Chapter 9 - The Successor
“No.”
I said it before anyone explained.
“No.”
Ava was asleep upstairs with Mrs. Perez and three guards.
She was eight months old.
She was not anybody’s successor.
Reed removed the document from the wall.
Meridian’s original charter.
Anthony Callaway.
Sarah Bennett.
Four other founders.
One name had been blacked out.
Meridian had not begun as a criminal empire.
It was an insurance system.
Anthony and Sarah discovered Chicago’s legitimate institutions were already compromised by organized crime, political bribery and corporate extortion.
So they created a private information network.
Evidence.
Financial trails.
Insurance against powerful people.
Then Anthony started using the information.
Blackmail became easier than exposure.
Protection became control.
Meridian corrupted itself.
Sarah left.
Anthony stayed.
Before Sarah died, she modified the succession structure.
If Meridian leadership became compromised, control of the archive transferred to her direct descendant.
Me.
“Why?”
Elena answered.
“Because Sarah didn’t trust the Callaways anymore.”
Reed accepted that without argument.
Smart man.
But why Ava?
Because the charter automatically moved succession to the next generation once the current successor had a child.
Meaning Meridian’s archive could eventually belong to Ava.
I laughed bitterly.
“My daughter inherited organized blackmail before she learned to crawl.”
Daniel looked sick.
“We destroy it.”
Reed agreed.
Elena didn’t.
“If you destroy the archive, hundreds of dangerous people learn there’s no evidence keeping them restrained.”
“So?”
“So Chicago burns.”
Not dramatic exaggeration.
Meridian held evidence on judges, gangs, contractors, corrupt police officers and politicians.
Some files prevented crimes because everyone feared exposure.
Destroy everything, and those people became free.
Keep it, and we became exactly what Anthony became.
A weapon disguised as protection.
Then Tommy found the blacked-out founder’s identity.
Chemical recovery.
Name beneath the ink:
THOMAS RITCHIE.
Tommy stopped breathing.
His father.
Reed’s right-hand man stared at the document.
“My father died when I was twelve.”
Elena looked away.
Apparently not.
Thomas Ritchie had disappeared after Sarah left Meridian.
No confirmed body.
Tommy laughed.
“Please don’t tell me he’s alive.”
Nobody did.
Then the hidden room’s old telephone rang.
We all stared.
A telephone nobody knew existed.
Reed answered.
An elderly male voice said:
“Hello, son.”
Tommy’s face emptied.
Thomas Ritchie.
Alive.
He told us Caroline had failed.
Meridian still existed.
He had controlled it since Anthony’s death.
Tommy whispered:
“You let me think you were dead.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because Reed needed someone loyal beside him.”
Tommy stared at Reed.
His entire life had been engineered too.
Then Thomas said:
“Mara is the legal successor. Ava becomes the continuity heir.”
I grabbed the phone.
“My daughter is nothing to you.”
Thomas chuckled.
“She is everything.”
“Why?”
“Because unlike you, she carries Callaway blood too.”
My stomach turned.
Sarah’s granddaughter.
Daniel’s daughter.
Two founding families combined.
Ava wasn't merely a successor.
To Meridian’s old rules, she unified both branches.
Then Thomas said:
“Bring Ava to me before sunrise.”
Reed’s expression became deadly.
“No.”
Thomas laughed.
“I wasn’t asking.”
Then screaming erupted upstairs.
We ran.
Mrs. Perez stood in the supply room.
Empty blanket in her arms.
Ava was gone.
On the floor lay her stuffed rabbit.
May you like
And beside it—
Tommy’s security badge.
