Chapter 18 - The False Victory
Raymond ran.
Not toward me.
Away.
Naomi’s team followed.
The smoke came from two trash cans ignited in a service hallway.
No major fire.
No injuries.
But the evacuation scattered everyone.
That had been the point.
I remained with officers.
Connor disappeared.
For nine minutes, nobody knew where he was.
Then security cameras showed him entering a stairwell behind Raymond.
My first thought was betrayal.
Of course.
Connor had played us.
He had pretended to cooperate so he could escape.
Naomi looked furious.
Then Brenda’s phone rang.
Elaine.
Brenda answered.
“Mom?”
Elaine’s voice was sharp.
“Where is your brother?”
“I don’t know.”
“Find him.”
“Raymond took him.”
Silence.
Then Elaine said something revealing.
“Raymond was supposed to take Claire.”
Naomi and I exchanged a look.
For once, the plan had gone wrong for Elaine too.
“Why Claire?”
Brenda asked.
“Stop asking stupid questions.”
The call ended.
Police tracked Connor’s ankle monitor.
It moved rapidly away from the building.
He was in a vehicle.
Raymond had him.
Not the intended target.
But useful.
At 1:20 p.m., the trust administrator rejected the incapacity petition.
Mercer’s report had no lawful foundation.
Allison had withdrawn her earlier statement.
The forged authorization failed verification.
I retained control.
For several minutes, it felt like victory.
The patents remained mine.
The house lien was suspended pending fraud proceedings.
Apex’s emergency financing package was approved.
Elaine had lost the central objective.
Then Marcus called.
“Claire, something’s wrong.”
The Cayman contingency account.
Nine million dollars had moved.
Not into Orion Ridge.
Into an account nobody had seen before.
“How?”
I asked.
“The transfer was queued days ago.”
Marcus sounded stunned.
“The asset restrictions stopped it, but someone used a backup authorization during the fire alarm.”
“Who?”
“We’re tracing it.”
Seconds later, Naomi received the answer.
The authorization originated from Connor’s credentials.
Again, it looked like betrayal.
Then the destination account appeared.
Thomas Legacy Foundation.
I had never heard of it.
Neither had Brenda.
But Allison had.
“It was Dad’s.”
Thomas Ward had created the foundation weeks before he died.
It had been dormant for seventeen years.
Elaine controlled it now.
Nine million dollars had moved into an account tied directly to the oldest secret in the family.
Then Connor’s ankle monitor stopped.
A location appeared.
The private airfield.
Elaine’s charter was scheduled to leave in fifty minutes.
Naomi ordered units toward it.
I thought we finally had her.
Then my phone received a video.
Connor sat tied inside a hangar.
Blood ran from his eyebrow.
Raymond stood behind him.
Elaine stepped into frame.
She looked directly into the camera.
“Claire.”
Her voice was almost warm.
“You have something that belongs to me.”
I knew immediately.
The settlement evidence.
My father’s recording.
But Elaine surprised me.
“I don’t care about the papers anymore.”
She placed a gun on a table beside Connor.
“I want the patents.”
My throat tightened.
“Sign them over.”
May you like
She smiled.
“Or this time, a Ward really will die because of your father.”
