PART 5: The Hidden Vault
Clara shoved a heavy bookshelf aside, revealing a narrow iron hatch built directly into the floorboards of the study. We dropped into the damp, narrow tunnel beneath the foundation just as the study door splintered open above our heads. Cold water soaked through my shoes as we crawled through the darkness, guided only by the faint light of my phone screen.
The subterranean passage led directly beneath the detached garage, opening into a concrete room lined with locked metal filing cabinets. Clara used the key attached to Zane’s letter to open the primary vault, revealing stacks of forged passports, bearer bonds, and encrypted hard drives. Zane hadn’t just protected his money; he had framed my entire estate as the primary owner of the fraudulent shell company.
If the authorities or his ruthless partners found this room, I would take the fall for his decades of high-level financial crimes. A cold shadow suddenly blocked the top of the escape ladder behind us. Who had followed our tracks into the underground vault? Go to the next part to discover the horrifying truth…
