Two days after my father-in-law died, my husband brought his mistress into our kitchen, / Chapter 64 / 80

Chapter 64 - The Bloodline Covenant

The wind shrieked against the circular brick walls of the lightkeeper’s house, rattling the glass until it buzzed like an angry hornet.

"You don't have ten million dollars," Marilyn said, her revolver still pointed directly at the bridge of Arthur's nose. "The offshore accounts in Grand Cayman were frozen yesterday morning by the federal receiver in Minneapolis. Julian signed the paperwork in Duluth, but he signed the old power of attorney Donald revoked three days before his death."

Arthur’s gray eyes flicked to Marilyn, a shadow of irritation passing across his brow. "The paper in Duluth was irrelevant. The true trust is rooted in the sovereign mining patents granted to the Vance family by the state of Michigan in 1862. Those patents can only be transferred by a direct descendant of Arthur Vance." He stepped toward me, his hand outstretched. "Not Julian. Julian was Donald’s adopted son. You are my daughter. The land is yours, Amanda. All Donald did was act as your steward."

"He acted as my father," I said, my voice cutting through the warmth of the woodstove. "Donald sat by my bed when I had pneumonia at eight years old. Donald taught me how to read an earnings report when I was fourteen. He stood at the altar when I married that pathetic man down in the shaft. You were a ghost living on a dead man's bank account."

"Donald was an accountant who stole my empire!" Arthur snapped, his voice finally losing its aristocratic control. "He took my daughter, he took my company, and he hid behind legal covenants while I lived like an exile in Montreal and Zurich! Do you think I enjoyed watching that weakling Julian drag my name through the mud with cheap hotels and real estate scams?"

"You didn't care about the name," I said, looking down at the red-wax seal on the pouch Marilyn had handed me on the tug. "You cared about the mineral surveys Donald hid in Vault Nine."

Arthur stopped mid-stride. His eyes widened slightly.

"You haven't read them," Arthur said, his voice dropping to a cautious whisper. "You couldn't have. The seal was intact."

"I don't need to read them," I replied, taking a step toward the roaring cast-iron stove. "Donald left me a letter in Duluth. He told me that if you ever came out of the dark, it wouldn't be for the gold or the timber. It would be for the soil survey beneath the old Calumet shaft."

Thomas stepped up beside me, his bloodied face set in stone, his heavy frame blocking the path between Arthur and the iron stove.

"The Carlton Group didn't find copper in ninety-four, Arthur," Marilyn said softly, her thumb pulling the hammer of the revolver back until it locked with a crisp, lethal click. "They found five hundred million tons of rare earth lithium. Enough to dictate the energy grid of North America for fifty years. And Donald made sure that the only way to mine it... was to drown it."