Chapter 17 - Claire’s Counterattack
Julian was not arrested that morning.
That frustrated Claire.
But the investigation moved quickly.
His devices were seized.
Travel restrictions were imposed.
Voss Holdings suspended every executive connected to Mercer Strategic.
Claire became interim controlling chair.
Fourteen years earlier, Julian had married a woman he believed could lead him to the company.
Now that woman controlled whether he ever entered the building again.
Claire’s first order blocked every transfer authorized through the marital management structure.
Her second opened the company archives.
Her third ordered a forensic review of payments linked to Richard Mercer.
By noon, they found millions transferred through shell companies.
By three, investigators found something far more important.
A payment made twenty-nine years earlier.
To a marina employee.
Two days after Alexander Voss died.
The employee was still alive.
His testimony cracked the old case open.
He remembered Richard Mercer returning alone from the yacht.
He remembered blood on Richard’s sleeve.
He remembered being paid to say Alexander had taken the boat out alone.
Julian’s father had built decades of wealth on a murder concealed as an accident.
But Claire still needed Evelyn.
At 5:11 p.m., an unknown number called.
“Claire.”
Her mother.
Claire stood so quickly her chair hit the wall.
“Where are you?”
Evelyn was whispering.
“I’m safe.”
“Where is Sarah?”
“With me.”
Claire shut her eyes.
They were alive.
“What happened?”
“Julian’s people found Sarah first.”
“Julian’s people?”
“Not Julian.”
Claire froze.
“Then who?”
Evelyn began crying.
“There’s someone else.”
Claire looked through the glass wall at the Voss boardroom.
“Who?”
“The person who helped Richard from the beginning.”
Claire’s pulse quickened.
“Name them.”
Before Evelyn could answer, another voice came through the phone.
Male.
Older.
Calm.
“Hello, Claire.”
The line disconnected.
Claire stared at the phone.
Rebecca entered.
“What happened?”
Claire replayed the voice in her head.
She had heard it before.
At charity events.
At her father’s funeral.
At her wedding.
A man who had hugged her and called her family.
A man who had served as Thomas’s closest business partner for thirty years.
Claire whispered his name.
“Edward Grant.”
Rebecca went white.
Because Edward Grant was also chairman of the Voss board.
May you like
And he was sitting two rooms away.
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