Chapter 6 - The Sister Who Refused to Stay DeadWe reached the bank twenty minutes before closing.
There was no plan.
No logic.
Only ten years of grief detonating inside my chest.
Calvin caught me around the waist before I reached Richard.
“You killed him!”
Richard didn’t flinch.
“I said I killed him. I didn’t say how.”
“My father died from a heart attack.”
“He did.”
Richard smiled.
“A medically induced one.”
Calvin’s face changed.
“You told me Thomas Bennett died naturally.”
Richard shrugged.
“I told you many things.”
My maiden name—Bennett—sounded obscene coming from him.
I struggled against Calvin.
“Let me go.”
“No.”
“Calvin—”
“He wants you angry.”
Richard’s eyes gleamed.
“Still clever.”
Two men entered behind him.
Both armed.
Stephanie quietly moved toward the kitchen.
Richard noticed.
“Ms. Hale, I’d stay where you are.”
She stopped.
He pointed toward the watch.
“Brooke.”
“What?”
“The cipher.”
“You’re never getting it.”
“Everyone says that until the cost rises.”
He pulled out his phone.
A video appeared.
My sister Anna.
Sitting in a chair.
Bound.
My knees weakened.
“No.”
Anna looked terrified.
A man stood behind her.
Richard lowered the phone.
“She was surprisingly easy to find.”
“You touch her—”
“I already have.”
Calvin stepped forward.
“Take me instead.”
Richard laughed.
“You?”
“I know Halcyon better than Brooke.”
“You know nothing useful.”
“I know Evelyn’s new identity.”
That caught Richard’s attention.
So Evelyn wasn’t entirely allied with him.
Interesting.
Calvin continued.
“I know the accounts she’s been building.”
Richard’s smile disappeared.
“You’ve been watching your sister?”
“I’ve been protecting my wife.”
The room went quiet.
Richard studied Calvin.
“Give me Evelyn and perhaps I release Anna.”
“No,” I said.
Calvin looked at me.
“This is not your decision.”
“She’s still your sister.”
“She sold us out.”
“You don’t know that.”
Richard seemed amused by our argument.
Then Stephanie spoke.
“I do.”
Everyone turned.
She held Calvin’s burner phone.
“I checked the message metadata before we came here.”
Her voice shook, but she kept going.
“The messages Calvin thought were from Richard weren’t sent from one source.”
Richard’s expression tightened.
“Stephanie.”
She swallowed.
“Some came from Evelyn.”
Calvin stared.
“What?”
“She’s been impersonating your father.”
Richard’s pleasant mask finally cracked.
Stephanie continued.
“The payment demands. The threats. At least half.”
“Why?” I asked.
“To force Calvin to locate your archive.”
Richard looked genuinely furious now.
That meant something.
“Evelyn wants the reserve for herself,” Stephanie said.
A gunshot exploded.
The porcelain swan beside me shattered.
Richard had fired into the wall.
“Enough.”
My ears rang.
Calvin moved in front of me completely.
Richard pointed the gun toward his own son.
“Give me the watch.”
I slowly lifted it.
Calvin whispered, “Don’t.”
Anna was somewhere helpless.
My father was dead because of this money.
I couldn’t gamble with another person I loved.
I tossed Richard the watch.
He caught it.
“Brooke!”
“Let Anna go.”
Richard smiled.
“When I have the money.”
“You promised—”
“I promised nothing.”
That was when the fire alarm started.
Sirens screamed through the apartment.
Sprinklers erupted.
Richard spun toward the hallway.
Smoke rolled beneath the front door.
Stephanie smiled.
“I hit the building emergency system from the kitchen.”
Chaos erupted.
Calvin tackled Richard.
The gun fired.
His men lunged.
I grabbed Stephanie.
We ran.
Residents were already flooding into the corridor.
Sprinklers soaked everyone.
Calvin appeared seconds later.
Blood ran from his temple.
“Stairs!”
“What about Richard?”
“Move!”
We descended thirty-one floors with hundreds of residents.
When we reached the street, Richard was nowhere visible.
And neither was the watch.
I wanted to scream.
Instead, Calvin grabbed my face.
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
“You sure?”
“Yes.”
For one second, the old Calvin was there.
The man who checked my forehead after I bumped into cabinets.
The man who carried bandages when we traveled.
Then I remembered why Richard had found me.
Because of Calvin.
I stepped away.
“We need Anna.”
He nodded.
“I know.”
Stephanie looked at her phone.
“Maybe we can find her.”
She had photographed the video.
In the background was a window.
Beyond it, barely visible, was a water tower.
Calvin recognized the logo.
An abandoned textile complex in Queens.
We called the police anonymously and gave the address.
Then we drove there ourselves.
I know that was reckless.
I didn’t care.
By the time we arrived, police cars were already surrounding the building.
An ambulance waited outside.
Then I saw Anna.
Alive.
I ran.
She collapsed against me.
“They kept asking about Dad,” she sobbed.
“What?”
“They wanted to know about a key.”
My heart pounded.
“Did you tell them anything?”
“I don’t know anything!”
Then she reached into her coat.
“But one of the men left this behind.”
A folded piece of paper.
Not left behind.
Planted.
I recognized the handwriting.
My father’s.
Three words.
THE WATCH LIES.
Underneath was an address.
A storage facility in New Jersey.
Calvin stared.
“If the watch is fake…”
“Then Richard has nothing.”
Stephanie looked at me.
“And the real cipher?”
I folded the note.
“My father hid it somewhere Richard never thought to search.”
Anna wiped her tears.
“Where?”
I suddenly remembered something.
Dad had once told me that people hide their most valuable things in safes because thieves search safes first.
“Never hide treasure where people expect treasure,” he’d said.
I looked at Calvin.
“My wedding.”
“What?”
“The something-blue box.”
At my wedding, Dad had given me a small blue velvet box.
Inside was a handwritten note.
I had never understood it.
I thought it was sentimental nonsense.
Four lines.
Four numbers.
And one sentence:
A good marriage should survive the truth.
The box was sitting in our bank safe-deposit vault.
Calvin turned pale.
“Brooke…”
“What?”
“Our bank called me yesterday.”
My stomach dropped.
“Why?”
“Someone tried to access our box.”
“Who?”
May you like
He looked at me.
“Evelyn.”
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