Chapter 4 - The Warden’s Shadow
The study was exactly as I had imagined it in my dreams, but with a terrifying twist. There were no photographs of me, no mementos of our life together. The walls were covered in ledgers—decades of records tracking the movements of powerful people in the city.
I picked up the ledger closest to me. It wasn't about money. It was about leverage. Every politician, every judge, every business tycoon in the city had their secrets recorded here. My father hadn't been a businessman; he was the city's architect of shadows.
I heard a click—a door opening above. Then, the sound of heels on floorboards.
I scrambled behind a heavy velvet curtain just as the secret entrance to the study opened from the other side. Evelyn entered, but she wasn't alone. A man in a sharp grey suit followed her.
"The boy is out," Evelyn’s voice echoed in the small, subterranean room. "He’s a ghost. He doesn't even know what he’s looking for."
"He has the Vane key," the man replied, his voice chillingly cold. "If he has the key, he has the access to the central ledger. If he finds that, the entire organization collapses. We didn't kill Arthur for the house, Evelyn. We killed him because he was going to turn himself in."
My breath hitched. My father hadn't just died; he had been murdered, and he had intended to confess to something that would have brought down this entire web of corruption.
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Evelyn walked over to the desk, her hand tracing the very spot where I had been standing moments before. "He’s a Vane. He’s smarter than he looks. If he’s out there, he’s coming here."
She turned toward the curtain, her eyes narrowing. "And I have a feeling he’s already arrived."
