Chapter 9 - RICHARD’S BROTHER
Richard could not believe what he was seeing.
Martin stood in the rain holding a gun.
The same Martin who had eaten dinner beside him hours earlier.
The same Martin who had pretended to be shocked by the missing money.
The same Martin who had comforted Natalie.
Richard pushed against the damaged door.
It would not open.
Ethan groaned from the front passenger seat.
Sophia moved behind him.
Thomas whispered.
“Now you know.”
Martin approached the vehicle.
Mason began regaining consciousness.
He saw Martin.
His expression changed instantly.
“Idiot.”
Martin pointed the gun through the broken window.
“You were supposed to bring Richard alone.”
Mason wiped blood from his mouth.
“Plans changed.”
“You always say that.”
Martin looked toward Thomas.
“You look terrible.”
Thomas smiled weakly.
“You look worse.”
Martin’s eyes hardened.
Richard stared at his brother.
“Why?”
Martin laughed.
“You really need to stop asking that question tonight.”
“Why?”
Martin crouched beside the window.
“Because you had everything.”
Richard stared.
“Our father trusted you.”
“That is not true.”
“You became chairman.”
“You voted for me.”
“After Dad told me I would never be capable of running the company.”
Richard shook his head.
“He said you didn’t want it.”
“I said I didn’t want to spend sixty hours a week being compared to you.”
“That isn’t the same thing.”
Martin’s face twisted.
“You don’t remember anything.”
Richard saw decades of resentment he had never recognized.
Martin continued.
“You got the company.”
“You got the house.”
“You got Margaret.”
Richard frowned.
“What does Margaret have to do with this?”
Martin laughed.
“You really never knew.”
Richard stared.
Martin’s expression became almost tender.
“I loved her first.”
Richard went silent.
Thomas looked away.
Martin continued.
“She chose you.”
“That was her choice.”
“Yes.”
“And I spent forty years watching you call everything luck.”
“You had your own life.”
Martin laughed.
“My own life?”
“You gave me a vice president title with no authority.”
“You owned twenty percent of the company.”
“You controlled every important vote.”
Richard stared.
“So you stole from us.”
Martin’s expression turned cold.
“I took what should have been mine.”
Richard looked at Thomas.
“You knew?”
Thomas nodded.
“Eventually.”
Martin pointed the gun toward him.
“And that was his mistake.”
Thomas smiled.
“No.”
“My mistake was believing Margaret could fix it without destroying the family.”
Richard looked horrified.
Martin noticed.
“You still worship her.”
“She tried to protect you.”
“From prison.”
Richard’s voice hardened.
“Yes.”
Martin laughed.
“She protected the family name.”
“There’s a difference.”
Richard stared.
“Where is Natalie?”
Martin’s eyes flickered.
Richard saw it.
“What did you do?”
“Nothing.”
“Where is she?”
Martin did not answer.
Richard lunged against the broken door.
Martin raised the gun.
“Sit back.”
Ethan was fully conscious now.
He looked toward Martin.
“Uncle Martin?”
Martin smiled.
“Hello, Ethan.”
Ethan’s expression was devastated.
“You were in the study with us.”
“Yes.”
“You watched us discover everything.”
“Most of it.”
“You knew Mason was coming.”
“Of course.”
Sophia whispered.
“You were the person Pierce worked for.”
Martin looked at her.
“Sometimes.”
Mason laughed.
“Don’t flatter yourself, Martin.”
Martin’s weapon shifted toward him.
“You lost control of this.”
“I kept it alive for fifteen years.”
“You also brought Sophia into it.”
Mason looked toward her.
“She was useful.”
Sophia’s face tightened.
Martin shrugged.
“Barely.”
Ethan turned toward his wife.
Sophia looked away.
Richard studied the argument.
Martin and Mason were not partners anymore.
They were rivals.
That mattered.
Richard asked.
“Who has the money?”
Martin looked at him.
“No one.”
“What?”
“The account is frozen behind a legal structure Margaret created.”
Thomas smiled.
“Smartest person in the family.”
Martin glared at him.
Richard looked at Thomas.
“What structure?”
“A restitution trust.”
Richard frowned.
Thomas continued.
“Margaret designed it so the money could only be released if three conditions were met.”
Martin’s expression darkened.
Richard asked.
“What conditions?”
Thomas counted.
“Proof of original ownership.”
“Confirmation from the trust custodian.”
“And approval from the designated Whitmore trustee.”
Richard understood.
“Me.”
Thomas shook his head.
“No.”
Everyone stared.
Richard frowned.
“Who?”
Thomas looked toward Ethan.
“Your son.”
Ethan went still.
Martin swore.
Mason laughed.
Richard stared at Thomas.
“Margaret named Ethan?”
“Yes.”
“He was twenty-seven.”
“She trusted him.”
Ethan shook his head.
“I’ve never heard of this.”
“You were not supposed to.”
“Why?”
“Because the trust activates only if someone tries to access the account improperly.”
Martin looked furious.
“And tonight Sophia’s petition triggered it.”
Sophia stared.
“My petition?”
Thomas nodded.
“When you tried to remove Richard from financial control, the trust’s dormant protections activated.”
Richard suddenly understood.
“That is why Benjamin received the court notice so quickly.”
Thomas nodded.
“Margaret built legal alarms into everything.”
Martin slammed his fist against the car.
“Enough.”
He looked toward Ethan.
“You are coming with me.”
Ethan laughed.
“No.”
Martin raised the gun.
“That wasn’t a request.”
Richard moved.
Martin immediately aimed at him.
Ethan froze.
Martin continued.
“Ethan authorizes the release.”
“Mason provides the original Kline records.”
“I provide the corporate ownership documentation.”
Thomas smiled.
“And then?”
Martin looked at him.
“Then we divide it.”
Mason laughed.
“You still believe that?”
Martin turned.
Mason’s hand suddenly came up.
A second gun appeared from beneath his coat.
He fired.
The sound exploded across the road.
Martin fell backward.
Sophia screamed.
Richard ducked.
Martin’s gun skidded across the wet asphalt.
Mason kicked the damaged SUV door open.
“Move!”
Ethan climbed out.
Richard followed.
Thomas struggled.
Richard helped him.
Mason aimed toward Martin.
Martin was alive.
The bullet had struck his shoulder.
Mason approached.
“You were always too emotional.”
Martin laughed through pain.
“And you were always too greedy.”
Mason raised the gun.
Richard stepped between them.
“Enough.”
Mason looked at him.
“Move.”
“No.”
Martin stared at Richard.
Even after everything, Richard was protecting him.
“Why?”
Martin whispered.
Richard did not look back.
“Because Margaret spent half her life trying to stop this family from destroying itself.”
Mason smiled.
“She failed.”
Richard stared.
“Maybe.”
Then headlights appeared around the bend.
Mason turned.
Police.
Real police this time.
Mason grabbed Sophia.
He pressed the gun against her side.
“Back in the vehicle.”
Sophia froze.
Ethan moved.
Mason aimed at him.
“Try it.”
Ethan stopped.
The police vehicles approached rapidly.
Mason dragged Sophia toward the second SUV.
Pierce emerged from it.
Lily was beside him.
Pierce looked furious.
“What happened?”
Martin answered from the ground.
“Mason happened.”
Pierce looked toward the headlights.
“We need to go.”
Mason shoved Sophia into the second SUV.
Pierce forced Lily inside.
Richard moved toward them.
Mason pointed the weapon.
“Stay.”
Ethan looked at Sophia.
For one second their eyes met.
Despite everything, Ethan saw fear.
Real fear.
Sophia mouthed two words.
Help Lily.
Then Mason drove away.
Pierce’s SUV disappeared into the rain.
Police vehicles stopped beside Richard.
Officers rushed toward them.
Richard pointed down the road.
“My granddaughter is inside that car!”
The chase began immediately.
Martin was placed in handcuffs beside the ambulance.
Thomas refused treatment until Lily was found.
Ethan stood in the rain.
Richard joined him.
For several seconds they watched the flashing lights disappear.
Ethan whispered.
“Sophia could have run toward us.”
Richard looked at him.
“Mason was armed.”
“She looked at Lily first.”
Richard said nothing.
Ethan’s expression was torn.
“She did terrible things.”
“Yes.”
“But she warned me.”
“Yes.”
Ethan looked at his father.
“Does that matter?”
Richard thought carefully.
“It matters.”
“Does it change what she did?”
“No.”
Ethan nodded.
That answer seemed to hurt.
Thomas approached.
His forehead had been bandaged.
Richard looked toward him.
“Tell me everything about the trust.”
Thomas nodded.
“It isn’t the trust you need to worry about.”
“What?”
Thomas looked at Martin being loaded into the ambulance.
“Martin was telling the truth about one thing.”
Richard waited.
“He has the corporate ownership documents.”
“So?”
“So Margaret designed the restitution trust around three competing proofs.”
“Mason has one.”
“Martin has one.”
“And Ethan unknowingly has the authority.”
Richard understood.
“None can access it alone.”
Thomas nodded.
“That was the idea.”
Ethan frowned.
“But Mason has Sophia.”
Thomas looked at him.
“Yes.”
“So?”
Thomas’s expression became grim.
“Your wife did not marry you only because Mason wanted access to Richard.”
Ethan went still.
“What else?”
Thomas hesitated.
Richard felt dread.
Thomas finally said.
“Mason believed Margaret would eventually name Richard’s eldest son as trustee.”
Ethan stared.
Thomas continued.
“So Sophia’s marriage was always part of the plan.”
“I know that.”
“No.”
Thomas looked apologetic.
“You don’t.”
Ethan waited.
“Mason did not merely want Sophia close to you.”
Thomas swallowed.
“He wanted her to have your child.”
Ethan’s face went blank.
Richard looked confused.
“Ethan and Sophia don’t have children.”
Thomas nodded slowly.
“I know.”
Ethan stared.
Thomas continued.
“That is why Mason began threatening her three years ago.”
Sophia had wanted children.
At least Ethan believed she had.
Two miscarriages had devastated them.
A third pregnancy had ended before they told the family.
Ethan’s face drained of color.
“What are you saying?”
Thomas looked down.
“I’m saying you need to ask Sophia what really happened during her first pregnancy.”
Ethan stepped closer.
“What happened?”
Thomas’s eyes were filled with pity.
“She did not lose that baby.”
Ethan stopped breathing.
Richard stared.
Thomas continued.
“She gave birth.”
Ethan laughed in disbelief.
“That’s impossible.”
Thomas shook his head.
“Mason arranged everything.”
Richard felt sick.
Ethan grabbed Thomas’s coat.
“Where is my child?”
Thomas looked toward the road where Mason had disappeared.
“I don’t know.”
Ethan shook him.
“WHERE IS MY CHILD?”
Thomas whispered.
May you like
“But Mason does.”
And for the first time that night, the stolen fortune stopped mattering.
