Chapter 10 - THE EMPIRE TURNED AGAINST HIM
By sunrise, the story was everywhere.
Bennett Urban Holdings linked to illegal children’s network.
Federal investigation expands.
CEO Grant Bennett questioned.
Television crews surrounded company headquarters.
Grant’s board suspended him before breakfast.
Investors panicked.
The stock of every affiliated public entity fell.
Victor appeared on television that afternoon.
He looked exhausted and concerned.
Perfectly rehearsed.
He claimed he had recently discovered troubling conduct inside Bennett companies.
He said he had tried to confront Grant.
He said Grant fired him in retaliation.
Grant watched from his penthouse.
Sophie stood beside him.
“He’s lying again.”
“Yes.”
“Will people believe him?”
“For a while.”
Luke looked worried.
“Can he take us?”
Grant knelt.
“No.”
This time his answer contained no uncertainty.
“You’re my children.”
“Nobody is taking you anywhere.”
Owen entered carrying information from the Silverline files.
The board approval had been pushed through by Grant’s chief financial officer, Peter Caldwell.
Grant had known Peter for twelve years.
Another betrayal.
But Peter was not answering calls.
Rachel located him at O’Hare Airport.
Federal agents detained him before he boarded a flight to Switzerland.
Within hours, Peter began talking.
Victor had threatened him.
There were hidden accounts.
Forged authorizations.
And one final plan.
Victor intended to leave the country with Claire.
Grant stared at Peter through the interrogation room glass.
“Why Claire?”
Rachel answered.
“Because she is the only living witness who can directly connect Victor to your father.”
Grant looked at the time.
“Where is the van?”
Owen had tracked a toll camera.
The medical transport had not gone toward an airport.
It went north.
Toward Wisconsin.
Then disappeared.
Peter provided another clue.
Victor owned a cabin through a shell corporation near Lake Geneva.
Federal agents prepared a search.
Grant insisted on going.
Rachel refused.
“You are currently part of the investigation.”
“She is the mother of my children.”
“And if you interfere with the operation, Victor’s attorneys could use it.”
Grant hated the law in that moment.
But he listened.
Agents entered the cabin at 6:42 p.m.
Victor was not there.
Claire was not there.
But someone else was.
Marian Blake.
Bound to a chair.
Alive.
Grant’s heart stopped when he saw the video feed.
Marian had disappeared from the penthouse two hours earlier.
Security believed she had gone downstairs for coffee.
Victor had taken her.
Agents freed her.
She kept repeating one sentence.
“He knows about the train station.”
Grant called her from the command center.
“What train station?”
Marian was crying.
“The night Claire left you.”
“She bought two tickets.”
“One for herself.”
“And one for you.”
Grant went silent.
“She was going to ask you to run away with her.”
Marian continued.
“She left another copy of the evidence inside a locker.”
“Victor thinks I know the number.”
Grant asked if she did.
“No.”
“But Claire told me how you would recognize it.”
Grant closed his eyes.
“How?”
“The number is the date you first told her you loved her.”
Grant remembered instantly.
Locker 419.
April nineteenth.
Owen checked the old Union Station system.
The original lockers were gone.
But stored property from an evidence seizure years earlier had been transferred to an archive warehouse.
One sealed box was still registered under locker 419.
Before Grant could speak, Rachel received a call.
May you like
Her face drained of color.
“Victor got there first.”
