Chapter 2 - The Paper Trail of Blood
Daniel drove aimlessly for an hour, his eyes constantly checking the rearview mirror, until he was certain no one was following. He couldn't risk going to a major hospital yet—not until he knew who was hunting them. Instead, he drove to the cabin of an old family friend, Marcus, a retired army medic who lived deep in the ridges.
Marcus didn't ask questions. He immediately set up a warm bed for Mrs. Helen, checked her vitals, and administered a stronger saline drip he kept in his medical supplies.
As Mrs. Helen finally fell into a peaceful, warm sleep, Daniel sat at Marcus's wooden kitchen table, his hands trembling. He pulled up the family group chat again, scrolling back through months of messages, looking for clues.
That was when he noticed something strange. Five months ago, right after Daniel left for Detroit, Laura had posted a photo of a document, claiming it was a "medical release form" for their mother's arthritis. But when Daniel zoomed in on the blurred background of the photo, he saw the letterhead of a prominent local law firm: Clayton & Associates.
"Marcus," Daniel said, his voice trembling with a mixture of rage and exhaustion. "Can you watch her? I need to go to Mom’s old house. I need to see what they stole."
"Be careful, kid," Marcus warned, cleaning a shotgun on the counter. "Greed turns people into monsters."
Daniel arrived at his childhood home at 2:00 AM. The house was dark, the porch light shattered. He unlocked the door and stepped inside. The scent of his mother's lavender perfume was still there, but the house had been ransacked. Drawers were pulled out, closets emptied.
He walked into the kitchen. On the refrigerator, a calendar was still pinned. On the date of three days ago, his mother had written in her shaky handwriting: “Laura and Brian coming to take me to the lawyer.”
Suddenly, Daniel heard a floorboard creak behind him.
He spun around, gripping a heavy metal flashlight. A figure stepped out of the shadows. It wasn't Brian or Laura. It was Sarah, a young paralegal who worked at Clayton & Associates, and a childhood friend of Daniel's.
"Daniel, thank God," she gasped, her face pale. "I knew you'd come here. I'm the one who sent you the text message."
"Sarah? What is going on? What did they do to my mother?!"
Sarah pulled a manila folder from under her jacket. "Your sister and her husband are monsters, Daniel. They didn't just take her money. They signed over the deed to the entire Maple Ridge quarry property. The land your mother owns sits on a massive, untouched vein of rare industrial limestone worth over four million dollars."
May you like
Daniel felt the air leave his lungs. "Four million?"
"Brian owed money to some dangerous people in Lexington," Sarah explained, her voice shaking. "They forced your mother to sign a power of attorney, transferring the land rights to them. But they realized that if your mother stayed alive, she could contest it in court and prove she was coerced. So, they decided she needed to disappear."
