CHAPTER 7: THE NAME SHE COULDN’T HEAR
Roman barricaded the clinic door with a cabinet.
Smoke filled the hallway.
Evelyn helped Cecilia into a wheelchair while alarms echoed through the building.
“Who started this?” Evelyn asked again.
Cecilia tried to answer, but years of medication had weakened her voice.
The attackers struck the door.
Roman opened a maintenance hatch behind the bathroom wall and led them into a narrow service corridor.
They reached a loading dock where a clinic nurse helped them into an ambulance.
As Roman drove through the rear gate, two black SUVs followed.
He accelerated onto the highway.
One SUV struck the ambulance from behind.
Cecilia cried out.
Evelyn held her mother’s shoulders while Roman swerved between lanes. At the next exit, he drove beneath an overpass where federal vehicles were waiting.
Naomi stood beside them.
She was bruised but alive.
Roman stopped the ambulance.
Naomi climbed inside.
“You found her.”
“You knew?” Evelyn demanded.
“I found the Briarwood payments two weeks ago. Adrian discovered what I was doing and had me followed.”
“Why did you warn us about Torres?”
“Because someone using her credentials accessed the witness list.”
Naomi looked at Cecilia.
“Do you know who ordered your confinement?”
Cecilia whispered a name.
This time, Evelyn heard it.
“Malcolm Shaw.”
Naomi went pale.
Malcolm Shaw was chairman of Hart International.
He had been Charles Hart’s closest friend.
He had delivered the eulogy at Charles’s funeral.
And after Adrian married Evelyn, Malcolm had become Adrian’s most powerful supporter.
“Adrian isn’t the mastermind,” Evelyn said.
“No,” Cecilia replied. “He’s Malcolm’s weapon.”
Federal agents transferred them to a protected location. Cecilia was examined by doctors, while Naomi showed Evelyn the remaining files.
Malcolm had used Adrian to gain access to the Hart family. Adrian’s marriage had allowed them to control Evelyn personally while Malcolm controlled the board.
The emergency competency hearing was only hours away.
“We can expose them,” Roman said.
“Not yet,” Evelyn replied.
Everyone looked at her.
“If Malcolm believes we know the truth, he’ll disappear. Adrian will take the blame, and Malcolm will keep everything.”
“What are you suggesting?” Naomi asked.
Evelyn looked at the forged medical evaluation.
“We let them believe Adrian’s plan worked.”
At the hearing, Evelyn would appear weak, confused, and defeated.
She would allow Adrian to gain temporary control of her shares.
Then Malcolm would finally make his move openly.
Roman disliked the plan.
“It puts you back within Adrian’s reach.”
“That’s where he makes mistakes.”
Evelyn’s phone vibrated.
It was a video call from Adrian.
When she answered, he was standing inside her childhood home.
Behind him, Mara was tied to a chair.
Adrian smiled.
“Come to the hearing alone, Evelyn.”
May you like
Then he held a lighter beneath the ledger’s final original page.
“Or the last proof of your father’s murder disappears with her.
