Chapter 10 - Midnight
The first bell echoed through the manor.
Dong.
Margaret smiled.
“Happy birthday.”
Second bell.
Dominic shouted, “Marcus, lock down the financial accounts.”
Third bell.
Marcus was already calling.
Fourth.
Margaret shook her head.
“Too late.”
Fifth.
Cassandra stared at her mother.
“What did you do?”
Margaret said nothing.
Sixth.
Victor suddenly turned toward Dominic.
“The trust executes automatically.”
Seventh.
“What does that mean?”
“At midnight, control transfers.”
Eighth.
“To Elena?”
“Yes.”
Ninth.
“Unless?”
Victor looked at Margaret.
“Unless someone filed a death certification.”
My stomach dropped.
Tenth.
Marcus shouted into his phone.
“Check the county record.”
Eleventh.
The room went silent.
Twelfth.
Midnight.
My twenty-ninth birthday.
Marcus looked at his phone.
His face changed.
“Elena Sophia Thorne was declared dead at 11:58 p.m.”
I actually laughed.
“What?”
“A vehicle accident.”
“I've been inside this house.”
“I know.”
Dominic turned to Margaret.
“You filed a false death report?”
She smiled.
“You have friends in city government.”
“So do I.”
“This isn't about friends.”
Victor grabbed Marcus’s phone.
“If Elena is legally dead at the transfer moment, the trust passes to the next qualifying heir.”
Everyone looked at Cassandra.
Her face drained.
“No.”
Margaret smiled at her daughter.
“Everything is yours.”
Cassandra backed away.
“I don't want it.”
“You spent seven months trying to secure it.”
“I wanted to belong.”
“This is belonging.”
“No.”
Cassandra’s voice broke.
“I wanted a family.”
Margaret scoffed.
“Families are useful stories people tell children.”
I watched Cassandra.
Something inside her finally snapped.
Not violently.
Quietly.
She walked to me.
Then held out her hand.
“Give me the locket.”
I stepped backward.
“No.”
“I am not taking it.”
“Then why?”
“Because my mother has another copy of the trust.”
Margaret’s face changed.
Cassandra continued.
“She kept it in her home office. Behind the Klimt painting.”
Margaret hissed, “Shut your mouth.”
Cassandra didn't even look at her.
“The combination is 11-42-11-49.”
The birth times.
Marcus nodded to a guard.
“Send a team.”
Margaret lunged at Cassandra.
Dominic caught her arm.
“You ungrateful little—”
Cassandra screamed.
“At least she was loved!”
Silence.
She pointed at me.
“Lucia had nothing, and she loved Elena.”
Then she pointed at Margaret.
“You had millions, and you never loved me.”
Margaret stared at her.
Cold.
“You were an investment.”
Cassandra stopped breathing.
Those three words did what twenty-eight years of lies couldn't.
They destroyed the last piece of loyalty she had left.
Cassandra slowly turned to me.
Tears ran down her face.
“I know you have every reason to hate me.”
I said nothing.
“I hated you before I even met you.”
“I noticed.”
She almost smiled.
Then she pulled a small flash drive from her dress.
“My mother doesn't know I copied her files.”
Margaret screamed.
Cassandra handed it to me.
“This proves everything.”
I looked at the drive.
Then at her.
“Why give it to me now?”
“Because I spent my whole life becoming exactly like her.”
She looked at Margaret.
“And I finally saw what that turns you into.”
Marcus took the drive.
His phone rang seconds later.
He answered.
Listened.
Then looked at Dominic.
“We have a bigger problem.”
“What?”
“The trust isn't worth hundreds of millions.”
May you like
He swallowed.
“It's worth almost four billion dollars.”
