The City Is Mine

Chapter Five

He slid the pages under his mattress, right next to the old ledger. 

Before dawn, he crept out. The floorboard by the door let out a small creak, he held his breath until the house fell quiet again. Then he moved through the back hall and out the side gate, his boots crunching on the frosty ground.

The trust led straight to Carter Air, Victor’s old airline. The ledger pointed to an abandoned maintenance hangar on the edge of the city. If Victor had stashed anything away, it had to be there, far from Evelyn’s reach.

Gray daylight spilled over rusted hangars and broken glass as Benjamin slipped through a gap in the old chain-link fence. The faded Carter Air sign above the main hangar door looked like it could fall off any second.

Inside, dust covered old desks and scattered flight logs. The cold stung his fingers while he searched the back wall — and there it was: a vault door, half-hidden in the shadows. A dragon was carved into the lock plate, the same curling tail, the same eyes as his pendant.

He pressed the pendant into the groove. Nothing happened at first. Then he heard a soft click. The vault door creaked open, and the sound made the hairs on his neck stand up.

A single file lay inside on a dusty shelf. Carter Trust Code. His hands shook as he opened it. Six numbers stared up at him — half the code, tied to the final bid Victor Carter made to snatch Carter Air away from Old Master Harper. Below it, a quick note in faded ink: Second sequence kept by Harper & Associates.

Benjamin clenched his jaw. Of course. Evelyn’s fingers were in everything.

He slipped the file inside his jacket just as he heard gravel crunch outside. Marcus’s voice drifted in, smooth and smug. “Check the vault. He’s a rat — you’ll find him sniffing for scraps.”

Benjamin’s pulse hammered in his throat. He shut the vault as quietly as he could and pressed himself into the shadows. Marcus’s footsteps scraped across the cold hangar floor, echoing off the metal walls. Benjamin found the old service door, eased it open, and slipped out, his boots landing quietly on broken concrete.

He didn’t breathe until he hit the alley behind the old fence, the file warm under his arm. Marcus’s angry bark to a guard echoed behind him—too late.

He reached the mansion at sunrise, his feet numb. Evelyn stood in the foyer like a statue in silk, eyes sharp enough to peel skin.

“Where were you?” she asked sweetly, but her voice had splinters in it. She stepped closer, brushing dust from his collar. “Harper & Associates had an intruder last night. Documents went missing. Strange, isn’t it?”

Benjamin forced a bland smile. “Strange world, ma’am.”

Her eyes flicked to his jacket as if she could see the papers hidden there. Her smile widened. “Get cleaned up. Marcus wants a word.”

He found Amelia in the back hall, arms crossed. She didn’t look half-asleep this time. She looked like she wanted to slap him and hug him at the same time.

“You were at the vault,” she said. No question, just fact. “You were at the law office too. I know you slipped back in last night.”

Benjamin set his jaw. “Your mother’s burning every page that says I exist.”

Amelia stepped closer, too close. Her finger jabbed his chest, just above the warm pulse of the pendant.

“If you’re lying, if this is some gutter fairy tale, I’ll tell her myself. I’ll burn your story for you.” Her voice cracked. “Don’t think I won’t.”

Benjamin didn’t flinch. He pulled the pendant out just enough for her to see the dragon glint. “This isn’t a story. It’s the key she’s terrified of.”

She studied it, her breath shaking, eyes wide and furious. Then she turned on her heel and left. She didn’t promise silence. She didn’t promise betrayal either. That scared him more.

Noon dragged him back into Evelyn’s trap. She summoned him to the library, her perfume thick as poison.

“You’re delivering this to Harper & Associates,” she said, slipping a thick envelope into his hand. The seal was fresh, the paper expensive. “Do not open it.”

He weighed it in his palm—too light for what it was meant to destroy.

She stepped close enough for him to smell her skin cream. “One slip, Benjamin, and they’ll drag you out of this house in chains.”

Marcus lounged against the doorframe, smirking. “Run along, gardener.”

Harper & Associates gleamed downtown, all mirrored glass and hush money. Benjamin waited in the marble lobby until Richard, the family lawyer, came shuffling out to take the envelope. His hands trembled as he took it—like a man being handed his own execution note.

Through a half-open door behind Richard, Benjamin glimpsed a file stamped Carter Trust. His skin prickled hot. He shifted closer, pretending to adjust his sleeve. The pendant’s warmth spiked, his hearing sharpened just enough to catch Richard’s hiss to an assistant.

“Evelyn wants this gone—before he finds the code. Burn it, all of it.”

Benjamin’s chest went cold. He slipped into a side hall when Richard turned away. The file lay on a cluttered desk, unguarded, a ribbon half untied.

Four digits. The second sequence. His pulse hammered as he memorized them, six from the vault, four from Evelyn’s grasp. Enough to break the trust open if he could get out alive.

A voice barked behind him—Marcus. “Stealing again, Carter?” Marcus’s grin was all teeth as he stepped inside, blocking the door.

Benjamin quickly stuffed the scrap into his pocket, his heart pounding. Marcus lunged at him, grabbing his collar. Benjamin twisted away, feeling the pendant burn against his skin. He shoved Marcus with his shoulder and slipped past him. Marcus yelled, “Thief! He’s stealing trust papers!”—his voice cutting through the silence like a gunshot.

Benjamin didn’t stop running until the cold air outside slapped his lungs raw. He slipped down an alley, then another, every footstep hammering the code deeper into his mind.

Back at the mansion, Benjamin found an old garden marker hidden under thick, overgrown bushes. The dragon was carved into the stone, worn but still clear. He ran his fingers along a small crack he had seen before—it looked like a lock. Maybe it was the last vault.

Clara’s voice rasped behind him. “You’re close, lad. Close enough to scare her half to death.”

Benjamin looked up. The old maid’s eyes darted toward the house. “She’s calling the police. Said you forged trust papers—said you broke in, stole family secrets.”

His throat tightened. “If they find the papers—”

“They’ll bury you alive,” Clara whispered. She pressed something into his hand—a tarnished key. “Your mother gave this to me before she died. Said you’d know when it mattered.”

Benjamin’s eyes widened. “My mother? You met her? Why didn’t you ever tell me?”

Clara’s gaze softened, but her voice stayed low. “Yes. Your mother and Evelyn were business partners once. I’ve seen her twice, in secret meetings. Things were different then.”

Benjamin felt the pendant warm against the key—two pieces of the same lock.

He barely made it to his room before Amelia blocked the doorway. Her robe was gone; she wore jeans and a shirt, hair pulled back like she’d stopped pretending she was just the Harper daughter tonight.

“Marcus says you broke in. Mother’s on the phone with the police. Tell me the truth.” Her eyes cut into him like knives. “Is this trust real, or are you just dragging my family through filth for nothing?”

Benjamin held up the pendant and the crumpled scrap with the final digits. “I have the code. The trust is real. Your grandfather trusted me, not her.”

She stepped closer. “Then prove it. Because if you’re lying—”

He cut her off, voice steady. “Then drag me to her yourself.”

They stared at each other. She didn’t step aside. But she didn’t shout, either.

Below them, Evelyn’s voice echoed through the foyer. “Benjamin! Come down—now! The police are almost here.”

Marcus’s laughter followed, cold and satisfied. Papers rustled below, fresh forgeries to brand him a thief.

Benjamin tightened his grip on the pendant, the key, the code rattling in his skull. He felt the dragon etched into his skin now, Victor’s legacy. Evelyn thought she’d buried him in dirt and shame.

But tomorrow, he’d bury her in truth.

Sirens wailed in the distance. The front gate clanged open. Benjamin looked at Amelia one last time.

“Are you with her,” he asked, voice low, “or in my way?”

She didn’t answer. But she didn’t shout for her mother, either.