Chapter 7 - Isabel Comes Home
Isabel Sterling was found in a motel outside Santa Barbara.
Alive.
Injured.
And furious.
When Grant walked into her hospital room the next morning, she turned her face away.
"Isabel."
"Don't."
He stopped.
Twelve years separated them.
Twelve years of grief.
Suspicion.
Silence.
"I thought you were dead."
She laughed bitterly.
"You didn't look very hard."
Grant absorbed the blow.
"I did."
"You hired your corporate security people."
"I trusted them."
"Exactly."
Isabel looked at him.
"They reported to Thomas."
Grant closed his eyes.
"I know that now."
She finally looked toward me.
"And you're?"
"Mariana."
"The caregiver?"
"Former caregiver."
Grant glanced at me.
"Debatable."
Despite herself, Isabel smiled.
It vanished quickly.
She told us what happened.
Evelyn had discovered Thomas's financial crimes and planned to go to federal investigators.
Thomas arranged her crash.
Isabel saw him meet the driver who caused it.
She tried to tell Grant.
But Grant's security chief intercepted her message.
That man worked for Thomas.
So Isabel ran.
For years she moved between cities, using different names.
Three months earlier, she learned Thomas was planning to remove Grant.
She returned to California.
That's when Thomas discovered her.
"Why didn't he kill you?" I asked.
"He needed something."
"The codicil?"
She nodded.
Evelyn had left Isabel legal control over a block of voting shares.
Combined with Grant's shares, those shares could permanently remove Thomas's influence from Sterling Meridian.
Thomas needed Isabel's signature.
She refused.
Grant sat beside her.
"I'm sorry."
Isabel stared at him.
"For what?"
"For believing I could protect everyone by building walls around them."
He looked down at his hands.
"I built an empire and didn't notice my own family was disappearing inside it."
Isabel's eyes softened.
Not forgiveness.
Not yet.
But the beginning of something.
Then she looked at me.
"Thomas won't stop."
"I know."
"He'll come after Leo."
My arms tightened around my son.
Grant's expression changed instantly.
"No."
Isabel nodded.
"That's how he works. He finds whatever makes you human and uses it."
Grant stood.
"Then we finish this."
The opportunity arrived sooner than expected.
Sterling Meridian's emergency board meeting was scheduled for Friday.
The day Grant was originally supposed to be dead.
Thomas needed the board to believe Grant had died before investigators could freeze the company's assets.
Julian agreed to help.
His cooperation deal wasn't immunity.
He would still face charges.
He understood.
"I deserve whatever comes," he told Grant.
Grant didn't disagree.
The plan was simple.
Julian would tell Thomas the board believed Grant was dead.
Thomas would attend remotely through a proxy.
But Thomas surprised everyone.
He came in person.
At 10:03 Friday morning, Sterling Meridian's board members gathered on the forty-second floor of the company's downtown Los Angeles headquarters.
Celeste attended in a sling.
Isabel sat hidden in a private office.
I watched from the security room with Leo.
Julian entered first.
Barragan arrived five minutes later.
Then Thomas Sterling walked through the doors.
The room erupted.
Several older directors recognized him immediately.
Thomas smiled.
"Reports of my death were exaggerated."
Barragan looked terrified.
That wasn't part of Thomas's plan.
Grant waited.
Thomas began speaking.
He claimed he had disappeared because Grant had threatened him years earlier.
He claimed Grant had embezzled company money.
He claimed Julian had uncovered it.
Then the conference-room doors opened.
Grant walked in.
Silence swallowed the room.
Thomas's face changed.
Just once.
Fear.
Grant walked slowly, still using a cane.
"Continue," he said.
"Your story was getting interesting."
Barragan stood.
Grant looked at him.
"Sit down, Doctor."
Barragan sat.
Grant placed Evelyn's evidence on the screen.
Bank transfers.
Shell companies.
Recordings.
Then Helen Park appeared by video and explained Grant's toxicology.
Ortiz entered with federal investigators.
Thomas didn't move.
Grant looked at his brother.
"You killed Evelyn."
Thomas smiled.
"Prove it."
Isabel entered.
Thomas's smile disappeared.
"I can," she said.
She carried the original recording Evelyn had made.
And something else.
A twelve-year-old voicemail.
Thomas's voice.
Ordering the driver to "make sure Evelyn doesn't reach Grant."
Thomas finally moved.
His hand slipped inside his jacket.
I saw it on the security monitor.
"Gun!" I screamed.
Security rushed forward.
Thomas grabbed Isabel.
The room exploded into chaos.
Grant moved toward them.
Thomas pressed a pistol against Isabel's neck.
"Back."
Grant stopped.
Thomas dragged her toward the private elevator.
Then his eyes found the security camera.
Found me.
He smiled.
My stomach dropped.
A second monitor went black.
Then another.
I turned.
The security-room door was open.
Leo's stroller was empty.
On the floor lay his blue blanket.
And from the hallway came Thomas's voice over the building speakers.
"Grant."
A pause.
"You can save Isabel."
Another pause.
"Or you can save the baby."
Grant stared into the nearest camera.
For the first time since I'd known him, pure terror crossed his face.
May you like
Thomas laughed over the speakers.
"You don't have time for both."
