Chapter 18 - THE WILL THAT WAS NEVER SIGNED
The elevator doors opened onto the subterranean darkness of the harbor loading docks. The air down here was thick with salt, diesel exhaust, and the rotting wood of ancient pilings. Thunder rumbled violently above, vibrating through the massive concrete foundations of the skyscraper.
Following the faint sound of muffled cries, Daniel and Elena sprinted through a labyrinth of rusted shipping containers.
Tied to a wooden support beam near the edge of the dark, lapping bay waters was Naomi. Her lip was split, her blouse torn, but her eyes blazed with furious defiance. Standing over her was an offshore mercenary, holding a heavy roll of duct tape.
“Hey!” Daniel’s roar echoed across the wet concrete.
The guard spun around, drawing a combat knife from his tactical vest, but Daniel didn't hesitate. He closed the twenty-foot distance like a freight train, ducking under the blade’s wild swipe and driving his shoulder straight into the mercenary’s solar plexus. The impact lifted the man off his feet, sending him crashing over the edge of the dock and splashing heavily into the black harbor water below.
Elena was already at Naomi’s side, using the fallen knife to slice through the heavy zip-ties around Naomi’s wrists.
“You guys took your sweet time,” Naomi coughed, rubbing her raw, bruised wrists, but immediately throwing her arms around Elena in a fierce, trembling embrace. “I told them you’d come. I told that psycho Julianne she was going to burn for this.”
“Are you hurt?” Elena asked, checking Naomi’s head for trauma.
“Just my pride and a six-hundred-dollar blouse,” Naomi said, taking a deep, shuddering breath. Then her eyes locked onto Daniel. “Daniel… while they were holding me here, I heard Vance talking to the offshore bank. The trust isn't legitimate. None of it is.”
“We know,” Daniel said bitterly. “Victoria told me. I’m adopted. I was brought in as a tax shield.”
“No, Daniel, you don't know the whole story!” Naomi gripped his jacket, her voice frantic, competing with the howling wind blowing through the dock doors. “Your grandfather didn't adopt you to be a shield. Victoria lied to you! Your grandfather *found* you because you were his true, biological grandson from his eldest daughter who died in childbirth in Switzerland! Victoria hidden that truth from the family for thirty years because your grandfather left the ENTIRE empire directly to you!”
Daniel staggered backward, the world spinning violently around him. “What?”
“The original 1994 Last Will and Testament was never destroyed,” Naomi continued, pulling a water-damaged thumb drive from the hidden lining of her boot. “Julianne kept a digital scan as blackmail against her own mother. Your grandfather knew Victoria would try to kill you or forge the trust documents. So he hid the original, sealed physical will inside the foundation of the estate’s historic fountain!”
Elena’s hand flew to her chest, her mind flashing back to the moment she was pushed into the icy water. The cold stone cherub. The brass pipes. The way Victoria had shrieked in horror when Elena had grabbed onto the base of the fountain to keep from drowning.
Victoria hadn't been screaming in anger because Elena ruined the wedding.
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She had been screaming in terror because Elena’s desperate fingers had been clutching the exact stone slab that hid the document capable of destroying Victoria forever.
“The fountain,” Elena breathed, turning toward Daniel. “We have to go back to the estate. Right now.”
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