Chapter 7 - The Second Bowl
Calder raised both hands.
“I didn't come to fight.”
Vincent's security men surrounded him.
“That’s fortunate,” Vincent said.
Calder smiled.
He was smaller than Norah imagined.
Ordinary.
That frightened her more.
Men who ruined lives rarely looked like monsters.
“Where's Edward?” Vincent asked.
“Gone.”
“Where?”
“I don't know.”
Vincent stepped closer.
Calder's smile weakened.
“I really don't.”
Daniel grabbed him.
“You threatened my sister.”
Calder looked at Norah.
“That wasn't personal.”
“It felt personal.”
“It was leverage.”
Norah's expression hardened.
“That's what cowards call cruelty when they want it to sound professional.”
Calder looked away.
Vincent almost smiled.
Again, Norah noticed.
Again, she ignored it.
Calder agreed to talk.
Not from conscience.
From fear.
Edward had stopped paying him.
Worse, Edward had decided Calder knew too much.
The poisoning had been Edward's plan.
But the intention had changed midway.
Vincent survived.
Edward realized a weakened Vincent could sign control of companies to others.
He began manipulating paperwork through Vale.
Vale discovered it.
Calder blackmailed Vale into silence.
A chain of fear.
Everyone controlling everyone else.
“And my mother?” Norah asked.
Calder looked at her.
“Eleanor discovered Edward stealing from Vincent's grandmother twenty years ago.”
“Why didn't she expose him?”
“She tried.”
Vincent remembered family chaos from childhood.
Accusations.
Dismissed employees.
His grandmother refusing to discuss it.
Edward had convinced everyone Eleanor was mistaken.
Eleanor left.
But she kept records.
“Why keep Norah in debt?” Vincent asked.
Calder answered reluctantly.
“Edward knew Daniel was looking.”
“So?”
“He believed Eleanor divided the evidence between her children.”
Norah understood.
Daniel had documents.
Norah had the location.
Neither alone could find the truth.
Their mother had protected them by separating the information.
Vincent asked, “Where is Edward?”
“I told you.”
Vincent stepped closer.
Calder swallowed.
“I don't know.”
His phone buzzed.
Everyone looked.
A message.
Calder read it.
His face drained.
“What?”
Vincent took the phone.
One photograph had arrived.
Thomas Vale sat tied to a chair somewhere dark.
Below it:
TRADE CALDER FOR VALE.
MIDNIGHT.
OLD ROSSY RESTAURANT.
COME ALONE.
Vincent stared.
The old Rossy restaurant had closed fifteen years earlier.
His grandmother had owned it.
It was also where Eleanor once worked before moving to the estate.
Everything was returning to the beginning.
At eleven that evening, Vincent prepared to leave.
Norah blocked the study door.
“You're not going alone.”
“Yes, I am.”
“Then you're an idiot.”
“Norah.”
“Edward wants you frightened and isolated. Why give him exactly that?”
Vincent looked at her.
“Because Vale dies if I don't.”
“Maybe.”
“Maybe isn't enough.”
Norah understood.
Vincent could appear ruthless.
But loyalty still mattered to him.
Perhaps too much.
She stepped aside.
Then said, “Eat first.”
Vincent almost laughed.
“Now?”
“Yes.”
“I’m walking into a trap.”
“Exactly.”
She brought him a bowl.
The same broth.
Chicken.
Rice.
Garlic.
Pepper.
Vincent looked at it.
“The second bowl nearly got us locked in a poisoned office.”
“That wasn't the soup's fault.”
He sat.
Ate.
Slowly.
Every spoonful seemed like a small act of defiance.
Edward had used food to weaken him.
Norah was teaching him that eating could become his refusal to remain controlled.
When the bowl was empty, Vincent stood.
“Thank you.”
Norah nodded.
“Come back.”
It was the closest she had come to admitting fear.
Vincent looked at her.
“I will.”
He did not go alone.
Enzo drove.
Daniel followed separately.
Norah was supposed to remain behind.
She did not.
Nobody was surprised.
The abandoned restaurant was dark.
Vincent entered first.
Tables covered in sheets.
Dust.
Old photographs.
At the center sat Thomas Vale.
Alive.
Edward stood behind him.
Vincent had not seen his uncle standing unaided in months.
The stroke.
The wheelchair.
The nurse.
All theater.
Edward smiled.
“Hello, Vincent.”
Vincent felt something inside him break.
Not fear.
The final piece of trust.
“You poisoned me.”
Edward shrugged.
“I tried to correct a succession mistake.”
“My grandmother chose me.”
“She was sentimental.”
“You've been stealing from this family for twenty years.”
“I've been taking what should have been mine.”
Vincent looked at Vale.
“Let him go.”
“Calder?”
Enzo brought Calder inside.
Edward smiled.
“Excellent.”
The exchange began.
Then Norah noticed something.
A smell.
Gas.
Not cooking gas.
Fuel.
She looked toward the back hallway.
Fresh containers.
Edward never intended an exchange.
He intended to destroy the building and everyone inside it.
Norah whispered, “Vincent.”
He looked.
She pointed.
Edward saw.
His smile vanished.
“Move!”
Chaos erupted.
Enzo freed Vale.
Daniel grabbed Calder.
Vincent pulled Norah toward the exit.
Edward ran toward the kitchen.
Vincent followed.
“Don't!” Norah shouted.
But Vincent disappeared through the swinging door.
Seconds passed.
Then thirty.
Smoke began filling the dining room.
Norah reached the kitchen.
A door at the rear stood open.
Outside, Vincent was on the ground.
Edward was gone.
Vincent tried to rise.
Norah ran toward him.
Then she saw what lay beside his hand.
A small metal case.
Edward had dropped it.
Vincent opened it.
Inside were documents.
One was a transfer agreement.
Vincent's signature appeared at the bottom.
Except Vincent had never signed it.
The agreement transferred control of everything to Edward upon Vincent being declared medically incapable.
Norah turned the final page.
A doctor's name appeared.
Vincent stared.
“I know him.”
“Who?”
“My physician.”
At that exact moment, Vincent's phone rang.
The caller ID displayed the physician's name.
Vincent answered.
A terrified voice said only five words:
May you like
“Edward is already at your house.”
Then the line went dead.
