There’s a knock at the door and Mike comes in. “Are you ready to begin, Sir?”

I’ve finally decided to take the bull by the horns. I have to find out if my father or brother had any clue that someone was after them. And so, today, we are finally starting with my father’s study in the London mansion.

Mike and I get to work immediately. I search through every drawer and every cupboard while Mike empties every book from the library shelves and looks through the pages for anything hidden. I read through every paper I find but there’s nothing.

I turn to Mike. “Anything?”

He shakes his head in the negative.

After three hours of nonstop searching and going through every nook and corner of the room, we still come up empty-handed. I sink into my chair, holding my head in my hands.

Questions pour through my mind. Why is someone so angry with my family? What did my father and brother do and why am I being targeted? I have no clues and only dead ends. I was so certain my father would have some kind of a hidden place in his study. But there is nothing.

Letting out a guttural roar, I grab hold of the porcelain horse from the desk and am about to hurl it when Mike raises his hand to stop me.

“Sir,” he says urgently. “There’s something at the bottom of that horse.”

Frowning, I turn the horse and find a tiny key lodged at its base.

A spark of hope surges inside me as I pull it out. Mike and I look at one another and immediately begin opening all the drawers of the desk once again. I toss things hither and thither, knocking at the base of each until I reach the last drawer at the bottom of the desk and there, I hear a hollow sound as I knock.

The base of the drawer slides open as I push on it and below it is the hidden compartment I was sure my father would’ve had. The key fits correctly inside the lock and the drawer opens to reveal a stack of papers and files.

Mike steps aside as I scan through portfolios of foreign bank accounts hidden from the taxman and properties bought across the world under various company names I have no recognition of. I’ll need to share these with Mike at some point to help me sort it all out, but I keep all those documents aside for now. Finally, the last file gives me what I want—threat messages similar to the ones I’ve received.

You all will pay for what you’ve done

Your sons deserve to die and so do you

I will kill you all...soon

The Kittridge line will cease to exist.