Chapter 2 - The Midnight Escape
I dropped the blinds immediately and backed away from the window, my mind racing with pure panic.
Daniel had never been the kind of man to use violence, but the six million dollars in the ledger changed everything.
He must have discovered the existence of the secret fortune shortly after I left the family house.
I knew that my standard apartment door lock would not hold up against a steel crowbar for more than thirty seconds.
I grabbed my backpack, shoved the heavy leather ledger inside, and dropped the iron key into my deep coat pocket.
Loud, aggressive footsteps began echoing up the wooden staircase of my apartment building.
I ran into my small kitchen and quietly unlatched the rusty window that led to the metal fire escape.
Just as I slid the window open, a massive fist began pounding relentlessly on my front door.
Daniel yelled my name, demanding that I open the door and threatening to kick it off its hinges if I refused.
I slipped out onto the freezing iron platform and carefully closed the kitchen window behind me.
The cold night air bit into my face as I quickly descended the metal stairs toward the dark alleyway below.
I could hear the sickening sound of wood splintering as the men broke into my apartment above me.
When my boots hit the wet pavement of the alley, I did not stop to look back.
I sprinted for three blocks until I reached a busy commercial street illuminated by bright neon signs.
I ducked into an old, twenty-four-hour diner and slid into a corner booth where I could watch the front entrance.
A tired waitress brought me a cup of black coffee, and I finally allowed myself to breathe.
I opened the ledger again, desperately trying to understand the full scope of my father's hidden empire.
The pages detailed a lifetime of brilliant investments, property acquisitions, and quiet wealth accumulation.
But the final few pages contained something that made me smile for the first time in forty days.
My father had taken out a massive, predatory loan against the family house right before he got sick.
He had intentionally structured the debt so that whoever inherited the property would be financially ruined by the hidden liens.
Daniel thought he had won the grand prize, but he had actually inherited a half-million-dollar trap.
I looked at the iron key in my pocket, realizing it was the only way to access the real fortune.
The ledger indicated that the key belonged to a private, highly secure vault located in the downtown financial district.
I threw a five-dollar bill on the table, pulled my hood up over my head, and stepped back out into the freezing night.
I needed to reach that vault before the bank opened in the morning, or Daniel would surely find me.
As I turned the corner toward the subway station, a black unmarked van suddenly screeched onto the sidewalk, blocking my path.
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The side door slid open, and two men wearing ski masks leaped out into the street.
Before I could even scream for help, a heavy cloth was forced over my mouth, and the world faded into total darkness.
