Chapter 7 - The Midnight Raid
The Franklin Country Club was dark, its sprawling golf course shrouded in a heavy midnight mist. Thanks to Marcus’s insider knowledge of the club’s digital security layout—which his firm had installed three years ago—the side entrance to the executive offices was completely unlocked.
I wore a dark jacket, moving quickly through the wood-paneled corridors until I reached the judge’s private study. The safe was hidden behind a painting of a historical Tennessee landscape.
Using the combination Marcus had extorted from a terrified club manager, I turned the dial.
Click. Click. Thunk.
The heavy steel door swung open. Inside lay stacks of cash, offshore banking ledgers, and a thick blue leather ledger labeled Heavenly Blessings Special Placements.
I pulled it out and flipped through the pages until I found the entry for the date of my children's birth. There it was. The official medical log detailing the birth of triplets to Megan Bellamy, with a red stamp reading 'Withdrawn by Order of C.W.' Beside it was Claire’s signature, authorizing the immediate transfer of Child C to Harrison Vance-Vane.
"Got you," I whispered, pulling out my phone to take high-resolution digital scans of every single page before stuffing the ledger into my jacket.
Suddenly, the overhead lights flooded the room, blinding me.
"I knew you were getting sloppy, Rowan," a cold, sharp voice echoed from the doorway.
May you like
I blinked against the glare to see Judge Arthur Whitmore standing there, flanked by two private security guards holding drawn firearms. Behind them stood Claire, her wedding veil draped over her arm as if she had just come from a fitting, her face twisted in a look of absolute, psychotic malice.
"You really thought you could outsmart us?" Claire laughed, stepping into the room. "Did you honestly think I didn't have a tracker on your car, darling? I’ve known you were digging into Megan since Sunday night."
