Chapter 8 - The Foster Father's Secret
I stood completely paralyzed with shock as Thomas looked at me with deep, agonizing regret.
"Dad, what are you doing here?" I asked, my voice cracking with emotion.
Thomas could not even meet my eyes as he held a stack of legal documents in his trembling hands.
"Richard paid me a massive fortune to adopt you and keep you entirely off the grid," Thomas confessed quietly.
"But he contacted me yesterday and ordered me to finish the job before your birthday."
My entire world shattered as I realized the only father I had ever known was on Richard's payroll.
"I refused to kill you, Hannah, because I truly love you like my own daughter," Thomas cried out.
Richard suddenly stepped out from the shadows of the ruined staircase, holding a silver revolver.
"You are incredibly useless, Thomas," Richard sneered coldly.
Richard raised the gun and shot my foster father directly in the chest without a second of hesitation.
Thomas collapsed to the floor, gasping for breath as blood stained his shirt.
Richard walked over to me and pressed the hot barrel of the gun against my temple.
"Sign the legal surrender of the trust fund right now, or you die exactly where you stand," Richard ordered.
He forced a pen into my hand and pushed me toward the documents resting on a broken table.
May you like
I gripped the pen tightly, entirely prepared to sign my life away to save Eleanor.
But as I looked down at Thomas's bleeding body, I noticed a tiny, flashing red light clipped to his collar.
