Chapter 4 - The Dead Attorney
Mariana could not move.
Samuel Voss had been declared dead after a fire destroyed his country house.
She remembered attending the funeral.
She remembered her mother standing beneath a black umbrella.
She remembered Alejandro refusing to discuss the investigation.
Now Samuel stood inside the boardroom as though twelve years had disappeared.
Mariana approached him.
“My mother died eight years ago.”
“I know.”
“Then she could not have sent you.”
“She gave me instructions before her death.”
Alejandro looked toward the guards.
“Remove him.”
Mariana raised one hand.
“No.”
Her father stared at her.
“This man is dangerous.”
“This man may know why you lied to me.”
Samuel took a seat.
His hands trembled slightly.
“My death was arranged for my protection.”
“Protection from whom?” Mariana asked.
Samuel looked at Alejandro.
“Your family.”
Rafael pushed a document across the table.
Samuel signed it.
The signature matched old legal records.
Andrew watched the confrontation in silence.
His own crisis suddenly appeared small compared with the secrets surrounding Mariana.
Samuel removed a key from beneath his shirt.
It hung from a thin silver chain.
“Your mother believed the Escalante trust had been compromised.”
“She discovered unauthorized transfers.”
“She suspected someone close to Alejandro.”
Mariana looked at Rafael.
Rafael shook his head.
“I was twenty-one.”
Samuel continued.
“Your mother asked me to preserve evidence.”
“Before I could expose it, my house was burned.”
“Who started the fire?” Mariana asked.
“I never saw the man’s face.”
“Then why blame my father?”
“Because Alejandro told the police that I was inside the house.”
Alejandro slammed his hand against the table.
“I was told you were dead.”
“By whom?”
Alejandro stopped.
Samuel looked at Mariana.
“That is the question everyone should be asking.”
Rafael leaned forward.
“The key opens a private vault in Geneva.”
“Inside are the original ownership ledgers.”
Mariana turned toward him.
“You have not opened it?”
“The vault requires two biometric authorizations.”
“Mine and yours.”
Rafael’s answer made sense.
Mariana’s mother had designed the family trust so no single heir could access its most sensitive records.
Rafael possessed one branch of the family authorization.
Mariana possessed the other.
Alejandro stepped between them.
“You will not go to Geneva.”
Mariana faced him.
“You do not control me.”
“I am trying to keep you alive.”
“Then tell me the truth.”
Alejandro’s eyes filled with something she had rarely seen.
Fear.
“Your mother did not die from an illness.”
The room became silent.
Mariana felt Andrew move behind her.
She barely heard him.
“What are you saying?”
Alejandro lowered his voice.
“The cancer was real.”
“But it was not what killed her.”
Mariana’s breathing became shallow.
Her mother had died in a private hospital after months of treatment.
Mariana had held her hand.
She had watched the monitor go dark.
“What killed her?”
Alejandro looked toward Samuel.
“Someone changed her medication.”
Samuel closed his eyes.
Rafael’s face lost its smile.
Even he had not known.
Mariana gripped the edge of the table.
“Who?”
“We never proved it.”
“But you suspected someone.”
“Yes.”
“Tell me the name.”
Before Alejandro could answer, every light in the boardroom went out.
The security system sounded once.
Then it died.
The glass walls darkened as emergency shutters descended.
Someone screamed in the hallway.
Andrew reached for Mariana and pulled her away from the windows.
A gunshot exploded outside the boardroom.
The doors opened.
A masked man rushed inside.
Security guards tackled him before he could raise his weapon again.
The attacker fought desperately.
During the struggle, something fell from his pocket.
It slid across the floor and stopped beside Mariana’s shoe.
It was an emerald pendant.
The stone matched Margaret’s missing necklace.
Mariana bent down.
A thin line divided the center of the jewel.
It was not simply jewelry.
It was a storage device.
Samuel stared at it.
“Your mother hid the vault code inside that emerald.”
The masked attacker stopped struggling.
Then he bit down on something hidden between his teeth.
His body collapsed seconds later.
Mariana looked toward the dead man.
On the inside of his wrist was a tattoo.
A black crown surrounded by the letter E.
Alejandro recognized it immediately.
May you like
His face turned gray.
“That symbol belonged to your mother’s private security team.”
