An elderly woman moved slowly down a dusty road, bent beneath a heavy bundle of firewood strapped across her back, while a rich couple inside a luxury SUV m0cked her through the window. She kept walking without a word until, very slowly, she turned her face toward them. The man’s expression went completely still.

The metal of the gun gleamed under the faint moonlight filtering through the pine canopy. Grier held it with the easy, practiced familiarity of a man who had used such tools before.

"Thomas," Evelyn said, her voice remarkably calm as she stepped in front of Ethan. "You've aged. The devil hasn't kept you young, it seems."

"Evelyn," Grier nodded, a cold, humorless smile touching his lips. "I must admit, I was surprised when my scouts in the county reported seeing a ghost wandering the ridge. I told Richard we should have just put you in the ground back in '06, but he was sentimental in his own twisted way. He wanted you to suffer in that facility. He thought it was a better punishment for your betrayal."

"My betrayal?" Evelyn spat. "I wanted to stop a murderer."

"You wanted to destroy an empire," Grier corrected. "An empire that funded your luxury lifestyle, your expensive jewelry, and your son’s tuition. You were a hypocrite, Evelyn. Just like your son is now."

Grier shifted his gaze to Ethan. "Give me the envelope, Ethan. And we can settle this like businessmen."

"And if I don't?" Ethan asked, his heart hammering against his ribs, but a sudden, strange courage taking hold of him. He stepped out from behind his mother, placing himself in front of her. "Are you going to shoot us all? My wife, too?"

Grier looked at Vanessa. "Your wife is a sensible woman, Ethan. She understands the value of silence. Don't you, Vanessa?"

Vanessa looked at the gun, then at Ethan, and finally at the envelope on the table. She took a slow, deep breath, her face hardening into a mask of pure survival.

"If you kill them, Grier, it becomes a mass murder investigation," Vanessa said, her voice trembling but calculating. "The police will look at the company. They will look at you. But... if we make a deal. If we destroy the documents in Washington. We can restructure the company. I can help you."

"Vanessa!" Ethan shouted, horrified. "What are you doing?"

"I'm surviving, Ethan!" she screamed back. "I am not going to be poor! I am not going to be the wife of a disgraced, bankrupt convict!"

"A very practical woman," Grier chuckled. "But unfortunately, Mrs. Vance, I don't like witnesses who have to be bought off repeatedly. Once we clean up this little family reunion, I think you and Ethan will have a tragic car accident on the way back to Richmond. The grief of finding your mother's 'grave' desecrated by vandals will have been too much for Ethan, and he will have driven you both off the bridge."

Grier raised the gun, aiming it directly at Ethan’s chest.

"It’s a shame, Ethan. You really had your mother's eyes."