Chapter 10 - The Truth About My Father
There were twenty-three charges.
That was the estimate from the signal analyzer.
Twenty-three devices buried across old sections of the avalanche tunnel system.
Not mining explosives exactly.
Industrial shaped charges.
Enough to collapse major corridors and destabilize sections of the eastern ridge.
The first timer showed six hours.
Grant ordered immediate full evacuation.
This time there would be no gentle messaging.
Sirens activated across Calder.
Guests were moved down the southern road.
Helicopters lifted critical patients.
Employees swept every building.
I watched the operation from underground command.
The irony was impossible to miss.
The rescue network Daniel wanted dismantled was now evacuating the resort his father intended to destroy.
Vanessa sat with a blanket around her shoulders.
My anniversary necklace was gone.
I noticed.
She saw me looking.
“I left it with Richard.”
“Why?”
“It was yours.”
“That didn’t bother you before.”
She winced.
Good.
I wasn’t interested in making her comfortable.
“Tell me what you meant about my father.”
Vanessa opened the black ledger.
The first pages contained Richard’s payments.
Inspectors.
Contractors.
Shell corporations.
Then the handwriting changed.
Nathan Whitmore.
My father.
Entries documented millions transferred into secret accounts after the 2009 avalanche.
I felt nauseous.
“No.”
Vanessa pointed lower.
“Keep reading.”
The accounts were not personal.
Every payment went toward fourteen trusts.
One for each victim’s family.
Dad had secretly redirected money from Richard’s corrupt contracts into compensation funds.
“He stole from Richard,” I whispered.
“To pay the families,” Rachel said.
Vanessa nodded.
“That’s why Richard hated him.”
But there was more.
A signed agreement between Nathan and Samuel.
They had created a hidden legal structure protecting Calder from Richard’s mineral claim.
The Vale trust owned the land.
Whitmore Holdings operated the resort.
Neither side could sell mineral rights alone.
They needed each other.
A deadlock by design.
Dad hadn’t stolen Calder.
Samuel hadn’t abandoned his family.
Together they had locked Richard out.
Grant pointed toward another page.
“What’s that?”
A contingency clause.
If both Nathan Whitmore and Samuel Vale died or became unavailable, rights passed jointly to their lawful heirs.
Me.
Rachel.
I looked at her.
“We own Calder together.”
“Apparently.”
Vanessa continued.
“Richard needs both signatures.”
“That’s why he targeted Daniel,” I said.
“And why he kept Samuel alive,” Rachel added.
Samuel’s signature could still override hers if certain conditions were met.
Daniel entered.
Grant’s officers watched him closely.
He had agreed to cooperate in exchange for consideration, though nobody had promised immunity.
He looked at the ledger.
“So she found it.”
Vanessa would not look at him.
Daniel turned toward me.
“Ava, there’s one more thing.”
“I’m tired of that sentence.”
“Your father knew I was working for Richard before we got married.”
I stared.
“He knew?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“He investigated me.”
“Of course he did.”
“He confronted me two weeks before the wedding.”
My mouth went dry.
“What did he say?”
Daniel’s eyes dropped.
“He told me he would let the wedding happen.”
Rachel looked stunned.
“Why?”
Daniel answered.
“Because he believed I might turn against Richard.”
The room disappeared around me.
Dad knew.
He knew Daniel originally approached me because of Calder.
And he let me marry him.
Anger came so fast I nearly threw the ledger across the room.
“He used me.”
Daniel shook his head.
“No.”
“He put me in a marriage with a man he knew was lying.”
“He thought I loved you.”
I laughed.
“You just told me you didn’t plan to.”
“I didn’t plan to. But I did.”
“Stop.”
“Ava—”
“Stop using that now.”
He looked away.
Grant studied the countdown.
Five hours twenty-two minutes.
“We can deal with family trauma after we keep the mountain standing.”
He was right.
Technical crews began disarming accessible charges.
But nine devices were located behind collapsed corridors.
We needed the master trigger.
Samuel likely knew where it was.
Vanessa remembered something.
“Richard kept asking Samuel about the old weather station.”
Rachel looked at me.
“What weather station?”
I knew immediately.
“Summit Station Four.”
Abandoned since 2011.
Connected to a narrow maintenance tunnel nobody used.
Grant pulled up maps.
“It’s above the blast network.”
Daniel nodded.
“My father likes high ground.”
“I’m sure that sounded profound in his head.”
Despite everything, Rachel almost smiled.
We moved toward Station Four with a tactical team.
Snow had weakened.
The mountain looked peaceful.
That was the cruel thing about disasters.
From far enough away, they were beautiful.
Halfway up, Daniel grabbed my arm.
“Wait.”
I pulled free.
“What?”
He pointed toward fresh tracks.
Snowmobile.
Two vehicles.
Grant signaled the team forward.
Inside Station Four, we found Samuel.
Alive.
Handcuffed to a steel pipe.
Rachel ran to him.
“Dad.”
He looked at her like he had been waiting seventeen years to breathe.
“My girl.”
She fell against him.
Samuel cried silently.
I turned away.
Some reunions belonged to the people who survived them.
When Grant freed him, Samuel looked at me.
“You look like Nathan.”
“I keep hearing that.”
“I’m sorry.”
“So is everyone.”
He almost smiled.
“Richard?”
Samuel’s expression darkened.
“He left ten minutes ago.”
“Master trigger?”
“He has it.”
“Where is he going?”
Samuel looked down the mountain.
“To the place where your father stopped him the first time.”
“East excavation chamber.”
“Yes.”
Rachel helped Samuel stand.
Grant radioed teams.
Then Samuel grabbed my arm.
“Ava.”
“What?”
“Richard isn’t going there to collapse the tunnels.”
I felt cold.
“What is he doing?”
Samuel looked toward Calder’s eastern ridge.
“He’s going to detonate the original mineral chamber.”
“So?”
“The geology changed after 2009.”
His voice broke.
“If he triggers that chamber now, he won’t destroy part of the resort.”
May you like
He looked directly into my eyes.
“He’ll take half the mountain with it.”
