Chapter 20 - The Unseen Horizon
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The room went completely, dead silent.
Outside the high glass windows of the tower, the Seattle skyline flickered with millions of city lights, reflecting off the dark, churning waters of Puget Sound.
I looked down at the leather journal resting on the glass case. The faded brass clasp was stamped with an intricate, familiar geometric emblem—the exact same emblem that was engraved on the silver-topped cane Alexander Vance was holding.
“Why are you giving this to me now?” I asked, my voice barely above a whisper. “The Rhodess family is already ruined. Eleanor is in prison. Julian has lost his license. Vanguard no longer exists.”
Alexander Vance let out a low, humorless chuckle that sounded like dry leaves scraping across stone.
“You think the Rhodess family was the empire, Leah?” Alexander said, his blue eyes locking onto mine with chilling intensity. “They were merely the caretakers of a single room in a very large, very dark house.”
He stepped closer, his voice dropping into an icy whisper that sent a shiver straight down my spine.
“Two days ago, the syndicate’s primary holding company in Geneva filed a formal claim in federal court, demanding the physical seizure of the land beneath Riverbend Commons to satisfy Julian’s father’s unpaid thirty-year interest notes.”
My blood ran cold. “The land belongs to my family trust. The title is clear.”
“The title was clear under American law,” Alexander corrected smoothly. “But under the international maritime treaty your grandmother signed as a confidential annex in 1998, that land carries a secondary, unrecorded lien.”
He picked up his walking cane and adjusted his dark gloves.
“They don't care about Julian, Leah. They don't care about Eleanor. They let you tear Vanguard down because Vanguard was weak. But now that you’ve built something worth billions on that ground...”
He paused at the grand glass entrance doors, turning his head back to look at me one last time.
“They are coming to collect the true rent.”
Before I could ask another question, Alexander stepped out into the misty Seattle rain. The heavy glass doors slid shut behind him, leaving me standing alone in the vast, quiet lobby.
My cell phone on the reception desk suddenly vibrated.
May you like
I walked over and picked it up. The screen displayed an unlisted international number originating from Zurich, Switzerland.
I stared at the blinking screen as the phone rang again, and again, into the quiet darkness of the night.
