Page 90 of Inevitable Secrets

“You know what,” she whispered, and then she cleared her throat and spoke in a loud, stern voice, “I am nervous, okay, and if I want to whisper, I can!”

“Well, now you’re yelling, and that’s just rude,” Derrick said, crossing his arms over his chest and turning away with mock hurt.

“Can you children please get it together?” Ben asked, squeezing the bridge of his nose. “Look, maybe I should case this place before I let you go any further. I’m worried something might be in here.”

“We don’t have time for that,” Taylor said wildly. “My security team has been abducted by some imposter agents, one of my advisors is missing, and someone is trying to kill me,” she pointed out. “Time is of the fucking essence, Ben or Jeff or whatever the hell your name is.”

“This place is just wrecked, Tay. I don’t even know where to start,” Derrick said.

Taylor looked around. He was right, it was wrecked for sure. The previously grand and formal entry of the mansion was now just walls smashed open, with their internal components pulled out. Sheetrock dust was everywhere, scattered and dispersed when Cedric had ripped walls down with his bare hands. It looked like someone had started a really low-budget demo and just decided to sayscrew itbefore the tools got there. Even the floors, the huge marble tile floors, were lifted, like he had pried them up to look under them.

“I think this may be a lost cause,” Ben said looking around at the space, too. “It doesn’t look like anyone has been in here in a long time. Maybe what you need isn’t—”

“There is something here,” she insisted. “Damn it, we need Henry. He is so damn huge he could just shake the damn place,” she said rubbing her head. She exhaled and started looking around slowly.

“Tay—”

“What is that?” Taylor demanded as she looked across the room. Both Derrick and Ben turned slowly in the direction Taylor pointed.

“Taylor,” Derrick said slowly. “I don’t know what you are talking about,” he said very evenly, like Taylor was an animal that might spook at any moment.

Taylor turned her pointed finger to Derrick. “Don't talk to me in that voice.”

“What voice?” Derrick asked her, speaking just as slow.

“Theshe’s lost her mind, proceed with cautionvoice,” she said and stalked over to the direction she had pointed and picked up a vase. “This,” she said shaking the vase at the two men behind her.

“That’s a vase,” Ben informed her, in a slow voice matching the one Derrick had just used.

Taylor wheeled around quickly to Ben. “Listen you,” she seethed at him through her teeth, “he gets a pass for talking to me like I am crazy. He took a bullet for me.” She warned him, “I will kill you with my bare hands, barista boy, if you take that tone with me again.”

“Okay, Tay,” Derrick said now talking normally to avoid any chaos, “what about the vase?”

“Everything in here is in shambles and this thing is all together, sitting pretty on a table. Wait a minute…” she said, staring at it. She noticed cracks in the vase. “It’s been put back together,” she said as much to herself as to Derrick and Ben.

Suddenly Taylor’s eyes grew large as realization filtered through. “Derrick, I think this is the vase that I—”

Derrick nodded his understanding, going over to her. She was grateful she didn’t have to say out loud that it was the vase she had smashed over Cedric’s head, thinking she had killed him years before. “You think Cedric put it back together?” Derrick asked, and Taylor nodded. “But why?”

Taylor had a hunch. She wasn't sure she was right but she felt like the best thing to do was follow it even if she was wrong. And to find out if she was right, she threw the vase at a wall and smashed it.

“Jesus, Taylor!” Derrick shouted.

“What the hell!” Ben yelled in surprise.

But Taylor ignored them both and instead walked over to the carnage that had been left by the vase. She crouched down and plucked out a bunch of papers from inside the vase.

Derrick went over to Taylor, “What is that?”

“The decree,” she whispered to him as she looked at the pages. She flipped the pages slowly, checking each one until she found the thing she had been looking for. A small penciled arrow was pointing at a paragraph on the page. The page that was elusively missing in her own copy.

In the eventthat there is no living descendant of the Preston family bloodline to take control, or if the descendant refuses to take control of all Preston Corporation holdings, the company therein will be dissolved. At the time of dissolution all employed staff will be released from their positions and offered severance for equal to exactly one month of service.

The company components will then be sold. The components may not be sold to the same company and/or person. Each departmental unit must be sold separately and the clause contracts will depict upon their sale that these companies will not be allowed to use the Preston name or combine these companies for a time of no less than 15 years. This sale and division will be performed by the board in service at the time of dissolution.

If there is no board in elect at the time of dissolution of Preston Corporation then the responsibility of dissolution of the entity falls to the most veteran advisor. This individual would be the only person to have the option to retain control of Preston Corp in a single entity if they had been in said role for twenty years or longer.

The last sentenceof the article was underlined, and in shaky handwriting was written:hired 1988, advisor 1994 (Hammel).

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