Chapter 16 - The Second Fall
The fuel truck missed Julian by inches.
Marcus tackled him behind a concrete barrier as the truck smashed through a stack of equipment.
Inside the hangar, Leo rolled beneath the wing of a small aircraft.
The truck clipped the metal table, sending Anna’s journal skidding across the floor.
Eleanor lost control.
The front tire struck a loading ramp.
The truck tipped.
For one terrifying second, the entire vehicle balanced on two wheels.
Then it crashed onto its side.
Police swarmed the cab.
Leo crawled out from under the plane.
“Dad!”
Julian ran to him.
This time Leo did not step away.
He let his father grab him.
“I thought—” Julian said.
“I’m okay.”
“You are never doing anything like that again.”
Leo almost laughed. “We can fight about that later.”
Eleanor was pulled from the cab with blood on her forehead and one wrist hanging limp.
She saw Leo in Julian’s arms.
Her expression twisted.
“You still don’t understand,” she shouted. “Charles did worse than I ever did!”
Detectives took her away.
At the hospital, Leo’s injuries were minor. Eleanor had a broken wrist and concussion.
Miles Grant was found that night in an abandoned motel, alive but badly beaten.
He claimed Eleanor attacked him when he tried to leave the conspiracy.
Eleanor claimed Charles did it.
Charles claimed Miles staged everything.
For once, Julian did not care what any of them claimed.
He cared about documents.
Facts.
Proof.
The next morning, Claire arrived with the bank key.
Inside the deposit box they found original ledgers, copies of Anna’s notes, and a signed statement from Miles.
But the last item was the one that changed the room.
A paternity test.
Adrian Mercer was Eleanor’s father with 99.98 percent probability.
Attached to it was another test.
Claire’s biological father was not Miles Grant.
May you like
Julian read the name twice.
Then he looked at his brother Charles.
