Chapter 27 - The brother's confession
"I wondered how long it would take you to find the cellar switch, Margaret," Arthur Weston said, seated in a high-backed leather armchair behind the massive mahogany desk. He was sipping bourbon from a crystal tumbler, his ivory cane leaning casually against his knee.
Standing behind him were four armed men in unmarked black tactical uniforms, their rifles leveled at Garrett and Evelyn.
"You didn't beat us here," Garrett said coldly, stepping in front of Maya. "You were already waiting."
"Of course I was," Arthur said smoothly, taking a slow sip of his drink. "Evelyn’s phone has had a GPS transponder embedded in the chassis since her second year of medical residency. Did you truly believe Julian’s treacherous daughter acted on her own conscience?"
Evelyn reached into her pocket, but the click of four safety catches echoed simultaneously across the room.
"Easy, child," Arthur said without looking at her. "You delivered them right to the vault door. For that, I might allow you to keep your medical license when this night concludes."
He turned his pale eyes back to Maya. "Twenty-four years ago, this room held the greatest threat to our family name. Your father had discovered that I was liquidating company reserves to finance high-risk overseas weapons contracts. He prepared an indictment that would have dismantled the Weston name forever."
"He was going to turn you over to the Department of Justice," Margaret said, her voice shaking with righteous fury.
"He was going to ruin us!" Arthur barked, slamming his glass onto the mahogany surface with sudden violence. "So I gave him an impossible choice. Vance took his daughter. And I promised him that if he filed the indictment, the child would die. If he remained silent and signed the conservatorship over to me, the child would live—hidden, nameless, and distant."
May you like
Maya stepped forward, ignoring the rifles pointed at her chest. "And you kept me alive as leverage."
👉 "No," Arthur said with a cold, terrifying smile. "I kept you alive because your blood was the only thing that could unlock the vault after your father died."
