Chapter 8 - PROJECT ORCHID
Project Orchid was not a merger file.
It was a surveillance file.
Eleanor.
Sofia.
Cedric.
Alonzo.
Even Flora.
Photographs, travel logs, phone records, medical appointments.
Someone had been tracking the Blackwood household for years.
Mara flipped through the pages.
“This is organized intelligence work.”
Cedric found a section labeled RISKS.
Sofia Reyes - identified shell payments. Neutralized.
Alonzo stopped breathing.
He read the word again.
Neutralized.
His fist hit the table.
“Who wrote this?”
Nobody answered.
Eleanor Blackwood - refusing succession structure. Medical pressure authorized.
Cedric’s stomach turned.
Portia whispered, “I’ve never seen this.”
Graham said, “Neither have I.”
Mara looked at him. “It was hidden in your flower arrangement.”
“I didn’t put it there.”
Maisie raised one small hand.
“You did.”
The ballroom went quiet.
Graham stared at her.
She moved closer to Alonzo.
“I saw him.”
Graham’s voice hardened. “Children imagine things.”
Maisie’s chin trembled.
Alonzo crouched beside her.
“You don’t have to prove anything to him.”
Mara ordered Graham detained.
He finally lost his temper.
“You have no idea what you’re touching.”
Cedric stepped closer.
“Then explain it.”
Graham laughed.
“You think this started with me? Your father built half of it.”
Cedric went still.
His father, Henry Blackwood, had died seven years earlier.
Graham continued.
“Eleanor didn’t discover a Vale conspiracy. She discovered a Blackwood one.”
May you like
Then he pointed at the scorched folder.
“Project Orchid belonged to your father.”
