Chapter 6 - The Cemetery Bargain
Daria stepped from the central vehicle wearing the same white fur coat she had worn at the mansion.
Snow gathered in her styled hair without disturbing her composure.
Dr. Weston emerged from the second vehicle.
Two armed men followed.
Samuel moved in front of Catherine and Noah.
Arthur raised the old revolver.
Daria glanced at it with contempt.
"Put down that antique before you embarrass yourself."
Arthur's hand did not move.
"I watched your husband build this family. I will not watch you poison what remains of it."
Daria smiled.
"Thomas built a prison and called it a legacy."
She held up a sealed document case.
"This is what you came for."
Samuel saw his father's initials stamped into the leather.
"Give it to me."
"You always did confuse inheritance with entitlement."
Daria opened the case and removed several pages.
She had found the original will.
The document confirmed that control of Kincaid Enterprises would pass to Samuel's lawful child, with Catherine acting as trustee until the child reached twenty-five.
It also contained a provision Samuel had never expected.
If Thomas died through criminal interference by a family beneficiary, that beneficiary and all agents acting on their behalf would be permanently disqualified.
"Father knew," Samuel said.
"He suspected," Daria corrected.
"There is a difference."
Catherine stepped out from behind Samuel.
"You killed him before he could expose you."
"I saved the company from a sentimental old man who planned to hand it to a woman he barely knew."
"You mean me."
Daria looked at her with undisguised hatred.
"You were supposed to sign the papers and disappear."
"I refused."
"You mistook stubbornness for courage."
"And you mistook captivity for control."
Weston shifted uneasily.
His eyes kept moving toward the tree line.
Samuel realized he feared the federal agents more than Daria did.
"Doctor," Samuel said, "she will sacrifice you first."
Daria did not look at Weston.
"Do not listen to him."
"The compound in my father's blood came from your trial," Samuel continued.
"The records at Blackthorn carry your signature."
Weston's jaw tightened.
"You promised immunity," he told Daria.
"I promised protection if you remained useful."
The sentence destroyed whatever loyalty remained.
Weston reached inside his coat.
Daria's nearest guard drew a weapon.
A shot exploded across the cemetery.
Arthur fell backward.
Catherine pulled Noah behind the angel base.
Samuel rushed to Arthur and found blood spreading beneath his shoulder.
The old man was alive.
Weston ran toward the trees with the document case.
Daria screamed at the guards to stop him.
More gunfire followed.
Samuel tackled Weston behind a stone mausoleum.
The case slid across the snow.
Weston struck Samuel with the metal butt of a flashlight.
Pain burst behind Samuel's eye.
Catherine reached the case first.
Daria aimed a small pistol at her.
"Put it down."
Catherine held the will against her chest.
"You could have let me leave."
"You would have taken my son."
"He was never yours to own."
Daria's finger tightened on the trigger.
Noah stepped from behind the monument.
"You killed my mom."
Daria turned toward him.
That moment was enough.
Catherine threw the case to Samuel and struck Daria's wrist.
The pistol fired into the snow.
Samuel pinned Weston while Catherine and Daria struggled beside the grave.
The fur coat tore at the shoulder.
The snowflake necklace snapped and scattered diamonds across the ground.
Sirens rose in the distance.
Ortiz had traced the maintenance engine through a railway monitoring system.
Daria heard the sirens and became terrifyingly calm.
"Samuel," she said, "you still have a choice."
"There is no choice left."
"There is always a choice."
She offered him the company, the estate, and protection from scandal if he handed Catherine and Noah over as unstable witnesses.
Samuel looked at the woman who had raised him.
He remembered her holding him after his father's funeral.
He remembered her standing beside Catherine's coffin.
He remembered believing every tear.
"You taught me one useful lesson," he said.
Daria's eyes narrowed.
"Never negotiate with someone who has already lost."
Federal vehicles broke through the cemetery gates.
Agents surrounded the graves.
Daria raised her empty hands.
Weston began shouting that he wanted a lawyer.
Catherine held the original will beneath her coat.
Ortiz arrested the guards and secured the weapons.
For a moment, it appeared finished.
Then Malcolm Reeve, the wounded attorney, began laughing from the snow.
"You are all too late," he said.
Samuel turned toward him.
May you like
Reeve's smile was red with blood.
"Daria filed a replacement will yesterday. By sunrise, the company belongs to someone none of you have met."
