Chapter 10: Five Minutes
Panic erupted inside the boardroom.
Eleanor told everyone the broadcast was fake.
No one believed her.
Rachel contacted me through a hidden earpiece. Her team was tracing the signal, but it had been routed through several locations.
They needed time.
Eleanor needed my signature.
I needed to keep her talking.
“You hated me before you even met me,” I said.
“You were temporary.”
“Then why try to kill my baby?”
The directors turned toward her.
Eleanor leaned back.
“Because that child would inherit everything.”
The room became completely still.
She had said it openly.
Michael quietly activated the recorder in his pocket.
“You pushed me because of the company?” I asked.
“I pushed you because Nathan was too weak to correct his mistake.”
One of the directors whispered, “My God.”
Eleanor finally realized what she had admitted.
She looked toward the ceiling cameras.
Captain Mercer entered through a side door and pointed his weapon at Michael.
“End the recording,” he ordered.
Thomas stepped forward.
Mercer struck him across the face.
Mrs. Alvarez screamed.
The countdown reached three minutes.
Rachel reported that the signal originated from an old textile warehouse owned by a Vance subsidiary.
Her team moved toward it.
But Eleanor heard her voice through my earpiece.
She ripped the device away and crushed it beneath her heel.
Then she ordered Mercer to take me.
Two security guards pulled me from my chair.
The baby kicked hard as they dragged me toward the private elevator.
Eleanor followed.
“If Nathan survives,” she whispered, “he will watch you sign everything away.”
The elevator descended into the underground parking garage.
A black sedan waited with its engine running.
Mercer forced Thomas and me into the back seat while Eleanor climbed into the front.
Mrs. Alvarez and Michael were left behind.
As the car moved, I watched the countdown on Eleanor’s tablet.
Thirty seconds.
Ten.
Five.
The screen flashed white.
Then the video feed ended.
Eleanor smiled.
But before she could speak, another image appeared.
Nathan’s empty chair.
He had escaped.
May you like
And written across the warehouse wall in red paint were four words:
I KNOW WHERE SHE BURIED HIM.
