Chapter 119
Emily
+25 BONUS
“Pull it together, Emily, it’s just a folder.” I scolded myself. The faller in question, that had been anonymously delivered, was thinner than I expected for something that might change everything.
It felt alarmingly light.
My fingers kept hovering over the seal, hesitation coiled low in my stomach like a warning: Don’t get your hopes up.
I decided to heed my own lecture and opened it anyway.
The first page was a property ledger.
Estate Holdings – Revised 4th Quarter. The ink was faded but legible. A column of property sales, some marked in red, others with scribbled notations.
And there, three parcels of land that should’ve never left my mother’s control. One sold under my father’s authority after my mother’s death. Two transferred quietly, without Pack approval, to a now–defunct ally.
I scanned down. A familiar signature caught my eye. Not my fathers. My grandfather’s. The original Alpha.
Flipping the page, my heart picked up its pace.
It was an old letter. Written on formal stationery, watermarked and signed by one of my grandfather’s closest allies. The same man whose estate had been shuttered and absorbed into another Pack nearly a decade ago.
It was addressed to me.
‘To be delivered to Emily Blackwood when she comes of age to contest.‘
The date was years old. The envelope had never arrived.
I pressed a shaking hand to my lips, eyes scanning the contents. There was confirmation of property rights, a copy of an early will, notes on Pack transfers, and worst of all… evidence that someone had deliberately buried this.
A slip of paper, folded into the bottom of the letter, fluttered to the table
‘I couldn’t let this vanish completely. I hope it finds you in time.‘
I sat back in the chair, letting the papers rest on my lap.
This wasn’t just evidence. It was everything I needed to win this lawsuit. It was proof that I hadn’t been imagining it, hadn’t been bitter without cause.
My instincts were right. My inheritance had been stolen, manipulated, and paved over without my consent. And now, someone had cracked the foundation open again.
The old feeling of being voiceless, powerless, dismissed, it tightened in my ribs out of habit. But I didn’t want to let it hold.
Not anymore. Because this… it was the beginning of a case I could actually win. Something in my spine straightened. Something in me steadied.
I gathered the documents in careful order, fingers pressing out every old crease, eyes devouring every signature and seal like scripture.
There was still a long road ahead. Legal strategy. Expert witnesses. Pushback from the remnants of the oiyalists who’d benefited from this.
Losing the family I had left.
But I could feel it. A door that had been sealed for years was open now, just a sliver. And I wasn’t going to let it close on me again.
1/2
Chapter 119
+25 BONUS
Reaching for my pen I began to take notes, organizing the strongest pieces of evidence first, smoothing out the timeline in my
mind.
I knew I should let the lawyers do it, but this felt too personal to leave to anyone else.
I was so engrossed that I didn’t hear the footsteps outside the door, Didn’t notice the shift in the light. I was too focused on the beginning of something that felt like returning to who I was always supposed to be.
My mother’s daughter and not so easily erased.
The knock came softly–one tap, then another.
I blinked away from the dense lines of handwritten shorthand, my eyes burning from too much reading and not enough blinking.
The room had gone quiet, and I was buried in time. For a few hours it had been enough to keep the rest of the world away.
Another knock.
I stood slowly, the stiffness in my back reminding me just how long I’d been sitting. I wasn’t expecting anyone.
