Chapter 7 - THE UNWANTED HEIR
Emma remembered receiving the assignment.
Her supervisor had called at midnight.
A different waitress canceled.
The Cross wedding paid triple the usual rate.
Emma accepted because her father’s rehabilitation bills were overdue.
She believed it was luck.
Julian had selected her.
He needed both heirs inside the estate.
Olivia.
And Emma.
If Adrian died from poisoned champagne, Vanessa would receive medical proxy control.
If Olivia died during the confusion, Atlas would pass to Emma.
Julian planned to frame Emma for the poisoning.
Once arrested, she would be declared legally compromised.
A court-appointed custodian could control her inherited voting rights.
Julian had already prepared the custodian.
Himself.
“You needed me alive,” Emma said.
“Temporarily,” Julian replied.
Adrian’s eyes hardened.
“What happened to Evelyn?”
The smile left Julian’s face.
“She discovered the truth too late.”
Emma felt the room tilt.
“My mother died from cancer.”
“That is what her doctors were paid to write.”
Emma’s breath stopped.
Her mother had become ill suddenly.
She suffered nerve damage, organ failure, and rapid weight loss.
Doctors called it an aggressive autoimmune cancer.
No biopsy ever produced a clear result.
Emma remembered asking questions.
She remembered Julian’s hospital foundation paying part of the treatment.
At the time, she considered it charity.
Now she understood.
Cross Memorial Hospital had hidden the poisoning.
Dr. Elias Grant had worked there.
Emma looked toward the door.
“Dr. Grant treated Celeste.”
Marcus understood.
He called the ballroom security team.
No answer came.
Julian’s image disappeared from the monitor.
A timer replaced it.
Thirty-eight minutes.
A message appeared beneath the numbers.
ATLAS SUCCESSION LOCK.
Olivia looked at Adrian.
“What happens at midnight?”
“Theodore’s second will activates.”
Emma studied the timer.
“What does Julian need before then?”
“Both heirs identified.”
Olivia raised her bound wrists.
“He already has us.”
“No,” Emma said.
“He needs biometric confirmation.”
She remembered the syringe marks on Celeste.
The poisoned champagne.
The fake medical proxy documents.
“They planned to take blood from Adrian.”
“And probably from you.”
Vanessa laughed from the floor.
“You are almost clever.”
Marcus restrained her hands.
“What is the confirmation system?”
Vanessa looked at Julian’s timer.
“You will never reach it.”
“Reach what?” Adrian asked.
“The Atlas vault.”
“Where is it?”
Vanessa smiled.
“Under the hospital.”
Cross Memorial Hospital stood eight miles from the estate.
Dr. Grant controlled the emergency access tunnels.
Julian had used the wedding as a distraction while his men entered the underground vault.
Olivia looked at Emma.
“They need our blood to activate the inheritance.”
Vanessa shook her head.
“They need more than blood.”
She looked at Emma.
“Your mother hid the physical key.”
Emma thought of Evelyn’s belongings.
Most had been sold after her death.
One item remained.
A brass music box Emma had kept in storage.
Her mother had told her never to open the lower compartment.
Emma believed it was broken.
Julian had brought her to the estate because he expected her to reveal where the key was hidden.
A guard entered the room.
His face was white.
“Mr. Cross.”
“The ballroom doctor is gone.”
“So is Celeste.”
A message appeared on Emma’s phone.
It came from her father’s rehabilitation center.
A photograph showed him asleep in his hospital bed.
A man’s hand held a syringe beside his neck.
May you like
Beneath it were six words.
BRING THE MUSIC BOX TO THE HOSPITAL.
