Chapter 4 - Marcus Reed
Marcus was not at home.
That mattered.
He had checked into a hotel under another name before coming to the hospital.
His wife and son were visiting relatives two states away.
He planned for retaliation because he had spent twenty years watching guilty people confuse desperation with strategy.
Adrian did not know that.
He kept talking.
“Maybe Marcus needs a reminder.”
Vivian snapped:
“Enough.”
That was useful too.
She feared loose words more than Adrian did.
Then Nurse Elena knocked.
Vivian unlocked the door.
Elena entered with a medication cart.
Adrian became a grieving husband again.
“Any change?”
“Not yet.”
His voice cracked perfectly.
Elena checked my IV.
Then touched two fingers to my wrist.
She adjusted the blanket over my hand, concealing the transmitter better.
Vivian watched.
“Can she hear us?”
Elena looked at my monitors.
“People in this condition sometimes process sound.”
Adrian’s face tightened.
I nearly admired her.
Vivian rounded on him.
“You idiot.”
“She didn’t hear.”
“You don’t know that.”
He looked at me.
For the first time, doubt replaced arrogance.
Then his phone rang.
“What?”
I heard her voice faintly.
Adrian turned toward the window.
“No. Don’t move anything.”
Vivian whispered:
“What happened?”
Adrian covered the phone.
“The bank froze Crown Meridian.”
That name again.
The third account.
Crown Meridian Holdings.
A company I had traced to a Nevada registration service but never to an owner.
Claire said something else.
Adrian went silent.
“What do you mean the board has copies?”
My chest tightened.
Marcus had moved faster than I expected.
Adrian ended the call.
He stared at Vivian.
“She sent it.”
Vivian looked at me.
“Hannah?”
“No. Someone from her old firm.”
Then Vivian asked:
“How much do they know?”
Adrian answered with the sentence that changed the entire case.
“Enough to know Crown Meridian owns the house.”
The house.
My house.
May you like
The home my mother had left me before I married Adrian.
And somehow, a company I had never heard of legally owned it.
