Everyone Laughed at the Single Father at the Reunion—Then a Billionaire Crossed the Room for Him
Chapter 5
The old mill had been abandoned for years.
Its roof leaked.
Its wheel no longer turned.
Vines covered the stone walls.
Thomas remembered playing there as a boy.
Margaret had never liked the place.
She always told him to stay away.
Now he understood why.
Nathaniel arrived before sunrise with two horses.
Thomas brought Clara.
“You should stay home,” Nathaniel said.
Thomas shook his head.
“She stays with me.”
They entered the mill.
Dust floated through shafts of morning light.
The old machinery groaned in the wind.
Nathaniel examined the floor.
“Where would your wife have hidden something?”
“I don’t know.”
Clara wandered toward the wall.
“Papa.”
Thomas followed.
She pointed at a loose stone.
He removed it.
Behind it was a narrow cavity.
Inside lay a metal box.
Thomas’s hands shook as he pulled it out.
The lock was already broken.
Inside were papers.
Dozens of them.
Land deeds.
Letters.
Account records.
And a list of names.
Nathaniel took the first document.
His eyes widened.
“This is it.”
Thomas looked over his shoulder.
The papers proved that Edmund Vale and several wealthy landowners had deliberately falsified debts.
Families who could not repay loans had been forced to surrender their farms.
But there was more.
Nathaniel found a letter from Margaret.
It was addressed to him.
Mr. Blackwood,
If you receive this, then I have failed to deliver the records safely.
Your father’s partners are planning to remove you from the company.
They intend to blame the losses on you.
Do not trust Edmund Vale.
Nathaniel’s jaw tightened.
Thomas looked at him.
“Why did she never send this?”
“I don’t know.”
Nathaniel read the final paragraph.
If anything happens to me, the evidence must reach someone who cannot be bought.
Below that was another name.
A magistrate.
Thomas recognized it.
“Judge Elias Monroe.”
Nathaniel nodded.
“He was the only honest magistrate in the county.”
“Was?”
“He died six years ago.”
The room became silent.
Thomas looked at the documents.
“So the evidence died with him.”
“No.”
Nathaniel pointed to a sealed envelope.
“This was never opened.”
Thomas broke the seal.
Inside was a letter from Judge Monroe.
It contained a confession.
He had hidden copies of the evidence.
But before he could expose Vale, he had been threatened.
The copies had been moved to a secure place.
The location was encoded.
Thomas frowned.
“Can you read it?”
Nathaniel shook his head.
Then Clara spoke.
“Papa.”
She pointed at the bottom.
There was a small drawing.
A windmill.
Thomas stared.
“The old mill.”
Nathaniel shook his head.
“Not this one.”
Thomas understood.
There was another mill.
The Blackwood Mill.
Nathaniel’s largest property.
And suddenly the reunion no longer seemed like a coincidence.
Someone had invited Thomas there because they knew what Margaret had left behind.
