Chapter 63: The Truth Worth Dying For

Victor fired first.

His shot forced the gunmen behind the cemetery gates to scatter.

"Arthur! Get Vivian out of here!"

"Not without you," Arthur answered.

"Move!" Victor shouted.

Bullets shattered marble headstones.

Stone fragments sprayed across the grass.

Damien crawled toward the fallen old man.

"Stay down!" I cried.

He ignored me.

The old man lay beside Nathaniel's grave, blood spreading across his coat.

His breathing was shallow.

"Sir..." Damien whispered.

"Please... stay with us."

The old man smiled faintly.

"You still call me sir."

"Even now."

"I don't know what else to call you," Damien admitted.

"Then call me what Eleanor once did."

"Richard."

Another volley of gunfire erupted.

Victor returned fire from behind a granite monument.

"They're closing in!"

"Three shooters!" Arthur yelled.

"No... four!"

One attacker rushed through the mist.

Black tactical clothing.

Face covered.

Victor fired again.

The attacker fell before reaching the graves.

The remaining gunmen retreated behind parked SUVs.

"They're buying time," Victor muttered.

"For what?"

Arthur checked the thermal camera attached to his tablet.

"Another vehicle."

"Approaching from the eastern road."

"Fast."

Richard reached inside his coat with trembling fingers.

"Vivian..."

"Take this."

He handed me an old brass key.

Unlike Daniel Cross's silver key, this one looked ancient.

Its head carried the Ashford family crest.

"What does it open?" I asked.

"The original study."

"Not the one everyone knows."

"The hidden one beneath Ashford Manor."

Victor looked sharply toward him.

"There's another study?"

"Richard nodded."

"My father built it during the war."

"Only three people ever knew it existed."

"Me."

"Roland."

"And Nathaniel."

"Nathaniel found it?" Damien asked.

"He found everything."

"That's why they killed him."

Silence settled over us despite the continuing gunfire.

Richard's breathing became weaker.

"Nathaniel begged me to disappear again."

"He said the truth mattered more than revenge."

"I didn't listen."

"I'm sorry."

"You have nothing to apologise for," I whispered.

He smiled sadly.

"I've been apologising for twenty-nine years."

"Mostly to Eleanor."

"Tell her..."

His voice faltered.

"Tell her I never left willingly."

Damien gripped his hand.

"I'll tell her myself."

"You'll survive this."

Richard slowly shook his head.

"No."

"Listen carefully instead."

"The man leading Raven Capital..."

"Isn't the one giving orders."

"There's someone above him."

"Someone Nathaniel never identified."

"Who?" Victor asked.

Richard struggled to breathe.

"They call him..."

"The Founder."

"No name."

"No photograph."

"Only a voice."

Arthur's expression darkened.

"A ghost."

"No," Richard corrected.

"A man clever enough to become one."

The approaching engine roared louder.

A fourth black SUV burst through the cemetery gates.

"Incoming!" Victor shouted.

The vehicle accelerated directly toward us.

"Move!"

Everyone scattered.

The SUV crashed through two rows of gravestones before stopping barely ten metres away.

Its doors flew open.

Four armed men stepped out.

One wore no mask.

I recognised him instantly.

"Colette..." I whispered.

She stood beside the armed men wearing a black overcoat.

Completely calm.

She looked at me without guilt.

"You've made this far more difficult than necessary, Vivian."

"You murdered Nathaniel," I said.

"No," she answered.

"I simply failed to save him."

"There's a difference."

"Liar," Damien growled.

Colette ignored him.

Her eyes remained fixed on Richard.

"You've hidden long enough."

"It's over."

Richard laughed weakly.

"No..."

"It starts tonight."

"You already lost."

"Nathaniel won three years ago."

"You just haven't realised it yet."

Colette's confident smile disappeared for the first time.

"What did he leave behind?"

Nobody answered.

"Search them," she ordered.

The armed men advanced.

Victor stepped into the open.

Gun raised steadily.

"One more step..."

"And none of you leave this cemetery."

Colette smiled again.

"You're bluffing."

"Am I?" Victor asked.

Police sirens suddenly echoed through the night.

Every attacker froze.

Arthur lowered his phone.

"I activated Briggs' emergency protocol ten minutes ago."

"Every available police unit is on the way."

"Impossible," Colette hissed.

"Briggs is missing."

"Exactly," Arthur replied.

"Which means nobody expected him to leave a dead man's switch."

Blue lights appeared beyond the cemetery gates.

The attackers retreated toward their vehicles.

"Fall back!" one shouted.

Colette hesitated only a second before stepping into the SUV.

She looked directly at me through the open window.

"Enjoy your victory while it lasts."

"The Founder already knows who you are."

The convoy disappeared into the darkness just as the first police cars entered the cemetery.

Paramedics rushed toward Richard.

He gently pushed them away.

"No more hospitals," he whispered.

"I've spent enough of my life hiding in them."

He looked at Damien one final time.

"Be a better Ashford than we were."

Then he turned toward me.

"Vivian..."

"The hidden study..."

"Everything ends there."

His hand slowly slipped from mine.

The monitor emitted one continuous tone.

Richard Ashford—the man history had erased—took his final breath beside Nathaniel Carter's grave.

Victor quietly closed Richard's eyes.

"He protected the truth until the very end."

Arthur looked at the brass key resting in my hand.

"Tomorrow..."

"We open the hidden study."