Chapter 10 - The Unpaid Debt
The sun dipped below the horizon, casting long, eerie shadows across the living room floor.
I held my grandfather’s journal closer to the lamp, tracing the frantic handwriting with my trembling finger.
He wrote that he did not leave the sixty million dollars to Sophie out of love.
He left the money to Sophie because she was the only pure collateral he had left to offer.
The journal confessed that the family's entire billionaire empire was originally built on stolen money from a violent international syndicate.
My grandfather had made a dark pact decades ago, promising that the syndicate could claim his final heir's fortune as repayment.
He had transferred the money to Sophie specifically to put the target on her back instead of his own.
Preston and my parents never knew the truth about the syndicate; they only saw the money.
I dropped the journal onto the floor as a wave of absolute nausea washed over me.
The sixty million dollars sitting in my daughter’s bank account was not a gift of freedom.
It was a beacon, calling the most dangerous people in the world directly to our new doorstep.
The happy, peaceful life I had just fought so hard to build was nothing but a temporary illusion.
I looked up at the front door as the heavy brass knocker slowly began to echo through the silent house.
Three sharp, deliberate knocks shattered the quiet evening.
A slip of black paper was slid under the bottom of the door.
I walked over and picked it up with shaking hands.
May you like
The note contained only five words written in shimmering gold ink.
"We have come to collect."
