Chapter 7 - The Lawyer's Last Warning
The lawyer was Jonathan Reed.
He was seventy-two.
He had served Everett's family for more than thirty years.
Everett found him at an old lakeside house.
Jonathan looked unsurprised to see him alive.
“I wondered when you would come.”
Everett stopped.
“You knew.”
“I knew your mother was afraid.”
“Of Clara?”
Jonathan shook his head.
“Not of Clara.”
“Then who?”
Jonathan looked at Willa.
“Her.”
Willa froze.
“Me?”
Jonathan explained.
Willa's mother had once worked for Everett's mother.
Years earlier, she had discovered financial irregularities inside the family foundation.
She tried to report them.
Then she disappeared.
Willa had grown up believing her mother abandoned her.
But Jonathan had kept the truth hidden.
“She was protecting you.”
Willa's eyes filled with tears.
“From what?”
“From the people who wanted access to the foundation.”
Everett looked at Jonathan.
“Who?”
Jonathan opened a locked drawer.
Inside was a list.
Names.
Payments.
Shell companies.
One name appeared repeatedly.
Clara Kane.
But Clara wasn't working alone.
Jonathan pointed to another name.
“Your mother's doctor.”
Everett felt a chill.
The same doctor who had treated him after the poisoning.
Dr. Adrian Cole.
Jonathan explained that Adrian had altered Everett's medical records.
He had made the coma appear worse than it was.
He had helped Sterling maintain the illusion.
But why?
Because Clara had promised him control of the Kane medical foundation.
Everett stood.
“Where is Adrian?”
Jonathan's face changed.
“He knows I kept this.”
A car engine roared outside.
Jonathan looked through the window.
A black sedan.
The same vehicle from the photographs.
Jonathan whispered:
“Run.”
The front window shattered.
Everett pulled Willa down.
A bullet struck the wall.
Jonathan fell backward.
Willa crawled toward him.
He grabbed her wrist.
“Your mother... left something... for you.”
He pressed a small brass key into her hand.
Then he whispered:
May you like
“Don't trust the grave.”
And closed his eyes.
