Chapter 5 - The Man Behind the Blackwood Name
By noon, Adrien Blackwood was no longer being treated as the victim of an attack.
He was becoming the suspect.
The first headline appeared less than an hour after the fire.
BLACKWOOD TOWER FIRE DESTROYS FINANCIAL RECORDS AMID INTERNAL AUDIT.
The second was worse.
SOURCES CLAIM ADRIEN BLACKWOOD ORDERED SERVER PURGE BEFORE BLAZE.
Claire stood inside a private conference room at another Blackwood property while televisions showed Adrien’s face.
Reporters gathered outside.
Investors were demanding explanations.
Board members wanted an emergency meeting.
Adrien stood at the far end of the room watching his empire turn against him.
Claire had seen him embarrassed over forty-seven dollars.
This was different.
That evening at the restaurant, strangers had laughed because they believed he had no money.
Today, millions of people were questioning whether the man behind one of the city’s most powerful companies was a criminal.
Daniel entered.
“The board suspended your executive access.”
Adrien nodded.
“I expected that.”
“They want you to step aside temporarily.”
“No.”
“Adrien.”
“No.”
Claire watched them.
Daniel lowered his voice.
“If you refuse, they may force a vote.”
“Let them.”
Claire walked closer.
“That’s exactly what whoever did this wants.”
Adrien looked at her.
“If I step aside, Rebecca becomes acting CEO.”
Claire understood immediately.
“And she gains control of the investigation.”
“Yes.”
Daniel placed documents on the table.
“Rebecca has already requested authority.”
Claire shook her head.
“Too fast.”
Adrien agreed.
“Much too fast.”
They had one advantage.
Thomas Blackwood’s recording survived.
Daniel had copied it to an external encrypted device seconds before the alarm.
But it proved only that Thomas suspected Victor.
It did not prove murder.
It did not prove Rebecca was involved.
And it did not clear Adrien.
“We need the original Graystone banking records,” Claire said.
Daniel shook his head.
“Those will require subpoenas.”
“How long?”
“Weeks.”
“We don’t have weeks.”
Adrien looked toward the window.
“There may be another copy.”
“Where?”
“My father kept physical archives.”
Daniel frowned.
“At Lake Briar?”
Adrien nodded.
Claire remembered the photograph.
“The first hotel.”
“After my father died, I closed his private office there. I never emptied it.”
Daniel looked skeptical.
“Why?”
Adrien’s expression hardened.
“Because I hated the place.”
Claire knew there was more.
That night, they drove north.
No security convoy.
No assistants.
Only Adrien, Claire, Daniel, and one trusted security officer.
Lake Briar appeared after midnight.
The old Blackwood Hotel had been closed for renovations several years earlier.
It stood above a dark lake surrounded by pine trees.
Claire looked up at the building.
“This is where your empire started?”
“My father bought it when he was twenty-six.”
“What was it then?”
“A failing roadside inn.”
“And he turned it into this?”
“Eventually.”
Inside, dust covered furniture.
Adrien led them upstairs.
Room after room sat empty.
At the end of a corridor, he stopped before a locked door.
“My father’s office.”
Adrien unlocked it.
The room had been preserved almost exactly as Thomas Blackwood left it.
Books.
Maps.
Architectural plans.
A wooden desk.
Claire noticed something instantly.
A photograph of Adrien stood beside the lamp.
Adrien saw it too.
He stared.
“You said he didn’t care about you,” Claire whispered.
“He rarely acted like he did.”
“Maybe people are more complicated than what they know how to show.”
Adrien did not respond.
Daniel searched file cabinets.
Nothing.
Claire examined the desk.
Locked drawer.
Adrien found an old key.
Inside was a notebook.
Thomas Blackwood’s handwriting.
Dates.
Names.
Payments.
Then one phrase repeated several times.
V.L. + R.S.
Victor Lang.
Rebecca Sloan.
Adrien’s face went cold.
Claire turned another page.
A meeting date.
The night before Thomas died.
“Victor and Rebecca met him?”
Adrien looked closer.
“Apparently.”
Daniel found another note.
“‘Rebecca knows everything.’”
Adrien stepped back.
The words hurt more than he wanted anyone to see.
Claire remembered Daniel saying Adrien and Rebecca had once been engaged.
“When did you start dating her?”
“Two years after my father died.”
Claire felt sick.
Rebecca had known Thomas before she became close to Adrien.
Maybe much more closely than Adrien understood.
They searched deeper.
Behind a removable wooden panel in the desk was a flash drive.
Daniel inserted it into an offline laptop.
Several files appeared.
Bank statements.
Emails.
Photographs.
And one video.
The timestamp was from the night Thomas Blackwood died.
Adrien clicked it.
Security footage from the hotel parking lot.
Thomas walked toward his car.
Victor followed him.
They argued.
No audio.
Then Rebecca appeared.
Young, but unmistakable.
Adrien stared.
Rebecca had told him she had been in another state that week.
The video continued.
Thomas pointed angrily toward both of them.
Victor stepped close.
Rebecca looked terrified.
Then Thomas drove away.
Victor and Rebecca remained.
Three minutes later, Victor made a phone call.
Daniel paused the video.
“Who did he call?”
Claire looked through phone records stored nearby.
Then she found the matching timestamp.
Victor called a number.
The number belonged to a Blackwood maintenance supervisor responsible for fleet vehicles.
The same supervisor died six months later.
Adrien sat slowly.
Claire could see the truth forming.
Someone had tampered with Thomas’s car.
Victor may have ordered it.
Rebecca had known.
“We take this to police,” Claire said.
Adrien nodded.
Then headlights appeared through the office windows.
Daniel moved immediately.
“We weren’t followed.”
The security officer looked outside.
“Three vehicles.”
Adrien stood.
“Police?”
“No.”
The lights shut off.
Everything went dark.
Claire’s heart pounded.
The security officer whispered, “Stay down.”
Glass shattered downstairs.
Footsteps entered the hotel.
Adrien took Claire’s hand.
“Back exit.”
Daniel grabbed the flash drive.
They moved through the hallway.
Below them, men were searching rooms.
Claire whispered, “How did they know?”
Nobody answered.
They reached the old service staircase.
A voice echoed from below.
“Mr. Blackwood!”
Adrien stopped.
Victor Lang.
Claire felt Adrien’s grip tighten.
Victor’s voice traveled through the darkness.
“You should have let your father stay dead.”
Adrien moved toward the railing.
Claire grabbed his arm.
“No.”
Victor laughed from below.
“You always were stubborn, Adrien.”
“What did you do to him?” Adrien called.
Silence.
Then Victor answered.
“Your father made the mistake of believing he could control everything.”
Adrien’s expression became lethal.
“And Rebecca?”
Victor laughed again.
“You still don’t understand.”
Footsteps moved closer.
“Rebecca wasn’t working for me.”
Adrien stared into the darkness.
Victor’s next words landed like a blade.
“I was working for Rebecca.”
Then the emergency lights flickered on.
Claire saw movement behind them.
She turned.
Daniel stood near the stairwell door.
A gun was pointed at his chest.
And holding it was the security officer who had driven them there.
May you like
The only man Adrien had personally trusted to protect Claire.
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