Rising from the Ashes (Andrew) novel Chapter 1223

"I'd rather hand it to you for free than let that scumbag Mosby get his hands on it!" Ronan said firmly.

Andrew finally took the partial map and tucked it away carefully. He promised, "Don't worry, Mr. Bates. I'm just holding onto it for now. Even if this treasure is real and ever uncovered, it still belongs to you and Janice."

Ronan gave a weary smile. "That treasure isn't so easy to find. To be honest, I've spent years secretly investigating it myself. But I haven't found much. This is only a piece of the map.

"In other words, we'd need to gather the rest of the fragments before we could even begin to figure out where the treasure's actually hidden."

Andrew chuckled. "So this was passed down through your family and dates back to the fall of the Crimson Dynasty, right? That means it's been over a century. Finding the rest of the pieces seems like a lost cause."

Surprisingly, Ronan shook his head. "That's where you're wrong, Mr. Lloyd. From what I know, this treasure is tied to five pieces in total. The one in our hands is just one of them, passed down through the Bates family. And as far as I'm aware, two other families currently hold parts of the map as well."

Andrew's interest sparked. "Oh? Would you mind telling me which two families?"

Ronan nodded. "One of them is the Page family here in Blumedale. Just like the Bates family, they inherited theirs from their ancestors. So in a way, the Page family and the Bates family are both legacy guardians of this treasure.

"The other family originally came from Jayrodale, but they've since expanded their roots into Blumedale. I'm talking about the Rhodes family of Jayrodale. Mr. Lloyd, I believe you're familiar with them."

Wait, what?

That caught Andrew off guard. He had not expected that Lauren's family would be tied to the treasure too.

No wonder they clawed their way into Blumedale—maybe they were hoping to track down the other pieces of the map and unlock the treasure.

If the Rhodes family actually found it, they would instantly rise to the level of the Five Apex families, if not higher.