Chapter 7 - The Girl in the Back Seat
Richard was dressed and moving before Sophia finished speaking.
“Share your location.”
“I already did.”
“Do not get out of that car.”
“I’m not stupid.”
“You’re hiding in the back seat of your supposedly dead father’s car while he meets a man connected to attempted murder.”
“Okay. Moderately stupid.”
Despite everything, Richard nearly laughed.
Then another voice came through the phone.
Adrian.
Sophia went silent.
Richard realized her phone was hidden but still connected.
Grant spoke next.
“You should've handled Carter sooner.”
Richard froze.
Adrian answered.
“Leave him out of this.”
“You've developed a conscience?”
“He has children.”
“So?”
Richard's blood turned cold.
He called police from another phone while keeping Sophia's line open.
The car began moving.
GPS showed them heading south.
Toward the industrial waterfront.
Richard followed with investigators.
In Adrian's car, Grant kept talking.
“You had one job eight years ago.”
“What was that?”
“Disappear.”
“I did.”
“You were supposed to stay disappeared.”
Adrian's voice hardened.
“Then you went after Simone.”
“You weren't supposed to care.”
“She is the mother of my child.”
Grant laughed.
“Now you remember?”
Sophia's breathing became audible.
Too audible.
Grant stopped talking.
“What was that?”
Richard gripped the steering wheel.
Adrian answered quickly.
“Suspension.”
“No.”
A rustle.
Then Sophia screamed.
The call disconnected.
Richard accelerated.
Police reached the warehouse six minutes later.
It felt like six years.
They found Adrian outside, bleeding from his forehead.
Grant was gone.
So was Sophia.
Simone arrived twenty minutes later against every medical recommendation.
She ran toward Adrian.
“Where is she?”
“He took her.”
Simone struck him.
“Where?”
“I don't know.”
“YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO BE DEAD!”
Richard caught Simone before she fell.
Adrian wiped blood from his face.
“He wants the drive.”
“We gave copies to federal investigators,” Richard said.
“He doesn't know that.”
Simone stared.
Then her phone rang.
Unknown number.
Grant.
“Hello?”
“Bring the original drive.”
Simone's voice trembled.
“Let me speak to Sophia.”
“Mom?”
Sophia sounded terrified.
Simone closed her eyes.
“Baby.”
“I'm okay.”
Then Grant returned.
“Midnight. Pier seventeen. Alone.”
Richard shook his head.
Simone ignored him.
“Yes.”
“If police appear, you lose your daughter.”
The call ended.
Nobody intended to let Simone go alone.
But Richard knew Grant expected police surveillance.
So they gave him something else.
At 11:57 p.m., Simone walked onto Pier Seventeen carrying the original flash drive.
Snow blew sideways across Boston Harbor.
A black SUV waited.
Grant emerged.
Sophia stood beside him.
His hand gripped her arm.
No visible weapon.
That meant nothing.
Richard watched through binoculars from a maintenance building.
Adrian was beside him.
“You love her.”
Richard didn't look away.
“Yes.”
“Simone?”
“Both of them matter to me.”
Adrian nodded.
“I loved her too.”
Richard finally looked at him.
“Then why did you leave?”
Adrian stared toward the pier.
“Because I was a coward.”
It was the first answer Richard believed completely.
Grant took the drive.
He released Sophia.
She ran toward Simone.
Then Grant smiled.
“You really think this ends because you found a spreadsheet?”
Simone wrapped an arm around Sophia.
“It ends because you're going to prison.”
Grant laughed.
“You still don't understand.”
He looked toward the darkness.
“I'm not the person running this.”
A gunshot shattered the night.
Grant collapsed.
Chaos erupted.
Police moved.
Richard ran toward Simone.
A second shot struck the metal railing.
Adrian shoved Richard down.
Officers surrounded Simone and Sophia.
The shooter escaped across an adjacent roof.
Grant survived.
The bullet struck his shoulder.
At the hospital, he finally agreed to cooperate.
The mastermind wasn't Adrian.
It wasn't Malcolm.
It was Evelyn Shaw.
Sinclair Medical Group's general counsel.
Simone's closest professional adviser for fifteen years.
The woman who had handled Adrian's legal death.
The woman who drafted the Apex merger.
The woman who knew every clause in the Sinclair family trust.
Simone stared through the interrogation-room glass.
“Evelyn?”
Grant nodded.
“She built Northstar.”
“Why?”
“Money initially.”
“And later?”
“Control.”
Evelyn had spent fifteen years beside Simone while privately believing Sinclair Medical should have belonged to people like her—not a founder's daughter who inherited it.
She used Adrian's disappearance.
Manipulated Grant.
Built shell companies.
Positioned Apex.
And when Simone discovered the Hartwell fraud, Evelyn ordered the crash.
“Where is she?” Simone asked.
Grant smiled weakly.
“Gone.”
Evelyn's home was empty.
Her accounts had been drained.
A private aircraft registered to a shell corporation had departed Hanscom Field ninety minutes earlier.
Destination Montreal.
Canadian authorities were alerted.
For the first time in weeks, the immediate danger eased.
But another problem remained.
Adrian.
Sophia wanted answers.
Simone wanted a divorce.
Adrian didn't fight either request.
“I spent eight years telling myself leaving protected you.”
He sat across from Sophia in a quiet hospital conference room.
“It became easier than admitting I was afraid to come home.”
Sophia cried silently.
“You missed everything.”
“I know.”
“My first boyfriend.”
“I know.”
“Graduation.”
“I watched online.”
“That makes it worse.”
“I know.”
She stared at him.
“I don't forgive you.”
Adrian nodded.
“You don't have to.”
“But I want to know you.”
He looked up.
Sophia continued.
“Not the dead version.”
Her voice cracked.
“The real one.”
Adrian cried.
It wasn't forgiveness.
But it was a beginning.
Richard thought the crisis was ending.
Then his supervisor summoned him Monday morning.
A complaint had been filed.
Improper contact with a patient.
Violation of privacy.
Unauthorized visits during working hours.
Richard stared at the paperwork.
“I'm suspended?”
“Pending investigation.”
“Who filed the complaint?”
“I can't tell you.”
Richard knew anyway.
Someone wanted him removed.
Simone found out within an hour.
She stormed into administration.
Richard stopped her.
“Don't.”
“They suspended you for sitting with me?”
“They have procedures.”
“This is retaliation.”
“Maybe.”
“I'll fire everyone involved.”
“That'll prove their point.”
Simone stopped.
Richard continued.
“I don't want to be the janitor who slept his way into a six-figure job.”
Her eyes flashed.
“Is that what you think this is?”
“No.”
“Then don't say it.”
“Other people will.”
“Let them.”
“I have kids who go to school with people who read those stories.”
That silenced her.
Richard softened.
“I need to handle this correctly.”
Simone looked wounded.
“You're walking away.”
“From the hospital.”
He held her gaze.
“Not from you.”
Three days later, Richard was cleared.
His visits had occurred off duty.
No privacy rules had been violated.
The complaint was traced to Evelyn before she fled.
Richard was offered reinstatement.
He surprised everyone.
He declined.
Instead, he accepted Simone's earlier proposal—but with conditions.
He would build a patient companionship program.
No executive salary.
No ceremonial title.
And it would serve every patient, regardless of income.
Simone agreed.
“What do you want to call it?”
Richard looked toward Olivia's drawing.
Stars surrounding a sleeping woman.
He smiled.
“The Nightlight Project.”
Simone smiled too.
Then Sophia entered holding her phone.
Her face was white.
“Mom.”
Simone's smile disappeared.
“What now?”
Sophia turned the screen around.
Breaking news.
A car had been recovered from the Charles River.
Registered to Evelyn Shaw.
A woman's body was inside.
Richard read the next sentence twice.
Dental records confirmed the identity.
Evelyn Shaw was dead.
Simone whispered, “Then who killed her?”
May you like
Nobody answered.
Because Grant Holloway had just disappeared from police custody.
