Chapter 2
Chapter 2: The Bloodline Exposed
The private investigators didn't take weeks. For the amount of money Evelyn Harrington was pouring into the phones, they took exactly four hours.
By sunset, three folders made of heavy black leather were laid across the mahogany desk in Evelyn’s private study.
Evelyn sat rigidly in her high-backed chair, her eyes bloodshot but piercing. Emma sat on the velvet sofa across from her, quietly sipping hot cocoa provided by a head chef who had never once served a housemaid in his entire thirty-year career. The staff was panicking in the kitchens; the hierarchy of the Harrington Estate had just been completely upended.
“Read it to me, Marcus,” Evelyn commanded, her voice raw.
The lead investigator, a hardened man who had seen the worst of humanity, swallowed nervously. “Ma'am... the DNA test we rushed through the private clinic confirms it with ninety-nine point nine percent accuracy. Emma Carter is your biological granddaughter. She is Jacob’s daughter.”
Evelyn closed her eyes, a shuddering breath escaping her lips. The confirmation felt like a physical blow to her chest.
“And the plane crash?” Evelyn whispered. “Ten years ago. Tell me about my son.”
Marcus opened the second folder. “The black box was never recovered, as you know. The official report stated it was an engine failure. But we dug into the maintenance logs of the private hangar from that week. Someone bypassed the secondary safety checks. Someone paid the chief mechanic three million dollars into an offshore account in the Cayman Islands the exact morning before the flight.”
Evelyn’s hands gripped the armrests so tightly her knuckles turned white. “Who owned the offshore account?”
Marcus looked toward the door of the study, as if afraid the walls themselves had ears. “The account belongs to a shell corporation, ma'am. But the ultimate beneficial owner... is Thomas Harrington.”
A heavy, suffocating silence blanketed the room.
Thomas.
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Evelyn’s younger nephew. The man who had been running the day-to-day operations of Harrington Financial ever since Jacob’s disappearance. The man who stood next in line to inherit the entire multi-billion-dollar empire if Evelyn were to pass away without a direct heir.
“He didn't just kill my son,” Evelyn sised, her voice dropping into a register of pure, terrifying ice. “He tried to wipe out his entire bloodline.”
