Chapter 5 - The Chest Ivy Moved
Ivy admitted she moved it.
Six months earlier.
Michael Carter contacted her.
He had discovered someone was trying to access Unit 7.
He used maintenance plans to enter through service tunnel.
Found chest.
Called Ivy.
Why her?
Because Marian Mercer had trained Michael before she died.
He knew Mercer key passed to Ivy.
Michael believed central Blackwood key was missing.
So they couldn't open chest itself, only move it.
They relocated to temporary storage.
Where?
Ivy refused.
Ronan’s patience snapped.
“You've hidden company records from me for six months.”
“I hid them from everyone.”
“Including me.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because your father told my mother never to let a Blackwood heir see them alone.”
Ronan laughed.
“This family has spent generations writing instructions from graves.”
Then Ivy explained.
Alexander discovered that Blackwood fortune was not solely family property.
Decades earlier, company had absorbed employee-owned shares during restructuring.
Some voluntarily.
Some under questionable terms.
Alexander created restitution framework.
Original registers in chest proved percentages.
If public without context, litigation could destroy company.
If hidden, employees remained cheated.
So Alexander separated keys among three parties.
No one family controlled truth.
Then why never fix while alive?
He did partially.
Employee stock plan.
Pension contributions.
Profit sharing.
But original value may have been much larger.
He feared acknowledging historic wrongdoing would expose father and grandfather.
Cowardice.
Then Michael Carter discovered current board planned recapitalization that would wipe out remaining beneficial claims.
He wanted records opened before vote.
Who pushed recapitalization?
Graham Hale before death.
And Vivienne after inheriting his board seat.
Ronan looked at fiancée.
There.
Financial motive.
Vivienne didn’t deny supporting deal.
“It would have stabilized Blackwood.”
“At whose expense?”
“People who haven’t worked here in fifty years.”
“Or their families.”
“Exactly.”
Her contempt was clear.
Then Ronan asked Ivy:
“Where’s Michael?”
“I don't know.”
“You moved chest together.”
“Yes.”
“When did you last see him?”
“That night.”
“What happened?”
“He took me back to manor.”
“And then?”
“He said he was going to meet someone.”
“Who?”
Ivy looked at Vivienne.
“Her father.”
But Graham Hale had been dead six months?
No.
Timeline.
Graham died five months earlier.
So meeting happened one month before death.
Then Michael disappeared.
Then Graham died unexpectedly from heart attack.
No murder evidence.
But now two men connected by records vanished/died close together.
Then Ronan asked:
“Where did you hide the chest?”
May you like
Ivy answered:
“Your father’s mausoleum.”
