Chapter 18 - THE ORIGINAL BARGAIN
For three days we dug without sleep. Every archive. Every courthouse record. Every box in the attic marked FAMILY — DO NOT DESTROY.
Late on the third night, my aunt found it.
Tucked inside a leather journal bound with blue ribbon. The original agreement. Written by hand, over a century old. Signed by both families.
We gathered around the kitchen table as she read aloud by lamplight.
*…And should either party prove bad faith—should harm befall the children of one line at the hand of the other—the covenant is void. All claims cease. All promises dissolve. And the guilty party shall inherit nothing.*
Adrian exhaled sharply.
“Bad faith. If Julian harmed Leo… the bargain is void. He gets nothing. No control. No estate. Nothing.”
“But we must prove it,” I said. “Beyond doubt.”
“Clara left proof.” Adrian stood, pacing the room. “Emails. Bank records. Instructions. She kept copies of everything to protect herself. Hidden somewhere. If we can find them… we prove Julian paid her. Ordered her. We prove bad faith. And we strip him of every claim.”
“Where would she hide them?” my aunt asked.
Adrian stopped pacing. His eyes went wide.
“In the house. Somewhere only she knew. Somewhere safe until she needed it. And if she was afraid… she would leave a clue where only we would look.”
May you like
He rushed from the room. We followed. Up the stairs. Down the hall. To the library. Adrian stopped before the small locked drawer beneath Clara’s desk. He broke the lock with one sharp twist of a letter opener.
Inside lay a single key. And a note scrawled in Clara’s handwriting: For the one who survives me.
