Chapter 5 - A Legacy Built on Blood
While Dr. Reynolds looked after Walter at a private medical lodge on the edge of the timberlands, Lucas sat with the old man by a roaring stone fireplace.
The colour had returned to Walter’s face. His hands no longer trembled. In his lap sat a worn leather journal from 2008—the year Lucas had first met Rachel in college.
“You think you know why Gregory hated me, Lucas?” Walter asked softly, staring into the flames.
“Because you kept tight control over the company finances,” Lucas replied.
“No,” Walter spat softly into the fire. “It was much deeper than money. Gregory was never my son. He was my son-in-law. My real heir was my son, Thomas—Rachel’s uncle.”
Lucas leaned forward. In all the years he had been married to Rachel, Thomas’s name had been spoken only in hushed, uncomfortable whispers.
“Thomas was brilliant,” Walter recalled, his voice tinged with immense pride and ancient sorrow. “He was an engineer, just like you. He designed the automated sawmills that made Lawson Lumber a national power. Gregory was jealous of him. Gregory was lazy, greedy, and arrogant.”
Walter turned a page in the leather journal, revealing an old newspaper clipping: LOCAL LUMBER HEIR KILLED IN MILL ACCIDENT.
“Fifteen years ago,” Walter continued, his hand trembling slightly, “Thomas was inspecting a heavy log transport machine at Sawmill Four. The emergency brake failed. A three-ton pine log crushed him.”
Lucas’s eyes widened. “A mechanical failure?”
“That’s what the police report said,” Walter whispered. “I believed it for ten years. But three weeks ago, while I was lying in that dark room pretending to be helpless, Gregory brought Derek into my bedroom. They thought I was completely deaf and brain-dead.”
Walter gripped the arms of his chair, his knuckles turning chalk-white.
“Gregory laughed,” Walter hissed. “He told Derek how he had loosened the hydraulic pressure valve on Sawmill Four fifteen years ago to make sure Thomas died before my will was finalized. He murdered my boy, Lucas! He murdered my son so his daughter would become the sole heir to my fortune!”
A heavy, suffocating weight settled over the room.
Lucas realized the full extent of the nightmare he had stumbled into. The Lawson family wasn't just a dysfunctional group of wealthy snobs. They were a pack of ruthless predators who had killed their own blood, slow-poisoned their patriarch, and prepared to throw an innocent man to the wolves—all for land and gold.
“Does Rachel know about Thomas?” Lucas asked, his voice shaking.
“She knows,” Walter said grimly. “I heard her tell Derek that her father ‘did what was necessary to secure their future.’ She celebrated her uncle’s murder.”
Walter closed the journal with a heavy, final thud.
“Tomorrow, Derek will realize his company card is restricted,” Walter said, his voice dropping into an icy register. “He will do exactly what we predicted. He will access the stolen fifteen million dollars from his Bahamas laptop to pay for their luxury resort bill.”
“And when he does?” Lucas asked.
“When he does,” Walter said, looking straight into Lucas’s eyes, “Attorney Vance will release the federal arrest warrants. But I don't want them arrested in Nassau.”
“Where do you want them arrested?”
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Walter’s eyes blazed with a terrifying, ancient fury.
“I want them arrested right here,” Walter growled. “On my floor, in front of my eyes, when they walk through that front door expecting to collect my corpse.”
