Chapter 20 - The Silent Shadow
The final entry was written in a shaky, erratic hand that scrawled messily across the lined paper.
They think they took everything from me, the passage read.
They think locking me in this cell erased the secondary trust I set up in Switzerland when David was twenty-one.
Hannah thinks she won because she kept the house in Katy.
She has no idea that the real title to the mineral rights beneath her land was sold to a private consortium in 2018.
A consortium that holds a thirty-year lease right... and they are scheduled to begin drilling operations next spring.
She saved the house... but she forgot to look under the ground.
I stared at the page, the tea turning ice-cold in my cup as the hum of the air conditioner echoed through the quiet house.
I slowly closed the black journal, placed it flat on the kitchen island, and pulled out my smartphone.
I opened my contacts, found Marcus Vance's number, and tapped the call button.
Outside my kitchen window, the Texas sky was turning into a dark, bruised shade of purple as a distant thunderstorm rolled over the horizon.
"Marcus," I said, my voice dropping into that familiar, unbreakable steel as the phone connected.
May you like
"I need you to pull the state mineral rights registry for my property immediately."
"We have one more battle to win."
