Chapter 7 - HER SISTER'S PRICE
Natalie Brooks arrived at the hospital three hours later.
She came carrying flowers.
Lena watched her through the glass wall of the private family waiting room.
For thirty-two years Natalie had been the person Lena protected first.
When their mother died, Lena was nineteen and Natalie fourteen.
Lena helped her through college.
Paid half the down payment on her first apartment.
Loaned her money after her divorce.
Made her godmother to the twins before they were even born.
Now Lena could hear her voice on a recording discussing what would happen after Lena died.
Damon stood beside the door.
“You don't have to see her.”
“Yes, I do.”
Natalie entered.
“Oh my God.”
She rushed forward.
“Lena.”
“Stop.”
Natalie froze.
“What?”
“Put the flowers down.”
Her smile faded.
“Okay.”
Lena studied her sister's face.
“Where were you Thursday night?”
Natalie blinked.
“At home.”
“Alone?”
“Yes.”
“That's interesting.”
“Why?”
“Because I heard your voice.”
Natalie's face emptied.
Lena almost wished she hadn't seen it.
That half-second of terror confirmed everything.
“On a recording,” Lena continued. “With Victor and Calvin.”
Natalie stepped backward.
“Lena—”
“You knew.”
“No.”
“You knew he was planning something.”
“It's not what you think.”
Lena laughed.
Those words.
Victor's favorite words.
The phrase cowards used when the truth had already arrived.
“Then explain.”
Natalie sat.
Her hands shook.
“Victor owed money.”
“I know.”
“He came to me six months ago.”
“Why?”
“He said he needed help moving assets temporarily.”
“And you helped him.”
“I thought it was tax stuff.”
“How much did he pay you?”
Natalie looked down.
Lena's voice hardened.
“How much?”
“Seventy-five thousand.”
Damon swore under his breath.
Natalie began crying.
“I was desperate.”
“You discussed my babies.”
“I didn't know he was going to lock you inside anything!”
“Then what did you think he was planning?”
Silence.
Lena stared at her.
“Natalie.”
“He said there would be an accident.”
The words entered the room quietly.
Lena's face collapsed.
“You knew he wanted me dead.”
“I thought he was bluffing.”
“You took seventy-five thousand dollars from a man who told you there would be an accident involving your pregnant sister.”
“I was going to stop him.”
“When?”
“I tried!”
“When?”
Natalie screamed back.
“Thursday night!”
Everyone fell silent.
Natalie sobbed.
“I called you.”
Lena frowned.
“No, you didn't.”
“Yes, I did. Your phone went straight to voicemail.”
Victor had taken Lena's phone when she entered the warehouse office.
“I drove to the warehouse.”
Damon stepped closer.
“What time?”
“Around midnight.”
Lena's heart jumped.
“Did you see Victor?”
“No. But I saw Calvin leaving.”
“With the recorder?”
“I don't know.”
Natalie wiped her face.
“I panicked. I called Victor and told him I was going to police.”
“What did he say?”
“That if I talked, he'd tell police I helped plan everything.”
Natalie looked at Lena.
“And technically… I had.”
Lena closed her eyes.
Natalie had betrayed her.
But perhaps not completely.
Detective Vega entered from an adjoining room.
Natalie jumped.
“You recorded me?”
“No,” Vega said. “Mrs. Carter agreed to speak with you while investigators were nearby.”
Natalie looked at her sister in disbelief.
Lena didn't apologize.
Vega placed a photograph on the table.
“Where is Victor?”
“I don't know.”
“He posted bail and disappeared last night.”
Natalie's face changed.
“You don't know?”
“No.”
“Then Lena needs to leave.”
Damon straightened.
“Why?”
Natalie looked terrified.
“Because Victor has another plan.”
“What plan?”
“I don't know exactly.”
“Think.”
“He kept talking about Monday.”
Lena frowned.
“What's Monday?”
Natalie shook her head.
“He said if everything went wrong, Monday would fix it.”
Damon pulled out his phone.
“Monday is Carter Specialty's board meeting.”
Lena looked at him.
The company.
Of course.
Carter Specialty Foods wasn't merely Victor's business.
Three years earlier Lena inherited controlling voting shares after Victor's uncle died unexpectedly.
Victor remained CEO.
But Lena legally controlled 52 percent of the company.
If she died, her shares transferred according to her estate plan.
Victor believed they went to him.
They didn't.
“Victor thinks he inherits my shares,” Lena said.
Damon looked at her.
“Doesn't he?”
“No.”
“Who does?”
“My daughters.”
Natalie covered her mouth.
Lena suddenly understood the attempted kidnapping.
Victor needed control over the children because the twins would inherit the shares.
Plan B.
If Lena died but the babies survived, Victor became their legal guardian and could exercise control over the estate until they reached adulthood.
A six-million-dollar insurance payout was only part of the motive.
Victor wanted the company.
Damon spoke quietly.
“Monday isn't about killing you.”
Lena nodded.
“He's going to try to take the company before everyone knows I'm alive and legally competent.”
Vega looked at her.
“Can he?”
“My hospitalization triggered an emergency governance clause. The board can temporarily transfer executive authority.”
“To Victor?”
“If they believe I'm incapacitated.”
Damon laughed bitterly.
“He tries to kill you, then uses the injuries he caused to take your company.”
“That sounds like Victor.”
Lena tried standing.
Pain tore through her abdomen.
Damon caught her.
“What are you doing?”
“Going to the board meeting.”
“You can barely walk.”
“Then find me a wheelchair.”
“Lena—”
“My husband locked me in a freezer, tried to frame you for my murder, sent someone into the hospital with a syringe, tried to take our daughter and now plans to steal my company.”
Her eyes hardened.
“I am not missing that meeting.”
Monday morning, the Carter Specialty board assembled inside the forty-second floor conference room of the Whitman Tower.
Victor's chair was empty.
Bernard Shaw represented him.
Seven board members sat around polished walnut.
At 9:03 a.m., Bernard stood.
“Due to Mrs. Carter's medical incapacity, we request an emergency vote appointing Victor Carter sole acting executive and trustee over his wife's voting interest.”
The board chairman frowned.
“Victor is currently under criminal investigation.”
“Investigation is not conviction.”
The doors opened.
Everyone turned.
Lena rolled into the room in a wheelchair.
Damon walked beside her.
Two police officers followed.
Several board members stood.
Bernard went pale.
Lena smiled.
“Good morning.”
“Mrs. Carter,” the chairman said, stunned. “We were told you were medically unable to attend.”
“You were told wrong.”
Bernard recovered.
“Your condition clearly raises questions about whether—”
Lena placed a medical competency certificate on the table.
“Questions answered.”
Damon placed another folder beside it.
“And these are copies of the criminal-investigation materials.”
Bernard's jaw tightened.
Lena looked around the table.
“I am exercising my 52 percent voting interest immediately.”
“For what purpose?” the chairman asked.
“To remove Victor Carter as CEO.”
Bernard stood.
“You can't—”
“I can.”
She looked directly at him.
“And I just did.”
The vote passed eleven minutes later.
Victor Carter lost control of the company he had tried to murder his wife to obtain.
But while the board applauded Lena's courage, Damon's phone vibrated.
He looked down.
A security alert.
LIVE CAMERA — ST. CATHERINE'S NICU.
His face changed.
“Lena.”
She turned.
On his screen, the hallway outside the twins' room was empty.
One security officer lay unconscious near the nurses' station.
Then a man in hospital scrubs entered the frame.
He removed his surgical mask.
Victor.
Lena stopped breathing.
“No.”
Victor walked into the twins' room.
May you like
And this time, there was nobody between him and his daughters.
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