Chapter 7 - The Man Behind Victor
The lights switched to emergency power.
Several directors stood.
Thomas remained calm.
Ethan looked at Marcus.
Marcus touched his earpiece.
“No signal.”
The boardroom had been electronically isolated.
Thomas walked toward the windows.
“You always believed Victor was ambitious.”
“He was.”
“But ambition without discipline is useless.”
Ethan stared at him.
“You controlled him.”
Thomas smiled.
“Controlled?”
“No.”
“I gave him opportunities.”
“He chose what to do with them.”
Ethan heard Victor’s voice inside that sentence.
Everyone claiming responsibility ended where consequences began.
Elaine Mercer stepped forward.
“You knew about Amelia?”
Thomas looked at her.
“I knew she survived.”
A director cursed.
Thomas ignored him.
“She became a liability.”
Ethan’s voice dropped.
“She was a woman.”
“She was my wife.”
“She was an obstacle to succession.”
The room became still.
There was no point pretending anymore.
Thomas had spent decades building influence inside Blackwood Holdings.
Ethan’s father had blocked him from becoming chairman.
Ethan later did the same.
Victor became Thomas’s alternate path.
If Ethan died childless, Victor inherited controlling family shares.
Victor could then be manipulated.
But Lily’s survival ruined everything.
“So why keep her alive?” Ethan asked.
Thomas looked at him.
“Insurance.”
Against Victor.
Against Amelia.
Against Ethan.
Lily’s existence was a secret capable of destroying whichever Blackwood became inconvenient.
Amelia was kept alive for the same reason.
A witness.
A hostage.
A contingency.
Thomas had built power from people’s fear.
Ethan stared at him.
“And the hospital fire?”
Thomas did not answer immediately.
That was answer enough.
“You ordered it.”
“No.”
“I approved a problem being solved.”
Ethan’s hands tightened.
Thomas continued.
“Victor chose the method.”
Ethan lunged.
Marcus caught him.
“Sir.”
Thomas smiled.
“Still emotional.”
Then he looked toward the sealed cup.
“Just like your father.”
Ethan stopped.
“What about my father?”
Thomas’s expression shifted.
“Victor never told you?”
Ethan’s father had died ten years earlier of a sudden cardiac event.
No autopsy.
Family physician present.
Thomas had been at dinner that night.
Ethan felt cold.
“You killed him too.”
Thomas shrugged.
“I said no such thing.”
Then one of the directors screamed.
Smoke began entering through the ventilation system.
Thomas moved toward a hidden side door.
Marcus saw it.
He tackled the security officer guarding it.
Ethan grabbed Thomas by the jacket.
Thomas struck him with a metal pen.
Ethan staggered.
The side door opened.
Thomas ran.
Marcus followed.
The boardroom fire alarm activated.
Emergency locks released.
Directors spilled into the hallway.
Ethan chased Thomas toward the executive stairwell.
Two floors below, Detective Collins’ team moved upward.
But Thomas had planned his route.
He disappeared through the mechanical level.
Marcus found a discarded jacket.
Then Ethan’s phone regained signal.
A message appeared.
A live photograph.
Lily sitting beside Amelia’s hospital bed.
Behind them stood a man wearing hospital scrubs.
The caption read:
THE BOARD WAS ONLY HALF THE PLAN.
Ethan called Sarah.
“Hospital.”
She answered immediately.
“We saw it.”
Then Ethan called Amelia.
No answer.
Again.
No answer.
The third call connected.
But it was Thomas who spoke.
“Come alone.”
May you like
Then Ethan heard Lily scream.
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