CHAPTER 3 — THE LETTER THAT ARRIVED TOO LATE
Eighteen months after the courthouse attack, Khloe Cole believed the worst chapter of her life had finally ended.
Cole Urban Development was thriving.
The company had completed two affordable-housing projects, restored every employee pension Richard had endangered, and established a legal defense fund for victims of financial abuse.
Hope was healthy.
She had her mother’s dark eyes, her uncle’s stubbornness, and absolutely no respect for expensive furniture.
On a quiet Monday morning, Khloe arrived at headquarters to find Harrison waiting inside her office.
He was holding a yellowed envelope.
“What is that?” she asked.
“It was delivered to my firm this morning.”
The envelope had been sealed with dark blue wax.
Khloe recognized the handwriting immediately.
Her father’s.
Her knees weakened.
“That’s impossible.”
“The law firm that held it merged with another company,” Harrison explained. “They discovered a locked archival box during an audit. This was inside.”
Khloe sat behind her desk but did not open the letter.
Her father had been dead for more than seven years.
She had spent countless nights wondering what he might have said if he had lived long enough to tell her about the shares he placed in her name.
Now his words were resting beneath her fingertips.
Harrison remained silent.
Finally, Khloe broke the seal.
My dearest Khloe,
If you are reading this, then I failed to finish what I began.
The controlling shares in Harrington Commercial Group were only the first part of your protection.
There is another agreement.
Richard must never learn about it.
Neither should the board.
Trust Harrison, but do not ask him to protect you from this. The truth may require him to choose between his sister and everything he has built.
The final documents are connected to a company called Meridian Land Holdings.
Find the brass key.
Then find Emma.
Your father,
Daniel Cole
Khloe read the letter twice.
Then a third time.
“Who is Emma?” she asked.
Harrison shook his head.
“I’ve never heard that name.”
“And Meridian Land Holdings?”
“Not recently.”
His tone changed slightly.
Khloe noticed.
“But you have heard of it.”
Harrison walked toward the window.
“When I was a junior attorney, Meridian appeared in several land transactions involving your father’s trust. The company dissolved years ago.”
“Why would Dad hide an agreement inside a dissolved company?”
“I don’t know.”
Khloe studied her brother.
“What did he mean when he said the truth could cost you everything?”
Harrison turned back toward her.
For once, the most confident attorney in Pennsylvania looked uncertain.
“I was twenty-six when I handled some of those contracts,” he said. “I signed documents I barely understood because Dad told me they were routine.”
“Could your signature be used against us?”
“Possibly.”
Khloe folded the letter.
“Then we find the documents before someone else does.”
That evening, she returned home early.
Hope was asleep upstairs. The housekeeper had already left, and Harrison was reviewing old trust files in the study.
Khloe walked into her father’s former library, where several boxes of his belongings remained unopened.
After an hour, she found a small wooden case hidden beneath a stack of architectural magazines.
The lock was brass.
But there was no key.
Khloe lifted the case.
Something moved inside.
Before she could call Harrison, the security alarm sounded.
A window shattered downstairs.
Khloe ran into the hallway.
A dark figure disappeared through the rear door.
Nothing valuable had been taken from the house.
Nothing except her father’s letter.
And on the floor beneath the broken window, the intruder had left a photograph.
It showed Daniel Cole standing beside a woman Khloe had never seen.
The woman held a newborn baby.
May you like
On the back, someone had written three words.
