Chapter 12 - The Yellow Cottage
The cottage had been abandoned for years.
Grace had sold it when Sophie was twelve.
The new owners had renovated everything except an old stone fireplace.
Sophie remembered walking along its brick hearth as a toddler.
Thomas had built it himself.
With the owners’ permission and investigators present, they removed a loose stone.
Behind it was a metal cylinder.
Inside:
A complete audit.
Copies of transfers.
Audio recordings.
Photographs.
And one signed statement from Charles Blackwood.
Marcus Hale designed the accounts.
Victor Blackwood approved transfers in exchange for personal payments.
Mason Cole provided access.
Celeste Harrington attempted to expose them.
Thomas Reed collected evidence.
Grace Bennett preserved it.
Adrian stared at the document.
“This is enough.”
Sophie shook her head.
“For what?”
“To stop the board vote.”
“Marcus knows we’re here.”
“How?”
Sophie pointed toward the cottage window.
A black sedan sat across the road.
It drove away when Adrian moved toward the door.
The countdown had begun.
Forty-eight hours until the vote.
They copied everything.
Originals went to investigators.
Digital copies went to three separate attorneys.
Adrian prepared to address the board.
Then the Blackwood Group stock plunged.
Someone leaked documents accusing Adrian of secretly paying Sophie millions for fabricated testimony.
News stations published photographs of them entering the cottage together.
Headlines appeared:
BLACKWOOD CHAIRMAN IN SECRET RELATIONSHIP WITH HOUSEKEEPER AT CENTER OF FAMILY SCANDAL.
Sophie stared at the screen.
“They’re making me look like I’m being paid.”
Adrian’s face hardened.
“And making me look compromised.”
Within hours, two directors demanded Adrian temporarily step aside.
Victor publicly called for “stability.”
Sophie wanted to scream.
Adrian instead looked almost calm.
“What?”
She asked.
He pointed toward one leaked bank statement.
“This account isn’t mine.”
“It has your name.”
“It has a forged signature.”
Sophie remembered Charles’s warning.
Do not trust signatures.
Adrian looked at her.
“That was their method twenty years ago.”
“And now.”
“Yes.”
Marcus hadn’t changed tactics.
He just modernized them.
Then Eleanor called.
Her voice shook.
“Adrian.”
“What?”
“Victor is here.”
Adrian stood.
“Don’t let him leave.”
There was silence.
Then Victor came onto the phone.
“Bring the evidence.”
“Why?”
“Because Marcus just sent me a photograph of Eleanor sitting beside an open window.”
Adrian’s expression changed.
Victor continued.
“The message says if I testify tomorrow, your mother won’t make it to the board meeting.”
Eleanor whispered in the background:
“Do not give him anything.”
Adrian closed his eyes.
Sophie understood.
May you like
Marcus had stopped hiding.
The final phase had begun.
