Chapter 18 - THE FALSE VICTORY
Adrian did not deny buying the medication.
That terrified me.
He sat across from Daniel in the federal interview room.
“I bought it.”
My chest tightened.
“For Mom?”
“No.”
“For who?”
“Me.”
The medication treated arrhythmia.
Adrian had developed heart problems after the boating explosion.
“Then how did it reach her?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did you visit Mom three days before she died?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“She asked me to.”
“What happened?”
Adrian looked down.
“She wanted to see me once more.”
I hated the sentence before he even continued.
“She knew she was dying.”
“Yes.”
“Did she tell me?”
“No.”
“Of course not.”
“She was trying to protect—”
“Don’t.”
He stopped.
Good.
“What happened during the visit?”
“We argued.”
“About?”
“You.”
“Again.”
“Yes.”
“She wanted me to contact you after her death.”
“And you didn’t.”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because Malcolm still had people watching you.”
“Convenient.”
“I know how it sounds.”
“I don’t care how it sounds.”
“What did Mom take from you?”
Adrian frowned.
“What?”
“Your medication.”
“No.”
“Was it in your coat?”
“Yes.”
“Could she access it?”
“I suppose.”
“Why would she?”
“I don’t know.”
Daniel interrupted.
“We found Evelyn’s final medical diary.”
Another hidden record.
Naturally.
She wrote about heart palpitations.
Not hers.
Adrian’s.
One entry said:
ADRIAN LEFT HIS MEDICATION.
I HAVE PUT IT IN THE KITCHEN SAFE.
That changed things.
If the medication remained in her house, someone else could have used it.
Who had access?
House staff.
Grant.
Celeste.
Dr. Lang.
Malcolm.
Mara.
Me.
I felt exhausted by the list.
Then Daniel found surveillance footage from the townhouse.
Final week.
Malcolm entered twice.
Grant once.
Dr. Lang three times.
Celeste daily.
Mara once.
The night before Evelyn died, one person entered through the service entrance.
Nathan.
My heart stopped.
“No.”
The footage showed him clearly.
Five years ago.
Nathan and I had been married one year.
He had told me he was in Chicago that night.
“What was he doing there?”
I asked.
Nobody knew.
We found Nathan at his attorney’s office.
He looked at the image.
Then closed his eyes.
“I knew this was coming.”
“What were you doing at my mother’s house?”
“Malcolm sent me.”
“Why?”
“He said Evelyn had something that belonged to Grant.”
“What?”
“A folder.”
“Did you take it?”
“Yes.”
“What was inside?”
“I never opened it.”
“Where did you find it?”
“Kitchen study.”
“Did you see medication?”
Nathan frowned.
“No.”
“Did you touch anything?”
“A safe.”
My pulse jumped.
“The kitchen safe?”
“Yes.”
“Did you open it?”
“Malcolm gave me the code.”
The same safe containing Adrian’s medication.
“Was the medication inside?”
“I don’t know.”
“You opened it.”
“There were envelopes.”
“Bottles?”
Nathan went pale.
“One.”
My stomach dropped.
“What did you do with it?”
“Nothing.”
“Did you take it?”
“No.”
“Did Malcolm?”
“I don’t know.”
“Who came after you?”
“Dr. Lang.”
There.
The doctor.
We located him in Lisbon before he could disappear.
Portuguese authorities detained him.
Daniel interviewed remotely.
Lang broke within three hours.
Malcolm had paid him.
But not to kill Evelyn.
To monitor her.
When Lang discovered the misplaced cardiac medication, Malcolm instructed him to add small doses to another prescription.
“Why?”
I asked.
“To make her weaker.”
Daniel replied.
“To prevent her from attending a board meeting.”
“Did he know it could kill her?”
“Yes.”
“Did Lang?”
“Yes.”
My mother died three days later.
Cancer would likely have killed her within months.
Malcolm and Lang stole those months.
Maybe weeks.
Maybe days.
It didn’t matter.
They took time.
That was enough.
Malcolm now faced another charge.
The false victory became real again.
For six hours.
Then Asterion’s partner representative disappeared.
A man named Kabelo Dube.
The third key controlling Blackstone.
His flight landed in Johannesburg.
He never reached home.
Without him, Asterion couldn’t authorize operating decisions.
Blackstone renewal remained legally valid.
But operations could freeze.
Malcolm was in custody.
So who took Dube?
Jonah traced a call.
Not Malcolm.
Not Grant.
Not Celeste.
Asterion’s own legal administrator.
A company called North Crown Fiduciary.
I had seen the name before.
Inside my mother’s archive.
One line.
DO NOT ALLOW NORTH CROWN TO CONTROL SUCCESSION.
We searched ownership.
Buried beneath holding companies.
Final beneficiary.
Not Voss.
Not Ashford.
A woman.
Rebecca Hale.
I did not know the name.
Adrian did.
When I said it, his face went white.
“Who is she?”
He sat down.
“Your sister.”
The room disappeared around me.
“I don’t have a sister.”
“Yes.”
“Mom had another child?”
“No.”
“You?”
Adrian closed his eyes.
Before my mother.
Before their marriage.
He had a daughter.
Rebecca.
Older than me by nine years.
Hidden.
Not from the world.
From me.
“Why?”
“Because Evelyn asked.”
“Why would Mom care?”
“Rebecca’s mother was Henry Voss’s daughter.”
I stared.
My half sister was also connected to the Voss family.
Adrian had fathered a child with Malcolm’s sister before marrying my mother.
Blackstone had not begun as a war between two families.
It had begun inside one.
Rebecca Hale was Adrian’s daughter.
Malcolm’s niece.
My half sister.
And according to Asterion’s documents, my mother had spent years making sure Rebecca could never inherit control.
Now Rebecca had taken the third key.
May you like
And unlike Malcolm, she had not spent thirty years trying to steal Blackstone.
She believed it had belonged to her mother all along.
