CHAPTER 8 — The Third File
The emergency alarm screamed through the abandoned hospital.
Red lights flashed across the cracked walls.
Victoria grabbed Daniel's arm.
"We have to move. Now."
Heavy footsteps echoed somewhere above them.
Not one person.
Several.
Daniel instinctively reached for the hospital file.
Victoria stopped him.
"Not that one."
She pointed toward an old steel cabinet hidden behind a collapsed privacy curtain.
"Your father never hid just one file."
Daniel frowned.
"What are you talking about?"
"He always made three copies."
She yanked open the cabinet.
Inside were three identical brown envelopes.
Each bore the Ashford family seal.
But each carried a different handwritten title.
FILE A — INFANT IDENTITY TRANSFER
FILE B — PRIVATE SUCCESSION AGREEMENT
Daniel's eyes shifted to the third envelope.
Unlike the others, it had no title.
Only one sentence.
OPEN ONLY IF THEY KILL ME.
His pulse quickened.
"My father wrote this..."
Victoria nodded.
"He knew someone would eventually find this place."
A loud metallic crash echoed from the hallway.
Someone had forced open the hospital's front entrance.
Daniel could now hear voices.
Professional.
Calm.
"They're clearing the east wing."
"Move to the delivery rooms."
"They know we're here."
Victoria looked toward the corridor.
"We're out of time."
Daniel grabbed the untitled envelope.
Instead of paper...
Something heavy slid into his hand.
A flash drive.
Old.
Scratched.
Wrapped inside a small piece of cloth.
Victoria stared at it.
"I've been searching for that for fifteen years."
"You knew it existed?"
"I knew your father made one."
Daniel examined the cloth more closely.
It wasn't random fabric.
It was embroidered by hand.
A tiny blue crest.
The Ashford family emblem.
And beneath it...
One embroidered sentence.
The heir is not chosen.
The heir is proven.
Daniel looked up.
"What does that mean?"
Victoria didn't answer.
Instead, she looked directly behind him.
Her face turned pale.
"They're already inside."
Daniel spun around.
Three figures dressed in black tactical uniforms stood at the end of the hallway.
No police badges.
No names.
Only identical silver masks.
One of them calmly raised a pistol fitted with a suppressor.
"Mr. Ashford," he said.
"You've opened something that never belonged to you."
Daniel instinctively stepped in front of Victoria.
"Who sent you?"
The masked man smiled.
"The same person..."
"...who attended your father's funeral."
Silence.
Daniel's mind raced.
Only close family members had been invited.
Only people his father trusted.
The masked man slowly tilted his head.
"You've been looking for the enemy outside your family."
He laughed softly.
"You should have looked at the dinner table."
Without another word—
He pressed the trigger.
A muffled shot echoed through the room.
Daniel felt someone slam into him.
He crashed backward onto the floor.
Victoria collapsed across his chest.
Blood spread rapidly across her black coat.
She had taken the bullet meant for him.
As Daniel caught her falling body, she gripped his collar with surprising strength.
Blood trickled from the corner of her mouth.
With her final strength, she whispered five words.
"Don't trust... your father's lawyer..."
Her hand fell limp.
The flash drive slipped from Daniel's fingers and slid beneath an old hospital bed.
At that exact moment...
The lead masked man stopped smiling.
His eyes widened.
He wasn't looking at Daniel.
He was staring at Victoria.
Then he quietly muttered words that made Daniel's blood run cold.
May you like
"...She's not supposed to be dead."
To Be Continued...
