Heartless Legacy (Heartless Heirs of Canyon Falls #4)

116. Pax

Chapter 116

Pax

“ I ’m surprised to see you at the dorms tonight.” I say to Finn when I walk into Holden’s room.

“Thea’s hanging out with LJ, and Deacon’s at the gym.”

“Isn’t it a little early for scotch?”

“Nope.” He pours me a drink, splashing some over the side of the glass.

“You might need this.” He drops clumsily onto the couch and takes a drink from the bottle.

“What’s happened?” I ask, looking to Holden for an explanation for Finn’s tipsiness.

Holden gestures towards the pile on the table. “I’ve been thinking about these charge books, and why your dad has so many of them.”

“Okay, what did you come up with?”

Holden says, “I think he’s forging the entries and giving them out to members in The League.”

I laugh because that makes total sense. What better way to endear people to your scheme than to bribe them with a higher position? “How many families do you think he’s meritoriously promoted?”

Holden answers, “I don’t know if he has yet. How many books did you see in his secret room?”

“Easily four or five other ones.” Nodding towards Finn, I ask, “What’s with him? Is this news that traumatizing?”

Finn says, “You should probably take that drink now, before he tells you the rest.”

“I’m good.” Lowering myself into the chair, I say, “Let’s hear it.”

“One of the books you gave me matches entirely with what’s in the archives. The other book has pages missing. When I went through the one that’s complete, I noticed the handwriting doesn’t match all the way through.”

I point out, “With the book getting passed down, through the head of the bloodlines, the handwriting wouldn’t match.”

“True, but the writing should be consistent over the years of whoever had ownership of it. Unless the custodian listed for the first fifty years had a split personality, he didn’t make all the entries.”

He grabs the books and flips to the last page of the one with the cover. “The second thing I noticed is that the paper doesn’t match. You can feel the texture of the pages is different between the two books and the coloring is off too.”

Next, he presents me with the pages of the book that was hidden. “All these pages feel, and look similar. But when you get to this first one, see how the colors on the lines and the spacing are different in the first few pages of this book?”

I nod and he explains, “It’s because it’s been cannibalized from other sources and re-glued.”

“You’re suggesting my family’s charge book is the forgery, even though it matches everything you read in the archives? Maybe the cover’s been rebound, because the glue wore off from normal wear and tear?” Looking over at Finn, I say, “Different handwriting and page texture aren’t exactly a smoking gun.”

Holden returns the books to the table and pulls his laptop into his lap. “You’re right. It doesn’t, until we factor in the missing documents from the archives.”

He clicks on a photo. “See the right side of this page? If we assume the names are listed in the order of the dollar amount, given, then this part of the page suggests that the fourth place position was shared by two families.”

I read it and can concede that a tie could have happened. “Us and someone else. Okay? What’s the big deal? That other family must’ve lost some kind of tie breaker, so here I am.”

Holden shakes his head. “Look again, Pax. Lester Cox’s name is fifth on this list.” He quickly adds, “We need to do more research. I am researching it, but I thought you had a right to know what I found so far.”

I’m gripping my glass now. “You think it’s real?”

He deflects my question. “We’d need a curator and authenticator to validate the paper and ink in the books.”

I press him for an answer. “But what is your gut telling you?”

“My gut is telling me that Thea was right, and that the clues we followed for the team building challenge are connected to the bloodline challenge, and somehow, we got a head start over the other prospects.” He looks at Finn and says, “You and I need to see if we can find our family’s charge books, too.” After a brief pause, he adds, “We need to be prepared. If someone else comes across this information, they could challenge us for our position.”

Things click into place. The challenge clue said there are forgeries out there. I gulp my drink before speaking. “The challenge isn’t really about missing chess pieces, is it?”

Finn walks over to me and refills my glass as he says, “Oh, but it is. Only we’re the chess pieces on the board.”

Fifth. Number five. I let that number percolate in my head. Rolling it over in my brain. “Fifth.” I say, testing it out on my tongue. If it’s true, then I’d never have to worry about my father again. Any claims to power would be null and void, because we don’t actually fall into the top four of the legacy hierarchy. If the missing bloodline came back to town today, I’d happily step aside and let them claim their place.

“Do we have any idea who this missing entry is?”

Holden responds, “No clue. The name isn’t anywhere in the league archives, and they’re not on the roster of legacy families in town. I’ll expand my search to the state and go from there.”

Thea

“What are you doing here?” Deacon asks, as Pax jogs up to us.

He’s looking at me when he answers, “We need to talk.”

I nod to Wolfe, letting him know it’s okay for Pax to come in. We ride the elevator in silence, followed by more silence as Deacon goes to the kitchen and comes back with a bottle of water for me. “You said you wanted to talk. Get to it.” I say, before bringing the bottle to my lips.

I’m unprepared for his comment. “You think Hailee stole something from my dad that was going to help him win the bloodline challenge, and that’s why he hates you?”

“Yes.”

“Do you know what she took?”

“Yes, and since you’re trying to interrogate me about it, that means you do, too.”

He swallows thickly before continuing. “Was it was some kind of clue about the original configuration of the top twelve families?”

“Yes.” Settling back on the couch, I say, “You might wanna call your friends over here. I’m only gonna say this once.”

The Coxsuckers are on the couch, while I pace back and forth like a general.

“I can’t prove any of what I’m about to say, and I’m not sure I’ll ever find the proof. It’s probably burned to a crisp, along with everything else that was in Garnet.”

I hand them the binder Wolfe and I are working on. “These are the names of the top twelve donors to the school.” Pointing to the fourth place names, I explain, “These two families, Monaghan and Miller, merged and moved away, which is why nobody mentions that the fourth highest donation to the school was a tie between two families.”

Holden glances over at Pax before saying, “I came across something like this in my research, too.”

I continue, “On the next page, you’ll see the names of the men who started The League of the Daggered Raven, and the page after that are several versions of what the charter may have said. The families who were willing to talk about it all had different recollections, but they agreed it referenced three entities.”

I give them a chance to read for themselves. Holden says, “The Guardians, Historians and the League body.”

“That’s right.”

He drags his finger down the page and taps the names at the end, and says “Established by one of these three men?”

“The three of them together came up with The League of the Daggered Raven, but they all chose a different pillar of it to run. Eventually, they added a fourth member, because their dorm rooms were double occupancy, and keeping things a secret from their roommate wasn’t as easy as it sounded.”

Finn looks up from the binder and asks, “Coleman, are you sure about that name?”

There is no Coleman. I’ve substituted that name to protect Scott and Alexz, but since The Tomb has an empty slot on the wall, nobody will ever know the difference. I tell them, “They’re the family line that died off, and when Monaghan and Miller moved away, the Cox line assumed a top spot.”

Finn asks, “What happened to Fichtner? Shouldn’t he have moved up too, to complete the quad?”

Holden pulls out his laptop and starts typing. Probably looking for information to verify what I’m saying. He finds the answer, “Fichtner. Had all girls.”

“What happens to girls?” I prompt.

Finn says, “They get married off, and don’t inherit a spot in The League.”

“And if eventually a male is born?” I ask.

Pax answers, “Nothing. Girls negate everything. They replace the bloodline family with someone else in their family, and the previous legacy line is basically erased.”

To bring it all home, I ask, “And if someone finds clues about that history?”

Finn snorts, “It wouldn’t matter. The people in power wouldn’t give it up. The stories say families have killed rival heirs from their own bloodlines, to stay in control. They would have no problem with eliminating some random person walking in off the street trying to lay claim to a legacy title.”