Chapter 8 - THE FAMILY SURPRISE
With Daniel ruined and Julian behind bars, I assumed I would finally enjoy a moment of uninterrupted peace. I was wrong.
On a rainy Tuesday morning, my front security gate chimed again. This time, the monitor displayed an unexpected visitor standing in the downpour without an umbrella: my estranged aunt, Beatrice.
Beatrice Vance had been disowned by my grandfather twenty years ago for embezzling funds from the family corporation. I hadn't seen her since I was a child.
I pressed the intercom. "Go away, Beatrice. You have no legal right to be here."
"Lena! Open the damn door! I know about the estate recovery!" Beatrice screamed into the camera, her hair plastered to her face by the rain. "If you think you can hoard the entire Vance family fortune while ignoring blood relatives, you have another thing coming!"
I sighed, grabbing an umbrella and walking down the long gravel driveway to the gates. I unlocked the electronic mechanism and pulled the iron door open just enough to look at her.
"What do you want, Beatrice?"
She shivered in the cold rain, her eyes darting greedily around the manicured grounds. "I want my share. My father’s will was rigged! I’m the eldest surviving daughter! I have a right to fifty percent of Ridgecrest Estates!"
"Your father disowned you legally in 2006 after you tried to sell proprietary blueprints to a rival firm," I reminded her calmly. "The court files are public record. Do you want me to have the sheriff escort you off the property, or will you walk away on your own?"
Beatrice sneered, wiping rain from her nose. "You think you're untouchable just because you trapped Daniel and locked up Julian? You're playing a dangerous game, Lena. There are secrets about your grandfather’s past—secrets buried deep in this estate—that will blow your precious trust fund wide open."
I froze. "What kind of secrets?"
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Beatrice smiled maliciously, stepping back into the rain. "Look in the old study desk drawer behind the false mahogany panel. The truth about how your family made its first million isn't as clean as you think."
Before I could reply, she turned and sprinted toward a waiting taxi parked down the road, leaving me standing in the cold rain with my mind racing.
