“McGregor Langley,” Sloane said, his facewent pale.
Langley smiled a non-smile and said,“Keystone kept you on as his attorney still, after what you did to him? Theman’s got more generosity and a forgiving nature than I’ve given him creditfor. Sloane the snake.”
“I wasn’t the one who…” Sloane looked at Seband Ash.
“So what part are you on with the reading ofthe will? No doubt you already know what the outcome is, Sloane, but isenjoying playing this mindgame of Clay’s too much,” Langley said.
“So leave the kids alone then,” Sloane said.“They’re not part of what happened between you and Clay.”
“No, but they’re part of his legacy. Which Iwant to destroy,” Langley said. He walked over to Sloane to grab him by thethroat. Sloane didn’t even tried to fight him off. “I don’t have much time toplay these games. As you can see, I’m not getting any younger. Where are you inthese puzzles?”
Sloane choked, trying to breathe. “Part 3.We’re almost through. There is one more part after that.”
Langley sneered. “Like I really cared. Giveme a good reason why I should let you keep playing this game instead of forcingyou to give me what I came for… now?”
“Because…” Sloane said. “This isn’t just agame for Clay. He had some secrets he had kept for a long time that involvedother people… including you.”
Langley’s eyes widen. “Hell no!”
“As a matter of fact, I was about to move onto it. You would find this next part very informative,” Sloane said.
Langley looked over at his men and raisedhis hand, signaling for them to ease up.
They let go of Ash and Seb. Sutton was stillknocked out in front, but they began to spread out to stand in the lobby,awaiting Langley’s next orders.
“Humor me, Sloane, tell me what couldpossibly make it worth my while to stay here and let you all play this puzzlesgame,” Langley said.
Sloane cleared his throat as Langley tookhis hand off his throat and went over to sit in a large leather chair in thelibrary. Sloane looked over at us, signaling for us to return to the library tocontinue the reading of the will.
Seb walked in first. Followed by Ash and me.Thomas was nowhere to be seen. Where could he be?
It didn’t matter that he wasn’t there.Sloane sat down at his chair and started reading where he left off.
“To my right is the first report,” Sloanesaid. “A paternity test. It clearly showed that one of his sons is not hisbiological sons. And here… in this report next to the first report is theresults for the paternity test for who is the real father.”
Sloane looked straight at Langley then, whoflinched.
“McGregor Langley, this is the results ofthe paternity test for one of the Keystone’s boys. You are the owner of theseresults. You are the biological father for one of the boys,” Sloane said.
McGregor Langley sat back in his chair, witha dumbfounded expression. “I thought I was sterile. But I guessed I wasn’t.”
Seb was immediately at the table whereSloane sat, reaching for the papers. “I don’t believe it! You can’t mean thatMom had sex with this…this…man!” He was livid.
Ash was up there, too, reaching for thepapers to see it for himself. “What the fucking hell! How dare anyone try tomake this up.”
Thomas finally walked into the library ascool as a cucumber as though he wasn’t fazed at seeing a bunch of mobsters inthe lobby and living room of his home. “That can’t be true.”
Sloane said, “I’m afraid it is.” He shookhis head. “Clay didn’t want to believe it himself at first, so he had the testsdone a couple more times and even re-checked the results.”
“Your mother was the most beautiful womanI’ve ever seen,” Langley said as if he was re-living old memories. “From thestart, I wanted her. When I found out how miserable she was with your father,we began an affair. She was so passionate, so wild. We would fuck everywhere wecan.”
Seb said, “Too much information.”
Ash looked sick.
“So she had my child,” Langley said. “Ason…” he looked over at Seb, Ash, and Thomas with a different look than before.A look of bewilderment. “One of you guys.”
“Fuck,” someone said. It could have beenfrom Seb, Ash, or Thomas, but I couldn’t tell since it was so low and soft.
Langley stood up and reached for the papersthat were now scattered in front of Sloane. “Which kid is mine?” he growled.
Seb looked at Thomas, and Thomas looked atAsh. They looked sick to their stomach.
“It doesn’t say who the kid is on thesepapers,” Langley said. “And there is no dates so we can’t tell the birth date.”
“Clay had those parts erased to protect theidentity of the child,” Sloane said. “No matter who the father was, Clay raisedthe boy as his own.”
“Fuck, fuck, fuck!” Seb and Ash swore.
“Unbelievable!” Thomas said, sinking downinto a chair.
“This changes everything!” Langley said.
“How?” Sloane asked.
“If my son is to be an heir to Keystone’sfortune, then he better be the one to inherit. I will make sure he wins!”
“Or he may be disqualified from inheriting,”Sloane said.
Langley looked at Seb, Thomas, and Ash. “Ifyou know who is my real son, then you know what is best for you all… to let himhave the inheritance. All of it.”
Thomas stood up then and walked up toLangley. He was so calm and cool about it, I almost didn’t recognize him.
Once he was next to Langley, he pulled out agun so quickly and held it to Langley’s face, twisting his arm behind him.“Now, Mr. Langley, we’ve lost enough time as it is in trying to solve thepuzzles. You’ve only given us a week and now it’s less a day. I am going towalk you to the door so you and your men can leave us to work on the next Part.All of
