Chapter 10
The East Wing corridor was pitch black, save for the pale moonlight cutting through the tall arched windows. Arthur moved with silent precision, his dark suit blending seamlessly into the shadows. Close behind him crept David, clutching a small digital camera, while Martha kept watch near the service stairwell to alert them if Eleanor or Harrison doubled back.
Arthur stopped outside the heavy mahogany double doors of Eleanor’s private study. A faint orange glow flickered beneath the door gap, accompanied by the distinct acrid smell of burning paper and melting wax. He tried the brass handle; it turned silently. The door was unlocked—a fatal oversight born of arrogance and panic.
With a gentle push, Arthur swung the door open just enough to slip inside, signaling David to follow.
The study was a cavernous room lined with leather-bound ledgers and heavy velvet draperies. At the far end, before a massive marble fireplace, Eleanor stood holding a stack of yellowed bank statements, feeding them one by one into the licking flames. Harrison sat nearby at a mahogany desk, rapidly deleting files from a silver laptop while stuffing hard copy folios into a shredder that whirred loudly against the quiet of the night.
"You're burning the wrong evidence, Harrison," Arthur’s deep, steady voice cut through the room like a blade.
Harrison froze, his fingers hovering over the laptop keyboard. Eleanor dropped the remaining papers into the fire, turning around with a speed that belied her years. Her face was a mask of cold fury, her pink skirt suit catching the amber firelight.
"How dare you trespass in my private chambers?" Eleanor hissed, her voice trembling with suppressed rage. "Arthur, you are fired—effective immediately. Get out of my house before I have you arrested for burglary."
"You can't fire us, Grandmother," Camille’s voice echoed softly from the doorway. She stepped into the study, wearing a simple silk robe over her white dress, her expression unyielding. "The emergency injunction was signed twenty minutes ago. Any document destroyed right now is an explicit obstruction of justice."
Harrison forced a thin, nervous smile, standing up slowly from the desk. "Camille, my dear, you are wildly out of your depth. This is family business. These are private ledgers concerning personal tax exemptions that have nothing to do with the trust."
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David stepped past Arthur, holding up his camera with the flash disabled. "Private ledgers don't require cross-border shell companies in the Cayman Islands, Harrison. I already downloaded the server backups from the downstairs terminal before you encrypted them."
Eleanor stared at David, then at Camille, the realization finally dawning that her empire of fear had completely collapsed.
