CHAPTER 6 THE NIGHT THEY CAME FOR MY BABY
Arthur stared at the screen.
“Brendan, listen carefully. Kidnapping a physician and making a threat against—”
The feed cut off.
Marcus turned to me.
“You are not going alone.”
“He’ll kill her.”
“He may kill her anyway.”
Dr. Patel had held my hand during every frightening appointment. She had answered calls at two in the morning when I panicked over pain that turned out to be normal. She had spoken to my unborn daughter during ultrasounds as if they were already friends.
I would not leave her in that garage.
“What inheritance document is he talking about?” Evelyn asked.
Arthur answered.
“Cassidy established a prenatal trust. If anything happens to her before delivery, her controlling shares pass to the child at birth, managed by independent custodians.”
Victor understood first.
“The forged trust amendment only works if Cassidy remains the direct beneficiary.”
Arthur nodded.
“If the prenatal trust stands, killing or incapacitating Cassidy does not give the Crown Group control. The shares bypass them.”
“They need the original certification destroyed,” I said.
“And possibly Cassidy forced to revoke the trust,” Arthur added.
My baby had protected the company without ever taking a breath outside my body.
That was why they threatened her.
Not simply to frighten me.
She was the legal barrier they could not overcome.
The boardroom doors opened again.
Evelyn looked inside.
Seven board members sat around the long table. Large screens displayed remote participants. At the far end sat Martin Vale, senior independent director and one of my mother’s oldest rivals.
He smiled.
“Cassidy. You arrived.”
I recognized the voice from the threatening phone call.
Even without distortion.
Martin Vale was Crown Group.
He had stood beside my mother at company celebrations. He had sent flowers to her funeral. Every year, he mailed me a handwritten birthday card.
“Where is Charles?” I asked.
“Beyond your reach.”
“And Brendan?”
“Making one final effort to correct his mistakes.”
“You mean kidnapping my doctor.”
Martin spread his hands.
“I have no knowledge of criminal conduct.”
Marcus quietly instructed his officers to secure the corridor.
Arthur stepped into the boardroom.
“This meeting is unlawful.”
“No,” Martin replied. “It is necessary. Our controlling shareholder appears in the company’s headquarters for the first time in years, accompanied by armed men, following an explosion and a series of irrational employment terminations.”
“You planted a bomb.”
“Can you prove that?”
I entered the room.
The board members looked at me with varying degrees of fear, guilt, and curiosity.
Martin gestured toward an empty chair.
“Sit. We will determine whether you remain fit to control this institution.”
“I don’t need your permission to control what I own.”
“Ownership carries fiduciary responsibilities.”
“So does directorship.”
His smile faded slightly.
Good.
He had expected the frightened young woman from old reports.
Instead, he was facing my mother’s daughter.
I placed Evelyn’s drive on the table.
Several board members shifted.
Martin’s gaze fixed on it.
“What is that?”
“Twenty-two years of evidence.”
Silence.
“I have records of forged trust documents, undisclosed payments, manipulation of medical files, and a planned theft of one hundred and eighty million dollars.”
One board member, Samuel Ortiz, looked sharply at Martin.
“You said the transfer was a defensive liquidity measure.”
Martin ignored him.
“The contents of an unverified drive are irrelevant to this proceeding.”
“They will be relevant to federal prosecutors.”
The remote screens began turning black.
One by one, participants disconnected.
Cowards.
Martin glanced toward the guards.
“Secure the device.”
Marcus stepped forward.
“Try.”
No one moved.
My phone vibrated.
A message from Brendan.
FOUR MINUTES.
Attached was a photograph of Dr. Patel kneeling beside a concrete pillar.
I looked at Marcus.
“I’m going to the garage.”
Martin laughed.
“You cannot leave during the vote.”
“Watch me.”
Arthur caught my arm.
“Cassidy, the trust file is not in the vault.”
I looked at him.
He lowered his voice.
“The original was moved after Protocol 7. It’s with the federal custodian.”
Brendan did not know that.
The document he wanted no longer existed in the building.
“We can give him a copy,” I said.
“We have three minutes.”
Victor stepped toward the boardroom printer.
“I can create one.”
Arthur stared at him.
“You would have to alter the verification seal.”
“I designed the financial authentication system. I can make it convincing for ten minutes.”
Martin rose.
“You are all participating in fraud.”
Victor turned on him.
“You tried to steal the company.”
For the first time, Victor sounded angry rather than frightened.
“You used me as a disposable custodian. If your plan succeeded, I would have been blamed for everything.”
He printed the document, applied an executive seal, and handed it to me.
Marcus divided his team. Two officers remained with Arthur and the evidence. The rest accompanied me toward the service elevator.
“Alone,” I said.
“No.”
“Brendan will see your people.”
“He already expects security.”
“I need him focused on me.”
Marcus studied my face.
Then he removed a small pin from his lapel and attached it inside my coat.
“Camera and audio. We remain twenty seconds behind you.”
The elevator descended.
Fiftieth floor.
Fortieth.
Thirtieth.
My heartbeat matched the changing numbers.
At the underground level, the doors opened onto darkness.
Emergency lights cast long red bands across parked vehicles.
“Brendan?” I called.
My voice echoed.
“Walk forward.”
He stepped from behind a black SUV.
His clothes were wrinkled. A bruise marked his jaw. He held a pistol in one hand.
Dr. Patel knelt twenty feet away, guarded by a masked man.
I held up the folder.
“Let her go.”
“Open it.”
I removed the document.
Brendan approached.
For a moment, I saw the man I had married.
The man who once painted our kitchen at midnight because I said the yellow walls made me sad.
Then his gaze dropped to the paper, and greed erased him again.
“Sign the revocation page.”
“No.”
His gun lifted.
“Cassidy.”
“You won’t shoot me.”
“You don’t know what I’m capable of.”
“I know exactly what you’re capable of.”
His face twisted.
“You made me feel small.”
“I trusted you.”
“You watched me struggle while you sat on billions.”
“I offered you love without money attached.”
“You offered me a test I never agreed to take.”
“And when you learned the truth, you chose theft.”
The masked man pressed his weapon against Dr. Patel’s head.
Brendan held out a pen.
“Sign.”
I took it.
Then I looked past him.
A security camera hung above the garage exit.
Its red indicator light was off.
But in the reflection of the SUV window, I saw movement.
Marcus’s team.
I lowered the pen toward the page.
The masked man’s phone rang.
He answered.
A voice barked through the speaker.
“Do it now. Vale lost control of the board.”
Brendan looked up.
“What?”
The man pointed his weapon at me.
“We don’t need the signature anymore.”
Dr. Patel threw herself sideways.
The gun fired.
Concrete exploded near her shoulder.
Marcus’s team surged from behind the vehicles.
Shots cracked through the garage.
I dropped behind the SUV.
Brendan grabbed my coat and dragged me toward him.
“Stay down!”
Another bullet struck the window above us.
For one confused second, he shielded me with his body.
Marcus fired.
The masked gunman collapsed.
Dr. Patel crawled toward cover.
Then Brendan pressed his pistol against my ribs.
His face was inches from mine.
“Give me the drive.”
“You don’t have to do this.”
“Yes,” he whispered. “I do.”
Behind him, a car engine roared.
A sedan raced through the garage directly toward us.
Brendan turned.
The headlights revealed the driver.
Diane.
May you like
She wasn’t coming to rescue her son.
She was trying to run us both down.
