Chapter 13 - THE DATE HELL OPENS
“You led us there,” I said into the phone, my voice low and steady despite the fear racing through me. “You wanted us to find it.”
“I wanted you to understand,” Julian replied smoothly. “I wanted you to know exactly why everything must happen exactly as it will.”
“What happens on October 14th?”
Julian laughed softly. “Elena was always too clever for her own good. She thought she could protect everyone with ink and paper. She thought a will and a journal were enough to keep her safe. To keep Emma safe. But she forgot one thing.”
He paused. The silence stretched tight and dangerous.
“She forgot that I know where the bodies are buried. All of them. Including hers.”
My heart hammered against my ribs. “What are you talking about?”
“October 14th,” Julian said, slow and deliberate, “would have been Elena and Adrian’s fifth wedding anniversary. That is the day the marriage trust matures. The entire estate—every asset, every share, every last penny—transfers to Adrian in full. No stipulations. No restrictions. But there is one clause… one tiny, perfectly legal clause that I wrote myself.”
He paused, letting the words hang.
“If Adrian dies before the anniversary… the trust never matures. It reverts to the surviving spouse. But Adrian is not the surviving spouse. I am.”
The floor seemed to tilt beneath me.
“Vanessa is not legally dead,” Julian continued, his voice dropping to a silky, terrifying purr. “And she is still Adrian’s wife. On paper. Until the anniversary passes. If Adrian dies… Vanessa inherits everything. And since we are partners… I inherit from her. Everything. Including Emma.”
I gripped the edge of the dresser until my knuckles turned white. “You wouldn’t kill your own brother-in-law.”
“I killed my own sister,” Julian said simply. “And she knew it. She wrote it down. She just didn’t realize… I was counting on her telling you.”
He hung up.
I stood there, the phone still pressed to my ear, understanding crashing over me like icy water.
He hadn’t been running last night. He had been positioning himself. He had left the journal so we would learn the date. So we would panic. So Adrian would rush out into the woods with a target painted on his back.
May you like
He was hunting Adrian. And he was using us to flush him out.
I grabbed Emma, snatched the keys from the table, and ran.
