Chapter 13 - The Open Vault
The dead dial tone hissed softly against the silence of the observation room, a stark reminder of how quickly their fragile reality was collapsing. Marcus slammed his phone down onto the table, his face set in grim determination.
“We need to get back to the estate immediately,” Marcus ordered, looking between Clara and Katherine. “If Thomas has the master biometric code, he can access the deep vault beneath the library—the one containing the physical stock certificates that predate the digital registry.”
Katherine slowly straightened up, wiping a stray tear from her cheek with the back of her black-sleeved hand. The brief moment of vulnerability was gone, replaced once more by the unyielding steel of the Sterling matriarch.
“No, Marcus,” Katherine said quietly, walking over to the velvet case and picking up the heavy blue sapphire necklace. She held it out to Clara. “He isn't going for the paper certificates. He’s coming for the original ledger—the one that proves why he was exiled in the first place.”
Clara hesitated, looking down at the magnificent gemstone before slowly reaching out and allowing Katherine to fasten it around her neck once more. The cool metal settled against her bruised throat, grounding her amidst the chaos.
“What is inside that ledger, Grandmother?” Clara asked, her eyes searching the older woman’s face. “Why did my father have to die, and why does Thomas want to burn everything we have left?”
Before Katherine could answer, the precinct door burst open, and a breathless police captain rushed into the room, holding a tablet displaying a live thermal imaging scan of the Sterling estate.
“We just intercepted a distress signal from your private library,” the captain announced, pointing at a glowing red heat signature flickering deep underground. “There is an unauthorized individual inside the sub-basement vault. And local units are reporting that Julian and Eleanor’s holding cells have just been breached from the inside.”
Marcus spun around, his eyes widening in horror.
“Breached? How? Those cells are state-of-the-art federal holding units!”
“Not if someone on the inside disabled the central locking mechanism using an administrator override,” the captain replied grimly. “Julian and Eleanor are gone. And all signs point to them fleeing back toward the mansion to join the intruder.”
Clara clenched her fists, a cold fury rising within her chest. She looked at Katherine, her voice steady and resolute.
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“Let’s go home,” Clara said. “It’s time to finish this once and for all.”
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