Chapter 12 - THE MAN IN THE WAREHOUSE
Evan told Claire.
He was done obeying strangers who demanded silence.
They entered the abandoned warehouse through a side door just after sunset.
A single work light burned in the middle of the floor.
An elderly man sat beneath it.
"Evan?"
"Who are you?"
"Samuel Cole."
Claire stopped.
Everyone had been told Samuel sold his half to Robert and moved overseas before Evan was born.
Samuel smiled bitterly.
"I didn't sell."
He placed a thick ledger on the table.
"Martin forged it."
The original ownership was clear.
Robert Bennett: forty percent.
Samuel Cole: thirty-five percent.
Mara Ellis: twenty-five percent.
"Then the Bennett family never owned the whole company."
"Not even close."
Samuel explained that Martin had created false transfers after Mara's death and forced Samuel out by threatening to expose a tax scheme Martin himself had built.
"Robert let him?" Claire asked.
Samuel's eyes hardened.
"Robert was weak when it mattered."
Evan thought of Helen's nine minutes.
A family full of people who had not planned the worst thing but had chosen silence when it arrived.
"Why contact me now?"
Samuel pointed to the ledger.
"Because Robert came to me before he died."
"Dad knew where you were?"
"He wanted to fix it."
Samuel took out a notarized document.
"He signed a codicil restoring Mara's shares to you and acknowledging mine."
Claire read it.
"This changes the entire estate."
"Yes."
Samuel's face changed.
"You were followed."
Claire switched off the work light.
Derek's voice called out.
"Uncle Evan, let's not make this ugly."
Evan whispered, "Stay behind me."
Samuel shook his head.
"No. Take the ledger."
May you like
He shoved it into Evan's hands.
Then a gunshot cracked through the warehouse.
