Chapter 6
Celeste ordered her private security team to surround the federal vehicles.
Morgan drew her weapon.
“So did mine,” every federal agent around her replied.
For several seconds, the mountain road became a battlefield waiting for one frightened finger to move.
Elena stepped between them.
“Tell your people to lower their weapons.”
Celeste smiled.
“You still give orders as if you control the trust.”
“I control the evidence that can destroy you.”
Celeste’s smile faded.
She signaled her guards.
They lowered their weapons.
Morgan’s agents immediately disarmed them.
“Celeste Somor,” Morgan said, “you are being detained in connection with attempted murder, kidnapping, and financial fraud.”
“You have no jurisdiction over my security operations.”
“We crossed that line when your accounts crossed state borders.”
Celeste looked at Elena.
“Adrian lied to you.”
“He told me you ordered my crash.”
“I ordered Daniel to frighten you into delaying the trust vote.”
“He pushed my car into a ravine.”
“Daniel was supposed to stop you on the road.”
Elena stared at the woman who had raised her.
“You still hired him to terrorize me.”
“I was protecting the family.”
Those words had excused every Somor betrayal for generations.
Augustus sat up on the stretcher.
“You were protecting yourself.”
Celeste turned toward him.
“You taught me that the trust must survive any sacrifice.”
“I never told you to sacrifice my granddaughter.”
“No. You only lied about your brother’s death, hid Vanessa’s birthright, and used all of us to protect your throne.”
Vanessa’s inheritance changed the structure of the trust.
If Stefan’s death was officially recognized and Vanessa proved her identity, she would receive twenty percent.
Elena’s controlling share would fall below a majority.
Celeste feared Vanessa would combine her votes with Daniel and seize everything.
“So you tried to remove me first,” Elena said.
“I tried to stop the vote until I could prove Vanessa’s documents were fraudulent.”
“You knew they were real.”
Celeste said nothing.
Daniel had taken advantage of her plan.
He agreed to frighten Elena, then ordered the crash.
Afterward, he held Elena in the hunting cabin while preparing to declare her dead.
Vanessa helped guard her.
The night Elena escaped, she stole food, broke a window, and walked barefoot through the forest.
Celeste claimed she did not know Elena had survived.
Again, she wanted innocence because she had not personally delivered the final blow.
Morgan arrested her.
As agents placed Celeste beside Adrian, a paramedic shouted.
Augustus had stopped breathing.
Elena rushed to the stretcher.
Doctors revived him, but his condition remained critical.
Before the ambulance doors closed, he gripped Elena’s hand.
“The original trust is not in the resort,” he whispered.
“Where is it?”
“Inside Stefan’s grave.”
The document displayed at every board meeting was a copy.
The original contained a handwritten amendment.
If any trustee deliberately harmed another family member for financial control, that person lost all rights to the trust.
Daniel, Vanessa, Adrian, and Celeste could all be removed.
But there was a problem.
Stefan’s grave carried Augustus’s name.
Opening it would prove Augustus had falsified his death.
It could also expose everyone who helped him, including Sofia.
Elena looked toward her injured grandfather.
“Who prepared the false records?”
He whispered one name.
“Marcus Reed.”
Detective Reed had not killed Stefan.
He had helped Augustus disappear.
Then why had he released Daniel?
Before Elena could ask, the ambulance exploded.
Flames swallowed the rear doors.
May you like
Someone had planted a device beneath the stretcher.
And Detective Reed stood fifty feet away holding the remote.
