Chapter 5 - The Seal of June 12th
The silence inside the lake house was suffocating, broken only by Ryan’s weak, bloody whimpering on the floor and the distant hum of a speedboat passing by the dock outside.
Emily stood up from her kneel, holding the damp, coffee-stained purchase agreement in her right hand. The document rattled slightly in her grip—not from fear, but from the vibrating rage coursing through her body.
"June 12th," Emily said softly, stepping over Ryan’s legs as she walked toward her sister. "On June 12th, I was in a combat bunker in Suwałki, Poland. I was writing letters to the families of two soldiers I lost to an IED explosion."
She stopped three feet from Jessica.
"And on June 12th," Emily continued, her eyes fixed on her sister’s face, "you were sitting in a notary’s office in downtown Concord, signing my name on a fraudulent property transfer, claiming I was dead."
Jessica burst into hysterical, uncontrollable sobs, dropping her face into her hands. "Emily... please! You don't understand! We were going to lose everything! Ryan’s company went bankrupt in March! He owed money to people... dangerous people! They were going to take our house in the city!"
"So you decided to take mine?" Emily asked, her voice dangerously calm. "You declared your own sister dead to clear a real estate title?"
"Ryan said you’d never find out in time!" Jessica screamed through her tears, stepping back until her shoulder hit the glass of the window. "He said the deployment was extended! He said by the time you came back, the money would be laundered through the offshore trust, and we could just tell you there was a legal mix-up with the deed!"
"A mix-up?" Emily repeated, a bitter, terrifying smile touching the corners of her lips.
From the floor near the flipped coffee table, Ryan pushed himself up onto his elbows. His jaw was visibly misaligned, blood flowing down his chin, staining his dark navy polo shirt into a deep, gruesome black.
"You... you can't prove anything..." Ryan slurred out through his broken teeth, his dark eyes filled with a desperate, wounded hatred. "The notary was paid... the death certificate is filed with the county clerk... as far as the state of New Hampshire is concerned, Colonel Carter... you don't exist anymore. You're a ghost."
Emily turned her head slowly, looking down at Ryan with a cold, terrifying amusement.
"A ghost?" Emily whispered.
May you like
She reached down into her tactical fatigue jacket, unbuttoning the left breast pocket, and pulled out a heavy, military-grade encrypted satellite smartphone. She tapped the touchscreen three times, brought the speaker to her mouth, and spoke two words into the receiver.
"Code Red. Initiate Lockdown."
