a third.
Someone over the building's loudspeakers whispered with a chilling laugh:
May you like
"Welcome to the real war, Richard."
To Be Continued...
