Chapter 5 - THE WOMAN ON THE YACHT
Isabelle Moreau had spent most of her life protecting the family name.
She never raised her voice in public.
She never allowed scandal to survive longer than a news cycle.
After Victor’s helicopter crash, she visited him only twice.
She said seeing him in a wheelchair was too painful.
Victor believed she was frightened by his vulnerability.
Now her yacht had accessed the contingency system using his master credentials.
Only three people had ever possessed that level of access.
Victor.
Elena.
And Isabelle.
“Elena, did you authorize her?” Victor asked.
“No.”
“Then how did she enter?”
“She may have a physical security token.”
Victor remembered the silver cuff links his mother gave him after the crash.
One contained an encrypted backup key.
It disappeared from his hospital room before he returned home.
Camilla blamed a careless nurse.
Victor never thought to question his mother.
Mateo checked the yacht’s location.
“It is heading toward international waters.”
“Can we intercept it?”
“Not legally.”
“Then we board it before it crosses the boundary.”
Elena looked at Victor.
“You are presumed dead.”
“You cannot simply appear on your mother’s yacht.”
“That is exactly why I can.”
At the villa, the office doors released after recording every conversation.
Celia fled first.
Dr. Armand followed.
Laurent stayed behind with Camilla.
The financial portal now showed the fund divided into four locked sections.
Each beneficiary had to verify the transfer from a separate location.
Victor had designed the next stage to force conspirators to reveal their wider network.
Camilla received instructions to verify her identity aboard Isabelle’s yacht.
Laurent was directed to a Moreau Maritime warehouse in Monaco.
Celia had to visit the Luxembourg trust office.
The fourth section belonged to an unnamed beneficiary.
Someone had been hidden behind the plan.
Camilla closed the laptop.
“Your mother wants us on the yacht.”
Laurent stared at her.
“You told me Isabelle knew nothing.”
“She knew Victor was becoming dangerous.”
“Dangerous to whom?”
“To everyone.”
Laurent stepped closer.
“Did she approve the pier?”
Camilla said nothing.
That silence answered him.
Victor felt cold.
His mother had not merely stolen his access token.
She may have helped choose the place where Camilla would kill him.
Mateo prepared a black rigid-hull boat.
Sofia would pilot it toward the yacht using the cover of approaching medical staff.
Isabelle regularly received private cardiovascular treatments aboard the vessel.
Elena arranged forged medical credentials.
Victor wore a dark cap and a breathing mask.
His wheelchair was covered with a gray medical blanket.
They reached the yacht shortly after midnight.
A crew member lowered the platform.
Mateo spoke in French.
“Emergency replacement team for Madame Moreau.”
The crew member checked the falsified authorization and allowed them aboard.
Victor knew the yacht well.
His father purchased it before Victor was born.
Every corridor carried childhood memories.
He remembered Celia chasing him past the dining room.
He remembered Isabelle correcting the way he held a fork.
He remembered believing the vessel was the safest place in the world.
Mateo pushed him toward the lower medical suite.
Once the corridor emptied, Victor removed the mask.
They entered the communications room.
A live feed showed Isabelle seated in the upper salon.
Camilla arrived by helicopter.
She entered wearing the black coat from the marina.
Isabelle did not embrace her.
“You took too long,” she said.
Camilla placed the phone on the table.
“Victor changed the contingency protocol.”
“I warned you he suspected something.”
“You told me his medication would prevent resistance.”
“It should have.”
“He looked at me as if he knew.”
Isabelle’s face remained calm.
“Knowing did not save him.”
Victor listened from below.
His mother lifted a champagne glass.
“To the end of Victor’s control.”
Then the yacht’s radar alarm sounded.
A second vessel was approaching at high speed.
Isabelle looked toward the windows.
“That is not harbor patrol.”
Victor checked the communications screen.
May you like
The approaching vessel belonged to Laurent.
He was coming with armed men.
