Chapter 11 - THE LAWYER ON MY SIDE
Rachel Wynn had frozen the share transfer.
Rachel Wynn had insisted on DNA.
Rachel Wynn had protected Founder Protocol.
And according to Claire, Rachel had betrayed me.
I called her. No answer. Her company phone was inside the resort, on the boardroom level.
Eighteen minutes before the emergency session, I found Rachel standing alone at the conference table. I placed Claire's note in front of her.
"Explain."
"I wondered if she left that."
"You betrayed me."
"Yes."
Vanessa whispered, "You helped my father?"
"No. I helped Amelia's mother."
Rachel explained that my mother, Evelyn Bellmont, never trusted Nathan with sole control.
Before she died, she created Founder Protocol with Rachel and the company's original systems architect.
Its purpose was not only to recognize the medallion.
It was to trap fraudulent succession.
Rachel's "betrayal" had been feeding Nathan false legal interpretations for years.
She told him the seven-year transfer would become irreversible at midnight.
It would not.
It would trigger a mandatory audit.
"You let him think he was winning," I said.
"For seven years."
"Why not tell me?"
"You were gone."
"Why not expose him?"
"We lacked the original Blue Meridian certificate."
"Claire found it."
"Yes."
Rachel explained Nathan had bought three directors and controlled enough votes to bury internal investigations.
Today's transfer was supposed to flush the final participants into one recorded board action.
"You didn't know I was alive."
"No."
"Ethan?"
"No."
His guilt had been real, but incomplete.
Rachel opened a drawer. Inside were copies of every proxy Nathan planned to use at 6:00.
Three board members.
One outside trustee.
And one executive security authorization.
Signed by Ethan Ward.
"I never signed that."
"I know."
The signature was forged.
But the biometric token attached to it was genuine.
Ethan's security token had been copied seven years earlier.
By Raymond Pike.
Before we could speak, the boardroom lights went out.
Emergency locks slammed shut.
A message appeared on the wall.
FOUNDER PROTOCOL OVERRIDE ATTEMPT.
Then Nathan's voice came through the speakers.
"You wanted a board meeting, Amelia?"
May you like
The doors locked.
"Let's have one."
