Chapter 8
I stopped twenty feet away.
Agent Price and her team remained hidden around the corner.
Ryan didn’t know they were there.
At least I hoped he didn’t.
My mother was on her knees.
Her hands were tied.
But she looked conscious.
“Mom.”
“I’m okay.”
Ryan jerked the gun.
“Don’t talk.”
I stared at him.
“You’re pointing a gun at my mother.”
“You made this happen.”
“No. You did.”
Victor stood behind him, perfectly calm.
“Ryan, lower the weapon.”
Ryan snapped, “You said she’d cooperate.”
“I said she might.”
My mother looked at me.
“Emily, don’t sign anything.”
Ryan pressed the gun closer to her shoulder.
“Shut up.”
My anger came back.
But this time I controlled it.
Victor had built his entire strategy around reaction.
I would not give him one.
“What do you need?” I asked.
Victor smiled.
“Progress.”
“What do you need from me?”
“A signature.”
“On what?”
“A temporary proxy authorizing me to vote Lily’s trust shares.”
“And if I sign?”
“Your mother leaves.”
“Ryan too?”
Ryan’s face changed.
Victor didn’t answer quickly enough.
I noticed.
So did Ryan.
“What about me?” Ryan asked.
Victor sighed.
“We discussed this.”
“You said I’d be protected.”
“I said I would help.”
Ryan turned slightly toward him.
“That means what?”
“Right now, it means keep the gun pointed away from me.”
A crack formed between them.
Good.
I pushed.
“Ryan, he used you.”
“Shut up.”
“You think he’s giving you money?”
“I already have money.”
“Two hundred fifty thousand dollars that the government froze.”
His jaw tightened.
“You think he’s getting you out of prison?”
“Victor has people.”
“Victor had Hannah too.”
His eyes flickered.
“Hannah?”
“She’s in federal custody.”
Victor’s expression changed for the first time.
Tiny.
But I saw it.
Ryan did too.
“You said Hannah was handling the exit.”
Victor replied, “She was.”
“She got arrested?”
I stepped closer.
“She told us everything.”
Victor looked at me.
“Did she?”
“Yes.”
That was partly a bluff.
Enough.
Ryan’s grip on the gun tightened.
“What did she say?”
“That Victor designed the plan so you and Diane would disqualify yourselves from the trust.”
Ryan looked at Victor.
“That’s a lie.”
I continued.
“The trust addendum names him after you and Diane.”
Ryan’s face drained.
Victor spoke calmly.
“You knew I was successor trustee.”
“No. You said you were temporary administrator.”
“Same practical result.”
“You never told me I’d be barred.”
“I told you illegal conduct carried risk.”
Ryan laughed.
A strange, broken laugh.
“You told me the documents would make everything legal.”
“No document makes kidnapping legal.”
Ryan stared at him.
Then at me.
For the first time, he looked scared of Victor.
Not loyal.
Not confident.
Scared.
I pressed harder.
“He needed you angry with me.”
“Stop.”
“He needed your mother greedy.”
“Stop.”
“He needed me to react.”
“Emily.”
“He paid you to destroy your own position.”
Ryan pointed the gun at Victor.
My mother ducked.
Victor didn’t move.
“There,” Victor said softly. “That is exactly why you were useful.”
Ryan’s face twisted.
“You son of a—”
“Ryan.”
I kept my voice low.
“Put the gun down.”
He looked at me.
For one second, I saw the man I married.
Then it disappeared.
“You ruined my life.”
“No. You sold it.”
“You never respected me.”
“I trusted you.”
“You always made me feel small.”
“I loved you.”
“You loved being better than me.”
My eyes burned.
“You knew who I was before our first date.”
Silence.
That answered it.
“How long?” I asked.
Ryan looked away.
“Mom told me about your family when I was nineteen.”
“So meeting me was planned.”
“At first.”
My chest hurt.
“At first?”
“I went to the fundraiser because Mom said you’d be there.”
“Why?”
“She wanted me to get close to you.”
“Because of Dad?”
“Yes.”
“And you did.”
“Yes.”
“Did you ever love me?”
His mouth opened.
Victor answered for him.
“Of course he did. That was the complication.”
Ryan shouted, “Stay out of this!”
I looked at Ryan.
“Answer.”
His eyes filled.
“Yes.”
The word hurt worse than no.
“If you loved me, why?”
He looked at my mother.
Then at the gun.
Then at the floor.
“Because love didn’t fix how I felt.”
“What did you feel?”
“Second.”
“To who?”
“Everyone.”
I stared at him.
“My father was dead.”
“And he still controlled everything.”
“No. You let Diane control you.”
“My mother spent her life being blamed for your father’s crimes.”
“So you helped her tie our daughter to a chair?”
“That wasn’t supposed to happen.”
“Nothing is ever your fault.”
His face hardened.
Victor interrupted.
“We are wasting time.”
He placed papers on a nearby table.
“Emily. Sign.”
“No.”
Victor nodded toward my mother.
Ryan raised the gun again.
Victor said, “I do not want violence.”
I almost laughed.
“Then why is there a gun?”
“Because Ryan insisted.”
Ryan looked at him.
Another fracture.
Victor had no loyalty to him.
Ryan was finally seeing it.
I asked, “What happens if I refuse?”
Victor sighed.
“Then the shareholders approve the sale without the trust vote.”
“So let them.”
“I cannot.”
“Why?”
“Because the offer is fraudulent.”
That surprised me.
“What?”
“Meditech Global is a shell-backed acquisition.”
Agent Price had warned Victor lied for a living.
I remembered that.
“Why should I believe you?”
“You shouldn’t.”
He tapped the papers.
“Read.”
“I’m not coming closer.”
“I’ll slide them.”
He pushed a folder across the polished floor.
It stopped near me.
I crouched slowly and opened it.
Documents.
Corporate ownership diagrams.
Bank records.
Names.
One name appeared repeatedly.
Hale Capital Partners.
I looked up.
“That’s yours.”
“It was.”
“Meditech is connected to you.”
“No. To my brother.”
I frowned.
“You have a brother?”
“Had.”
“What happened?”
“He died eight years ago.”
“Then who controls it?”
Victor looked at my mother.
She whispered, “Me.”
Everything stopped.
I stared at her.
“What?”
Tears filled her eyes.
“I inherited part of Hale Capital.”
“You?”
Victor spoke.
“My brother Thomas was married to your mother’s sister.”
Aunt Rebecca.
She had died when I was sixteen.
I barely remembered Thomas.
My mother said, “After Rebecca died, Thomas changed his will. When he died, some holdings passed through family trusts.”
“And you never told me?”
“I didn’t understand the structure.”
Victor laughed bitterly.
“She understood enough.”
My mother glared at him.
Victor continued.
“Meditech’s acquisition would transfer Walsh technology to investors who have spent years hiding behind shell companies.”
“Your companies?”
“Some were once mine.”
This was madness.
Family grudges layered over corporate crimes.
I looked at my mother.
“Why did you go with Victor?”
“To stop the sale.”
“You could have told me.”
“I tried to protect you.”
“Everyone keeps saying that while lying to me.”
She flinched.
Good.
She needed to hear it.
Victor said, “Your father discovered the acquisition plan years before his death.”
“That’s impossible.”
“The names changed. The structure didn’t.”
“And the trust?”
“He put voting shares in Lily’s trust so no adult could easily sell them.”
“Then why name you successor trustee?”
Victor’s face hardened.
“Because at the time, I was helping him.”
“Were you stealing from the company?”
“No.”
“Diane says Dad suspected you.”
“Diane believed what Richard needed her to believe.”
I looked at Mom.
She shook her head.
“I don’t know who’s telling the truth.”
Neither did I.
And that was Victor’s advantage.
Nobody knew enough.
Ryan suddenly stepped toward Victor.
“What happens to me if she signs?”
Victor looked annoyed.
“You leave through the east garage.”
“With money?”
“We’ll discuss it.”
“You promised five million.”
My stomach dropped.
Ryan had been promised five million.
Victor’s expression remained flat.
“That agreement depended on discretion.”
“You used me.”
“Yes.”
The word came instantly.
Ryan froze.
Victor didn’t care anymore.
“You were useful because you were resentful, vain, financially desperate, and easily manipulated.”
Ryan’s face twisted.
“You think you’re better than me?”
“No.”
Victor’s voice was almost bored.
“I think I understood you.”
Ryan raised the gun.
Agent Price shouted from behind the corner.
“FBI! Drop it!”
Everything exploded.
Ryan spun.
Victor dove behind a desk.
My mother fell sideways.
I dropped behind a column.
Ryan fired once.
Agents returned fire.
Glass shattered.
Someone screamed.
I crawled toward Mom.
“Emily!”
“I’ve got you.”
Ryan ran through a side door.
Price chased.
Victor disappeared the opposite direction.
Agents split.
I cut Mom’s restraints with a piece of broken plastic.
“Where’s Lily?” she asked.
“Safe with agents.”
“Thank God.”
A fire alarm suddenly began screaming.
Red lights flashed.
Smoke poured from ventilation ducts.
“Move!” an agent shouted.
We ran toward the exit.
Then the building’s automated doors slammed shut.
Victor’s voice came through the intercom.
“You should have signed.”
Price shouted into her radio.
“Security override!”
Nothing.
Smoke thickened.
Mom coughed.
I saw a maintenance stairwell.
“This way.”
We rushed inside.
The stairwell led down.
Not out.
Behind us, heat grew.
Ahead, footsteps echoed.
Someone was coming up.
Ryan appeared.
Blood covered one sleeve.
He still had the gun.
Mom screamed.
Ryan raised it.
I stepped in front of her.
He stared at me.
“Move.”
“No.”
“I don’t want to shoot you.”
“Then don’t.”
“Move!”
“No.”
His hand shook.
“You took everything from me.”
“You tried to take Lily.”
“I’m her father.”
“You stopped acting like one.”
He flinched.
I moved one step closer.
“Put it down.”
“You’ll send me to prison.”
“You made that choice.”
“I can’t go to prison.”
“So this is your solution?”
His eyes filled with tears.
“I just wanted enough money to start over.”
“Five million dollars?”
“You don’t understand.”
“I understand exactly.”
He lowered the gun slightly.
Then Victor appeared behind him.
“Ryan.”
Ryan turned.
Victor was holding another gun.
For the first time, Ryan understood exactly what he had become.
Disposable.
Victor fired.
Ryan fell.
My mother screamed.
I dragged her behind the stairwell wall.
Ryan collapsed on the landing, clutching his side.
Victor approached.
He looked down at him.
“You were always the weakest link.”
Then he raised the gun toward me.
May you like
And from the floor, Ryan grabbed Victor’s ankle.
“Run, Emily!”
