CHAPTER 2
Part 2
Grant mistook my silence for surrender.
He said, “Claire has been unstable for months. She spies on my calls, questions expenses, embarrasses me.”
Claire looked directly at him. “I found invoices.”
His expression hardened.
“What invoices?” I asked.
“Consulting payments,” she replied. “Companies that don’t exist. Grant told me to erase the files.”
Evelyn snapped, “A wife does not dig through her husband’s work.”
Grant leaned across the table and gripped Claire’s injured shoulder.
She gasped.
I caught hold of his wrist.
Not forcefully. I did not need strength.
“Take your hand off her.”
He looked at me with amusement. “Or what?”
“Or the next thirty minutes will become far more unpleasant.”
He pulled his hand back, laughing. “Retired prosecutors always believe the world still salutes them.”
I chaired the trust’s ethics committee. I had examined reports involving vendor payments at Mercer Dynamics. Each amount was small enough to escape notice alone, yet together they added up to millions. We only lacked the signature connecting them to Grant.
Claire had discovered it.
“Where are the files?” I asked.
Grant slammed his hand onto the table. “There are no files.”
Claire glanced toward the bread basket.
I lifted the linen cloth beneath it and found a black flash drive taped underneath the wicker.
Evelyn jumped to her feet. “Give that to me.”
I slipped it into my pocket.
Grant’s expression shifted. The charm disappeared, replaced by something far colder.
“You have no idea what you’re holding,” he said.
“I know exactly what I’m holding.”
He locked the dining room door.
His brother stood behind him. Evelyn picked up Claire’s phone from the counter and dropped it into her wineglass. The screen hissed before going completely dark.
“There,” she said. “No more recordings.”
Claire started trembling.
Grant stepped toward me. “You will hand over that drive. Then you will tell everyone Claire fell down the stairs.”
“Everyone?”
“The hospital. Her friends. Anyone who asks.”
“And if I refuse?”
He smiled. “You are seventy-one. Acc!dents happen.”
I glanced toward the brass clock. Twenty-two minutes had gone by.
“You chose the wrong woman,” I said.
Grant let out a sharp laugh. “Claire?”
“No. Me.”
I removed my watch and laid it on the table. A tiny green light flashed beneath the dial.
Evelyn turned pale.
“State law permits one-party consent,” I said. “Everything since I walked into this room has been transmitted to secure encrypted cloud storage.”
Grant lunged toward the watch.
I swept it away and rose to my feet.
He grabbed my arm.
Claire screamed, “Don’t touch her!”
Grant shoved me into the sideboard. Plates cr@shed onto the floor. Pa!n sh0t through my hip, but I remained standing.
Then the doorbell rang.
Once.
Twice.
Grant released me and straightened his shirt. “Smile,” he ordered. “All of you.”
He walked toward the front door wearing the confident look of a man expecting neighbors.
The moment he opened it, his smile v@nished.
May you like
The chair of Mercer Dynamics stood on the porch alongside six board members. Beside them were Police Commissioner Daniel Ross, two detectives, and Dr. Patel carrying a medical bag.
Behind them, cameras from the company’s security team were already recording.
