Chapter 13 - The Loyal Man’s Betrayal
The estate gates were locked when we returned.
Smoke rose from the west wing.
Reed’s tactical unit entered through the rear service road.
I found Thomas inside the security room.
Blood covered his shirt.
My service pistol lay on the floor beside him.
I aimed at his chest.
“Step away from the weapon.”
He raised his hands.
“I did not take it.”
“The access log says you did.”
“Conrad forced me to open the locker.”
“Where is Elena?”
“Kitchen pantry.”
“Alive?”
“Yes.”
“Victoria?”
“In the study.”
We entered together.
Victoria lay behind Dad’s desk with a gunshot wound in her side.
She was alive.
Mason stood near the broken window.
He held the original will in one hand and a lighter in the other.
Conrad stood beside him with a pistol.
“Perfect timing,” Conrad said.
“Your weapon.”
“Your wounded stepmother.”
“Your fingerprints throughout the room.”
“You truly are your father’s daughter.”
I looked at Thomas.
Conrad smiled.
“Tell her.”
Thomas’s face crumpled.
“I gave them the access code.”
“Why?”
“My daughter.”
“Conrad’s men entered her house in Denver.”
“They put my grandson on the phone.”
I understood his fear.
I also saw the cost around us.
“Where are they now?”
“Federal agents reached them ten minutes ago.”
Reed had acted after Thomas’s earlier confession.
Conrad’s leverage was gone.
I told him.
Thomas’s entire posture changed.
Conrad fired.
Thomas pushed me aside.
The bullet struck him in the chest.
I hit the floor.
Mason dropped the lighter.
The will landed near the curtains.
Fire climbed the fabric.
Reed’s agents entered through the hallway.
Conrad grabbed Victoria and pressed the pistol beneath her chin.
“Back away.”
Mason ran toward the window.
Elena stepped from the side doorway holding a cast-iron skillet.
She struck him across the face.
He collapsed against the wall.
Even Reed looked surprised.
Elena lowered the skillet.
“He complained about my cooking for three years.”
Conrad dragged Victoria toward the terrace.
She was bleeding heavily.
“Tell them to lower their weapons,” he ordered.
Victoria looked at me.
For the first time, there was no performance in her face.
Only terror.
“He killed Samuel,” she whispered.
Conrad tightened his arm around her neck.
“You administered the poison.”
“You told me it would only make him confused.”
“You watched him die.”
Victoria began sobbing.
“I did.”
Reed’s body camera recorded every word.
Conrad backed toward the pool.
I moved slowly along the study wall.
His focus remained on the agents.
Victoria saw me.
Her eyes shifted toward the bronze statue near my hand.
She understood.
She drove her heel onto Conrad’s foot.
I swung the statue into his wrist.
The pistol fired.
The bullet struck the ceiling.
Reed tackled him.
Victoria collapsed.
May you like
Behind us, flames reached the original will.
Grandma walked through the doorway and stamped them out with her slipper.
