Chapter 6 - The Voice in the Room
“Julian.”
Margaret whispered the name first.
Cassidy replayed the final four seconds.
The voice was unmistakable.
Julian Cross.
Chief Strategy Officer.
Her grandmother’s oldest surviving executive ally.
The man Cassidy had trusted since she was nineteen.
Sloane watched her carefully.
“Do you know him?”
Cassidy did not answer.
She replayed the clip again.
Julian’s voice said only one sentence.
“We need to finish before Hart sees the ledger.”
Then silence.
Cassidy felt betrayal more sharply than fear.
Julian had taught her how to read acquisition reports.
He had defended her when senior executives called her too young.
He had once told Evelyn Hart that Cassidy would become stronger than both of them.
Now his voice was inside Brendan’s secret recording.
Margaret stood.
“I’ll have him detained.”
Cassidy stopped her.
“No.”
“Cassidy.”
“If Julian is the insider, arresting him now tells us only what we already know.”
“He stole the trust document.”
“Maybe.”
Cassidy looked at Sloane.
“Was Julian the man speaking directly to Brendan?”
“I don’t know.”
“You never saw him?”
“No.”
Sloane hesitated.
“But Brendan called that man ‘O.’ once.”
Cassidy’s eyes shifted.
Owen Price.
The CFO.
Or someone else entirely.
The recording suddenly looked different.
Julian might have entered the room.
He might have been involved.
Or he might have walked into a conversation he did not understand.
Cassidy refused to convict anyone based on four seconds.
She asked security to duplicate Sloane’s drive.
Then she told Sloane something unexpected.
“You’re leaving Chicago.”
Sloane blinked.
“What?”
“For forty-eight hours.”
“Why?”
“Because Brendan believes you are still useful.”
“He hates me.”
“Brendan hates anyone he cannot control.”
Cassidy slid a phone across the table.
“Security will take you somewhere safe.”
Sloane stared at it.
“Why are you helping me?”
“I’m not.”
Cassidy’s voice remained calm.
“I’m protecting evidence.”
Sloane almost smiled.
“Fair enough.”
After she left, Cassidy called Martin Cole.
“I need a legal opinion.”
“On what?”
“Suppose someone filed a forged trust amendment and backed it with falsified medical records.”
Martin went quiet.
“How specific are we being?”
“Very.”
He asked for the documents.
Cassidy refused.
“I want your answer without seeing them.”
Martin explained that immediate injunctive relief could stop enforcement.
But there was a problem.
If the forged amendment had already been submitted to a court under sealed emergency proceedings, Cassidy might not learn about it until a temporary order had been issued.
“Can that happen?”
“Yes.”
“How fast?”
“In an alleged incapacity emergency?”
Martin paused.
“Hours.”
Cassidy looked at Margaret.
“When would the filer have the strongest argument?”
“Hospitalization.”
“Childbirth.”
“Yes.”
Cassidy ended the call.
Her regular obstetrician had scheduled a routine appointment for the next morning.
At 3:17 p.m., the clinic called.
Her appointment had been moved.
The receptionist said Dr. Pierce had contacted them.
He claimed Cassidy’s pregnancy had suddenly become high risk.
He recommended immediate hospital observation.
Cassidy gripped the phone.
“Who authorized that?”
There was a pause.
“Your husband.”
Cassidy’s voice became ice.
“I do not have a husband.”
Then she understood.
May you like
The delivery window was no longer nine weeks away.
Someone was trying to open it tomorrow.
