Chapter 17 - Maya’s New Discovery
Two months later, Maya called me with news that made my stomach drop for an entirely different reason.
“Mason, we need to meet,” she said over the phone, her tone urgent and unusually tense. “Richard Vance’s bankruptcy filing just hit the federal clerk’s docket. And during the asset discovery phase, the federal trustee found something hidden in your grandfather Arthur’s old estate records.”
“What is it?”
“Arthur Vance didn't just leave you a trust fund, Mason,” Maya said, her voice dropping to a cautious whisper. “He left a sealed safety deposit box at a private vault in Richmond, Virginia. And the instructions state that it can only be opened by you, in person, accompanied by a notary.”
The next day, Maya, Drew, and I drove north into Virginia, arriving at the monolithic stone building of the Richmond Old Dominion Trust Bank.
The bank manager led us down into the subterranean vault, past heavy steel bars into a small private viewing room. He placed a long, heavy steel box on the table, handed me a brass key, and stepped outside.
With Drew on my left and Maya on my right, I turned the key.
The lock clicked open with a heavy, satisfying metallic ring.
Inside lay three leather-bound journals belonging to Arthur Vance, a legal deed, and a thick gold pocket watch with my grandfather’s initials carved into the back.
I picked up the top journal and flipped to the final entry, dated two weeks before Arthur passed away in 2007.
The handwriting was shaky but unmistakably Arthur’s:
May you like
*“To my grandson, Mason. If you are reading this, it means you survived your father. I knew what Richard was from the day he turned twenty-one. A man without a soul, driven only by vanity and greed. I could not protect your mother, because she chose his money over her own conscience. But I swore before God I would protect you. The land in Blue Ridge—four hundred acres of uncut mountain timber—has never been touched by Richard’s hands. It has been deeded to you since the day you were born. Build something honest there, Mason. Break the Vance curse.”*
***