Chapter 6 - THE DEAD WOMAN CALLED ME
For seven years, I had dreamed about Grace’s voice.
Sometimes she was laughing.
Sometimes she was crying.
Sometimes she was calling my name from somewhere I could never reach.
But dreams didn’t make phones ring.
“Marcus?”
I gripped the phone.
“Say something only Grace would know.”
Silence.
Then she whispered.
“The first time you told me you loved me, you were bleeding in my kitchen.”
My knees almost gave out.
She continued.
“You had a cut over your left eyebrow.”
“You told me it was from a door.”
“I said doors don’t wear gold watches.”
No one knew that story.
No one.
“Grace.”
My voice cracked.
“Oh God.”
She began crying.
“I’m sorry.”
“Where are you?”
“I can’t tell you.”
“Yes, you can.”
“Victor is still watching.”
“Victor is running.”
“No.”
Her voice sharpened.
“He’s not running.”
“He wanted Raymond to think that.”
“He’s coming for the girls.”
I looked at Emma.
She was wrapped in my coat.
One of my men was removing the tape from her wrists.
“Where have you been?”
“I’ll explain.”
“No.”
“Marcus—”
“I buried you.”
The warehouse went silent around me.
“I stood over your grave.”
“I told our daughter her mother was dead.”
“I spent seven years hating myself because I thought I failed you.”
Grace sobbed.
“I know.”
“Where were you?”
“Montana.”
I closed my eyes.
“What?”
“Anna got me out.”
My mind raced.
Raymond had said Anna was alive.
Grace continued.
“Raymond kept me in that clinic for months.”
“One nurse helped me.”
“She contacted Anna.”
“Anna came for me.”
“Why didn’t you come home?”
The silence was terrible.
Then Grace said the sentence I wasn’t ready for.
“Because I thought you were part of it.”
My eyes opened.
“What?”
“Raymond showed me documents.”
“Bank transfers.”
“Messages.”
“Orders with your signature.”
“They made it look like you had approved everything.”
I understood.
Raymond had spent decades copying my father.
He knew signatures.
Accounts.
Codes.
Grace believed I had betrayed her.
She disappeared because she thought I was the danger.
“Grace.”
“I know now.”
Her voice broke.
“I know it wasn’t you.”
“How?”
“Anna found Raymond’s records.”
“Why call now?”
“Because Anna is missing.”
My body tightened.
“When?”
“Yesterday.”
“Victor has her.”
I looked toward Raymond.
He was being loaded onto a stretcher under armed guard.
He smiled at me.
He knew.
Grace lowered her voice.
“There’s one more thing.”
“What?”
“Victor didn’t only want Emma.”
I looked at Lily’s photograph on my phone.
“He wants both girls.”
“Why?”
Grace hesitated.
“Because of the trust.”
“What trust?”
“The one your father created.”
I frowned.
“My father didn’t create a trust for the girls.”
“Yes, he did.”
“That’s impossible.”
“He created it before he died.”
“How could he know about children that didn’t exist?”
“He didn’t.”
Grace took a breath.
“It transfers control of Blackwell Holdings to the first legitimate female heirs in your bloodline if the male line is ever compromised by criminal conviction.”
My pulse slowed.
Raymond.
Victor.
The empire.
Everything suddenly made sense.
“If I’m convicted…”
“Control goes to Lily and Emma.”
“And because they’re minors?”
“Their legal guardian controls the shares.”
I looked at Raymond.
He had spent years helping build cases against rivals.
Maybe he had also been building one against me.
Grace whispered.
“Victor doesn’t want your daughters dead.”
“He wants custody.”
Then every light in the warehouse went out.
Gunfire erupted outside.
My men shouted.
I pulled Emma behind me.
A vehicle crashed through the rear doors.
Men in tactical gear poured inside.
One of them pointed at Raymond’s stretcher.
“Take him!”
They weren’t here for Emma.
They were here to rescue Raymond.
I fired.
The warehouse filled with smoke.
And when visibility returned, Raymond’s stretcher was empty.
On the floor beside it was a phone.
The screen lit up.
A live video appeared.
Lily was tied to a chair.
Karen lay unconscious beside her.
Victor stood behind them.
May you like
He smiled into the camera.
“You brought me the wrong twin.”
