Chapter 6 - The Man Behind Every Funeral
Eleanor gripped the staircase railing.
“You are dead.”
Richard Blackwood smiled.
“So were Samuel, Mara, Lillian, and half the people whose secrets built our fortune.”
He descended with the help of a cane.
Age had weakened his body, but not the authority in his voice.
Julian moved in front of Amelia.
“You arranged all of this.”
Richard’s gaze settled on him.
“I arranged your life before you could speak.”
Julian’s jaw tightened.
“That is not something to be proud of.”
“I did not survive by needing your approval.”
Eleanor stepped toward her husband.
“I watched them lower your coffin.”
“Charles chose a body of similar height.”
Everyone looked at the attorney.
Charles closed his eyes.
“I was told Richard’s survival protected the company.”
Eleanor struck him again.
This time he did not react.
Richard reached the foyer.
“The wedding activated too many dormant agreements. I needed every claimant identified before midnight.”
Amelia held the torn red gown around herself.
“You ordered Eleanor to attack me?”
“No. I knew she would.”
Eleanor looked sick.
Richard had studied her pride, grief, and fear well enough to predict public cruelty.
“The red dress offended her,” he said. “The pendant would fall when she tried to remove it. Witnesses would confirm her recognition.”
“You turned my mother’s dress into bait,” Amelia said.
“Rose Hart understood sacrifice.”
“Do not speak her name.”
Richard smiled faintly.
“You have her courage.”
Samuel stepped toward him.
“You promised Rose would remain safe.”
“She died naturally.”
“After your doctor changed her medication.”
Amelia’s face hardened.
“You killed her.”
Richard shrugged.
“She intended to bring you to Eleanor before the wedding.”
Julian lunged.
Two armed men appeared on the upper landing and aimed at him.
Amelia caught his arm.
Richard looked pleased.
“You were always emotional where women were concerned. Catherine’s blood.”
Julian stared at him.
“You killed my mother.”
“She threatened the family.”
“She was your sister.”
“She was reckless.”
Eleanor’s expression transformed.
For years, fear had been buried beneath control. Now the fear disappeared, leaving fury.
“How many people did you erase?”
“As many as necessary.”
“And Lillian?”
Richard looked at Amelia.
“I preserved her.”
“You stole her,” Eleanor said.
“I removed a future weapon from your hands.”
“She was a baby.”
“She was an inheritance.”
Amelia finally understood why Richard seemed incapable of remorse.
He did not see children, marriages, or grief.
He saw ownership.
Mara moved toward the testing device.
“The blood sample proves Richard altered the pendant.”
Samuel examined the tube.
“He placed his own blood inside recently.”
“Why?” Julian asked.
Richard answered.
“To ensure the test connected Amelia to the Blackwood line.”
“That would not prove Eleanor is her mother.”
“It would prove enough for the board until the final trust activated.”
Preston Hale had said Amelia could control the company at midnight.
Richard intended to place her in control only temporarily, then manipulate her through the scandal surrounding Julian.
If the public believed Amelia nearly married a relative, she would become isolated, humiliated, and easier to remove.
“You wanted the wedding stopped,” Amelia said.
“I wanted it remembered.”
Julian looked at him.
“You were willing to destroy both of us.”
“I was willing to prevent an alliance I could not control.”
Eleanor stepped beside Amelia.
“You will not touch her.”
Richard laughed.
“You tore her dress apart less than an hour ago.”
“I was wrong.”
“You were predictable.”
Eleanor took Amelia’s hand.
Amelia almost pulled away.
Then she saw Richard’s expression.
He had expected division.
For that reason alone, she allowed Eleanor to hold on.
The grandfather clock began striking eleven thirty.
Richard looked toward the archive doors beneath the staircase.
“At midnight, Blackwood Industries transfers to Lillian.”
Amelia tightened her grip on the pendant.
“I do not want it.”
“It does not matter.”
Richard raised his cane toward Julian.
“Unless she dies before the final bell.”
The armed men on the landing moved.
Samuel pushed Amelia toward the archive corridor.
Julian struck the nearest guard.
Eleanor grabbed Richard’s cane and pulled him off balance.
The foyer erupted.
A gunshot shattered the chandelier above them.
Glass rained across the marble.
Mara opened a hidden door beneath the stairs.
“This way!”
Amelia, Julian, Eleanor, and Samuel ran into the archive passage.
Charles followed last.
Before the door closed, Richard shouted after them.
“Ask Samuel why the jade pendant was found in his operating room before Lillian disappeared.”
Inside the darkness, Amelia stopped.
She looked at the man she had called father.
“What is he talking about?”
Samuel’s face revealed the answer before he spoke.
May you like
“I helped Richard take you.”
Continue to the next part: Samuel admits he participated in Amelia’s kidnapping, but claims he did it to prevent Eleanor from learning an even darker truth.
