Chapter 16 - The Night of the Storm
A storm rolled across the city during the week of the hearing.
Rain rattled against windows, flooded intersections, and turned the courthouse steps slick and gray.
Brooke was staying at a confidential location arranged through her lawyer after reporting the threat.
The twins had a caregiver and a detailed schedule.
She sent their pediatric records to her attorney so that no further disruption would delay their care.
I learned those details because Mara was coordinating the evidence, not because I had any right to enter the babies' lives.
At our office, Priya was preparing the forensic image of Nathan's final laptop when the building lost power.
The backup system engaged immediately.
A minute later, the security desk reported that someone had entered the loading bay using an expired contractor pass.
The pass belonged to Nathan's former assistant.
Security locked the evidence room and called police.
The person fled before reaching it.
A camera captured a hooded figure carrying a bag.
The footage alone did not identify the intruder.
But the failed entry demonstrated how desperate the scheme's remaining participants had become.
Arthur appeared in the lobby just as the police arrived.
He had come to deliver a printed message from Nathan.
"Meet me tonight or everyone learns what happened to the embryos," it said.
The message named an abandoned warehouse owned by a defunct Bennett partnership.
Arthur wanted to go.
Mara told him not to.
"This is not a family argument you can settle face-to-face."
He sat with his hands folded, struggling to accept the instruction.
"If I had listened to my wife a year ago, none of this would have happened."
I stood near the elevator and looked at him.
"If you had told the truth a year ago, the harm would have been smaller.
That was a choice you controlled."
He nodded.
He handed the message to investigators.
They arranged a lawful response rather than turning his recklessness into another crisis.
Later, our team discovered that the warehouse had a hidden storage unit rented through Meridian.
Inside were paper files, obsolete phones, and a locked metal cabinet.
The cabinet held backup drives and the originals of several forged documents.
There was also a signed letter addressed to me.
In it, Nathan claimed he could make every allegation disappear if I withdrew the civil case and transferred ownership of a valuable company subsidiary.
The letter was not an apology.
It was an extortion attempt dressed as a settlement offer.
At the bottom, he had added a final sentence in his own hand.
May you like
"Ask Arthur what he promised me on your anniversary."
