Chapter 20 - THE UNSEEN THREAT|
One year later.
Imara stood in the lobby of her new corporate headquarters downtown: Coulson Global Design. Her firm now employed fifteen young architects, occupying an entire floor of a glass skyscraper.
It was 7:00 PM. The office was quiet as her staff headed home for the evening.
Imara gathered her coat and keys, preparing to pick up Cassian and Maya from her sister’s house.
Her phone chimed on her desk.
It was a notification from her security app. A private delivery driver had just dropped a heavy leather package at her front reception desk downstairs.
Imara walked down the carpeted hallway to the reception counter.
Sitting on the sleek black granite desk was an antique wooden box bound in silver brass.
There was no shipping label. No postage stamp.
Just a small, handwritten card tucked beneath the silver latch:
To Imara Coulson Hail.
Imara frowned, her fingers hovering over the brass lock. She carefully popped the latch and lifted the lid.
Inside lay an old, yellowed architectural roll from 2018—a complete blueprint for a massive underground civic project in Vancouver.
And resting on top of the blueprints was a black-and-white photograph taken thirty minutes ago through a long-distance lens:
It showed Imara standing in her own kitchen, holding baby Maya, while a small red laser dot floated silently over her daughter's crib.
Attached to the back of the photograph was a handwritten note in unfamiliar, precise calligraphy:
May you like
Beckett Hail was just a foolish pawn, Imara. Your father stole this blueprint from us twenty years ago. Now that you have rebuilt his legacy... it's time to pay the real debt.
Imara gasped, dropping the photograph onto the marble floor as her phone suddenly began to ring in the quiet, empty office.
