Chapter 17 - THE LAST SIGNATURE
Grant believed power still worked the way my father had taught him.
Put enough fear in a room and someone always signs.
He was wrong.
I picked up the document.
“Let Maria and Claire go.”
Grant laughed. “You’re negotiating badly.”
“No. I’m making sure you understand what happens next.”
I tore the document in half.
His face changed.
The gun shifted toward me.
Maria moved first.
She kicked the metal box into Grant’s shin.
Claire threw herself sideways.
I lunged.
The gun fired into the ceiling.
Agents rushed in.
Within seconds Grant was on the concrete floor, cuffed and screaming that Bennett Medical Systems belonged to him.
Maria was safe.
Claire was arrested as soon as paramedics cleared her.
She didn’t resist.
Before they took her away, she looked at me.
“I am sorry about Lily.”
I felt nothing warm enough to call forgiveness.
“You should be.”
She nodded.
“I know.”
That afternoon, federal investigators authenticated the audio recording and the brake records.
Grant was charged in connection with Emma’s death, financial fraud, forgery, kidnapping, and conspiracy.
Claire faced charges for child abuse, fraud, identity theft, and conspiracy.
James voluntarily surrendered his law license pending investigation and agreed to testify about my father’s cover-up.
The story exploded across Boston.
Reporters camped outside the hospital.
My company’s board demanded an emergency meeting.
I almost ignored it.
Then one director called me privately.
“Daniel, Grant wasn’t the only executive moving money.”
“How many?”
“At least four.”
I looked through the hospital window at Lily sleeping beside Maria.
May you like
The conspiracy had been cut open.
It wasn’t finished bleeding.
