Chapter 148 - Blood in the Snow
There was a five-second silence on the line, heavy with thirty years of shared exile.
"Is Eleanor dead?" the voice asked, devoid of emotion.
"In federal custody in Vermont," Arthur said. "Sterling took Vance Manor thirty minutes ago. He extracted the secondary ledger and killed two federal officers. He tracked the key to the Richelieu culverts. He has a bird in the air and mercenaries on the ground."
"Who is with you, Arthur?"
Arthur looked across the room at Emma, who stood guard over her sleeping child with a rusted iron pipe she had scavenged from the floor. "Your niece, Emma. And her daughter, Maya."
A sharp intake of breath hissed through the receiver. "Emma survived Eleanor?"
"She walked out on Christmas Day," Arthur said, a rare, fierce note of pride ringing in his tone. "She threw Eleanor’s abuse back in her face and took the girl. She broke the covenant, Julian."
"Where are you?"
"Switch-house 14, Mile Marker 28."
"Listen to me very carefully," Julian Vance said, his voice shifting into immediate, tactical authority. "Sterling isn't looking for the money. The Geneva accounts were emptied three weeks ago by Eleanor's private counsel. Sterling is looking for the blood signature."
Emma stepped closer to the receiver, her voice hard. "What does that mean? What is a blood signature?"
On the other end, Julian paused. "Emma? My god, you sound just like your father." He sighed, the weight of decades pressing through the line. "The trust was formed under ancient Swiss family covenants. If the primary lineage fails to pay the debt, the creditor can claim guardianship of the sole surviving minor heir through a defaulted custody lien established in 1982. Eleanor signed it when you were three years old, Emma. She used you as the bond."
Emma’s vision went red. A roar of primal, murderous fury filled her ears. Eleanor hadn't just rejected Maya at Christmas dinner because the child was an inconvenience—Eleanor had rejected her because Maya was the final substitute asset on a catastrophic financial note.
May you like
"He wants my daughter," Emma snarled.
"He wants the legal custody of the child to unlock the eighty million dollars remaining in the Swiss sovereign trust," Julian corrected grimly. "If he takes Maya, you will never see her again. Get out of the switch-house. Now. They have dogs."
