Chapter 12 - THE HEIR THEY WERE BUILDING
Baldric drove to the Vance estate before noon.Police surrounded the mansion.
Black SUVs filled the driveway.
Officers moved through the house carrying boxes of documents and evidence.
Roger Vance was being escorted outside.
Bertha was screaming at the detectives.
Derek stood near the marble staircase in handcuffs, his face pale and furious.
For the first time, the people who had spent years controlling everyone around them looked completely powerless.
But Baldric barely noticed them.
His attention was fixed on the second floor.
Gideon's bedroom.
A detective approached him.
“Mr. Baldric, we found something else.”
Baldric turned.
“What?”
“The tablet wasn't the only recording device in that room.”
The detective held up a small memory card.
“We found this hidden inside a child's toy.”
Baldric stared at it.
“Play it.”
The detective inserted the card into a nearby laptop.
Static filled the room.
Then a child's voice emerged.
Gideon.
Four years old.
His voice was small.
Terrified.
“I don't want to do it anymore.”
Baldric's face tightened.
A man's voice answered.
“You don't have a choice.”
Gideon whispered:
“Grandpa won't give you anything.”
The man laughed quietly.
“Your grandfather will eventually give you everything.”
“But Mommy says he won't.”
“She doesn't understand.”
There was a pause.
Then the man's voice became colder.
“That is why she can't be allowed to interfere.”
Baldric's eyes hardened.
The recording continued.
Footsteps.
A door opening.
A child's breathing.
Then Gideon's frightened voice.
“Uncle…”
Everyone in the room became still.
“Why are you doing this?”
The man's answer came through the recording.
“Because your grandfather took everything from me.”
Baldric's face changed.
The voice continued.
“One day, little man, all of this will belong to you.”
The recording ended.
Silence filled the room.
No one moved.
Charles looked at Baldric.
“Baldric…”
But Baldric was staring at the black screen.
His mind was racing through twenty-five years of memories.
His wife's death.
Elias's disappearance.
The Vance family.
The altered medical records.
The hidden trust.
Gideon's strange memories.
The man who had been close to his family for decades.
Then Baldric slowly turned toward the detective.
“Find Elias.”
The detective nodded.
“And find out who that voice belongs to.”
Before anyone could answer, Baldric's phone vibrated.
A message.
Unknown number.
He opened it.
YOU'RE LOOKING FOR ELIAS.
Another message appeared.
YOU SHOULD BE LOOKING IN YOUR OWN HOUSE.
Baldric stared at the screen.
For the first time since the nightmare began, genuine fear crossed his face.
Not because someone had threatened him.
But because the message was too specific.
Whoever had sent it knew where he was.
Knew what he had discovered.
And knew exactly which question he was asking.
Behind him, the study door slowly began to close.
Baldric turned.
The hallway was empty.
But just before the door clicked shut, he noticed a familiar shadow disappear around the corner.
He reached for the handle.
Too late.
His phone vibrated one final time.
A photograph appeared on the screen.
It showed Baldric standing in his own study.
Taken only seconds earlier.
Below it were five words:
YOU'RE NOT ALONE, BALDRIC.
He slowly looked around the dark room.
May you like
And for the first time in his life...
the billionaire who controlled an entire empire realized that someone else had been controlling the game all along.
