Chapter 5: The Deal at the Gates
The air in the study was freezing, but Christopher felt a hot rage pulsing through his veins. He looked at his brother, Thomas, the man he had grown up with, the man who was now casually gambling with the life of a five-year-old girl.
"You would sell out your own family, Thomas?" Christopher asked, his voice low and vibrating with anger. "For what? A piece of a stolen fortune?"
Thomas set his glass down on the mahogany desk with a sharp click. "Family? Don't give me that hypocritical nonsense, Christopher. Our father left everything to a child you had out of wedlock with a dead woman. He left me nothing but a minor consultancy fee in the European division. Mother got a stipend. You got the CEO chair, and that little brat got the keys to the kingdom. We were sacrificed for your guilt."
"The fortune belonged to her family in the first place, Thomas! Our parents stole it!" Christopher pointed at the black ledger.
"I don't care who owned it a thirty years ago!" Thomas snapped, his face turning red. "I care about who owns it now. And right now, the man outside has forty million dollars of our operating capital. If I help him get that ledger, he gives me twenty million and clears my names from the European debt registries. I get my life back, Chris. And all it costs is a book of old secrets."
Christopher looked down at the ledger, then back at Thomas. "Where is Juliette?"
"Juliette was an idiot," Thomas sneered. "She thought she could just get rid of the kid and inherit everything through you. She didn't realize that our father's trust fund was smarter than that. If Emma dies, the money automatically redirects to a charitable foundation managed by the state, not to you or Juliette. That's why pushing her in the pool was a stupid, amateur move. The man outside doesn't want her dead yet. He wants the ledger to legally reclaim the Monroe assets through the high courts."
Christopher's mind worked quickly. If the man outside wanted the ledger for a legal claim, it meant he needed the original documents inside to prove his identity or the theft. Without it, his forty-million-dollar cyber heist would eventually be tracked down by international authorities.
"Fine," Christopher said, picking up the black book. "If he wants it, tell him to come to the front gates alone. I will hand it to him myself. But the moment I do, the forty million dollars must be returned to the Pierce corporate account."
Thomas smiled, pulling out his own phone. "Smart choice, brother. Let me make the call."
Five minutes later, Christopher stood at the massive iron gates of the Pierce estate. The rain had slowed to a steady drizzle, but the wind was cold. Behind him, the mansion stood like a dark fortress. Beside him stood Thomas, looking eager.
A large, black luxury SUV idled on the other side of the bars, its headlights cutting through the darkness, blinding Christopher. The front door opened, and a man stepped out into the rain.
He was tall, wearing an expensive wool coat, his face partially hidden by the collar. But as he stepped into the light of the gatehouse lamps, Christopher recognized his sharp facial structure. He looked exactly like Rachel.
"Julian Monroe," Christopher breathed, his grip tightening on the ledger. "Rachel's brother. I thought you disappeared in Europe five years ago."
Julian stopped a few feet from the gates, his eyes staring at the black ledger in Christopher's hand with a mixture of hatred and hunger. "I didn't disappear, Christopher. I was hiding from your father’s lawyers. They framed me for a financial crime I didn't commit just to get me out of the country so they could finish stealing my family's legacy."
"I didn't know, Julian," Christopher said honestly. "I didn't know what my parents did until tonight."
"It doesn't matter what you knew!" Julian shouted over the sound of the idling engine. "Your family name is built on the blood of my parents. They took everything from us. Rachel died in poverty because she couldn't afford the medical treatment she needed, while you lived in this mansion!"
"That's not true! I offered Rachel money, she refused to take it because she didn't trust the Pierce name!" Christopher defended himself.
"And she was right not to trust you!" Julian hissed. He pointed at the ledger. "Hand over the book, Christopher. Let me take back what is mine legally, and I will release your corporate funds. If you don't, I will press the button on this laptop in my car, and your family empire will burn to the ground by sunrise."
Christopher looked through the iron bars at Julian, then he looked at Thomas. He felt completely trapped. But as he looked down at the ledger, he noticed a tiny piece of paper sticking out from the back cover—a detail he hadn't seen in the dark study.
May you like
He slid his thumb down, pulling the paper out slightly. It was a recent bank receipt, dated just one week ago, signed by his father’s attorney, Arthur Vance. And the balance listed on it wasn't forty million dollars. It was four hundred million.
Christopher realized a terrifying truth: the forty million Julian had stolen wasn't the main fortune. It was just a distraction. The real wealth was hidden somewhere else, and someone else was currently moving it while they stood at the gates.
