CHAPTER 8 – The Final Name on the List
Within forty-eight hours, the country exploded.
Hundreds of arrests followed.
News channels broadcast emergency reports around the clock.
Banks froze billions of dollars.
Cabinet members resigned.
Corporate giants collapsed overnight.
Richard Hale sat alone inside a maximum-security prison, watching his empire disappear one headline at a time.
Emily finally visited him.
There were no cameras.
No reporters.
Just silence between father and daughter.
Richard looked older than ever.
"You won," he whispered.
Emily shook her head.
"No."
"I finished what my parents started."
Richard lowered his eyes.
"There was one thing I never told you."
Emily remained silent.
He slowly slid a folded photograph across the table.
It showed a little girl.
Not Emily.
Standing beside Richard.
On the back, one sentence was written.
'Find your sister before they do.'
Emily's heart stopped.
"My... sister?"
Richard nodded.
"The organization took her the night your mother escaped."
"They raised her."
"They turned her into one of them."
Emily stared at the photograph in disbelief.
Then the prison alarms suddenly blared.
Every light went out.
Guards shouted through the corridors.
When the emergency lights came back on thirty seconds later...
Richard Hale's cell was empty.
Only the photograph remained.
Hours later, Emily received a package with no return address.
Inside was a single chess piece—a black queen.
Attached to it was a handwritten note.
"The game was never about Richard."
May you like
"Checkmate is coming."
THE END... OR IS IT?
