Chapter 48 - THE FIRE
We tried the doors.
Locked.
The gas became stronger.
Julian broke a window.
“Emily, go!”
I climbed through.
He followed.
Then fire erupted behind us.
The church exploded into flames.
Eleanor was still inside.
“Grandma!”
Julian grabbed me.
“Don't go back!”
“She'll die!”
“She chose this!”
But I couldn't leave her.
Then a figure appeared through the smoke.
My father.
He pulled Eleanor from the burning doorway.
Everyone froze.
Michael Reed collapsed onto the grass.
My mother arrived seconds later.
She ran toward him.
“Michael!”
He opened his eyes.
“Emily.”
I knelt beside him.
“You're alive.”
He smiled.
“I told you.”
I started crying.
“I thought you were dead.”
“I know.”
Eleanor was arrested.
But before the police took her away, she looked at me.
“You still don't know what your grandfather did.”
I stared.
“What?”
She smiled.
“Ask him about the original trust.”
Then she was taken away.
My father looked at my grandfather.
“You never told her.”
My grandfather closed his eyes.
“No.”
“What didn't you tell me?”
My father whispered:
“The trust wasn't created by your grandfather.”
I froze.
“Then who created it?”
May you like
He looked at me.
“Your grandmother.”
