Chapter 5 - The Baby Situation
By evening, my attorney had arrived.
Dana Brooks had handled my father's estate, my marriage agreement, and every major contract Ryan and I had signed.
She read the proxy once.
Then again.
"This is forged."
"Can you prove it?"
"Yes. But that's not the part that worries me."
She pulled up the shareholder agreement for Mercer Development.
My father had given me forty-two percent of the company when I married Ryan. Ryan owned forty-two. The remaining sixteen sat in a family trust.
"Your daughter becomes the trust beneficiary at birth," Dana said. "Until she's eighteen, her voting shares are controlled by her legal guardian."
Maya stared at her.
"Ryan."
"Normally, both parents. But if Emily were incapacitated..."
I finished the sentence.
"Ryan would control my forty-two through the proxy and our daughter's sixteen as guardian."
Fifty-eight percent.
Control of the company.
Suddenly one line from his messages stopped sounding cruel and started sounding dangerous.
Once the baby situation settled, everything would change.
I showed Dana the screenshot.
She went still.
Ortiz photographed it.
"Do you have anything else where they discuss your pregnancy?" she asked.
I searched through the images I had taken from Ryan's tablet.
Hotels. Gifts. Complaints. Promises.
Then I found a thread I hadn't fully read.
Vanessa: SHE'S LEAVING YOU AFTER THE BOARD VOTE. I CAN FEEL IT.
Ryan: THEN SHE DOESN'T GET TO CONTROL THE TIMING.
Vanessa: WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?
Ryan: IT MEANS KEEP HER HERE UNTIL I GET HOME.
The timestamp was 2:07 p.m.
Sixteen minutes before I fell.
My hands began shaking.
"He told her to stop me."
Ortiz's voice stayed careful.
"He told her to keep you there. We still need to establish what he expected her to do."
My phone lit up again.
A message from Ryan.
PLEASE DON'T TURN THIS INTO SOMETHING IT WASN'T.
Then another.
YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOU'RE ABOUT TO DESTROY.
Maya read it over my shoulder.
"Sounds like a threat."
A third message arrived.
CHECK YOUR EMAIL BEFORE YOU TALK TO POLICE AGAIN.
I opened my inbox.
There was one new message.
May you like
The subject line was only four words.
YOUR FATHER WASN'T HONEST.
