Chapter 10 - The Vault Beneath Ashbourne Bank
They left the mansion at ten forty-two.
Daniel drove.
Emily sat beside him.
Margaret and Samuel followed in another car.
Vanessa remained behind under the watch of two security guards.
Or so Daniel believed.
Ashbourne Bank stood abandoned on Madison Avenue.
The front entrance was boarded.
Samuel led them through an alley.
A steel service door opened with his key.
Inside, the building smelled like dust and old paper.
They descended three floors underground.
Emily checked the time.
Eleven twelve.
Forty-eight minutes.
Samuel reached the vault corridor.
Then stopped.
The door was already open.
Daniel looked at him.
“You left it like this?”
“No.”
They entered carefully.
Rows of document boxes lined the walls.
One shelf stood empty.
Samuel went pale.
“The trust file.”
Gone.
Emily’s stomach dropped.
“Who knew?”
Samuel whispered, “Gerald.”
Daniel turned.
“He’s dead.”
Samuel looked toward the open door.
“His daughter knew too.”
Vanessa’s voice came from behind them.
“Correct.”
They turned.
Vanessa stood in the corridor.
One of Daniel’s security guards was beside her.
The other was nowhere in sight.
Daniel’s face hardened.
“You paid him.”
Vanessa smiled.
“I pay everyone.”
She held a thick cream-colored folder.
The trust file.
Emily stepped forward.
“Give it to me.”
Vanessa laughed.
“Why would I do that?”
Samuel moved.
The guard reached under his jacket.
Daniel stopped him with a look.
No one wanted this to become worse.
Vanessa checked her watch.
“Forty-one minutes.”
Emily stared.
“What do you want?”
Vanessa smiled.
“Your signature.”
She removed a document.
“If you disclaim all rights to the Ashbourne trust, I give you the file.”
Daniel said, “Don’t.”
Emily ignored him.
“What happens to the trust?”
“It dissolves.”
“And the assets?”
“Remain with Daniel’s company.”
Vanessa looked at him.
“And therefore with me after our marriage.”
Daniel laughed once.
Cold.
“We are not getting married.”
For the first time, Vanessa looked wounded.
Then angry.
“You think this changes anything?”
“It changes everything.”
Vanessa looked at Emily.
“Sign.”
Emily took the document.
She read it.
Then tore it in half.
Vanessa’s face changed.
“You idiot.”
Emily dropped the pieces.
“My mother spent her life protecting this.”
Another tear.
“My grandfather hunted her.”
Another.
“Your father hunted her.”
She let the pieces fall.
“I’m not giving it away because you threaten me.”
Vanessa grabbed the trust file.
“Then you get nothing.”
She turned.
Samuel shouted.
“Wait!”
Vanessa stopped.
He pointed toward the red ledger in Emily’s hands.
“You still don’t understand.”
Vanessa frowned.
Samuel smiled faintly.
“The trust file isn’t the proof.”
Emily looked at him.
“What?”
“The ledger is.”
Vanessa went pale.
Samuel continued.
“Clara wrote the original trust number inside the back cover.”
Emily opened it.
There it was.
A registration number.
Samuel looked at the old vault terminal.
“All we need is the number.”
Daniel checked the clock.
Eleven twenty-six.
Vanessa screamed.
May you like
“No!”
And the lights went out again.
