2026-01-27 20:24:21
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150: CLAIRE'S DISCOVERY
Claire's POVThe taxi dropped me at my mother's house twenty minutes after I'd fled the lobby.No car in the driveway meant she was still at the wedding venue they invited her, playing the role of a supportive family matriarch.The side door was unlocked, so I let myself in without announcing my presence to the empty rooms.I'd come here to end this…End the pretending, the protection of secrets that had crushed two years of my life into something unrecognizable, and also being the daughter who stayed quiet while her mother built alliances with murderers.The study was upstairs…I took the stairs quickly, my heels loud against hardwood, not bothering with stealth. Her desk was locked but I knew where she kept the spare key.I pushed my hand inside a hollow book on the third shelf and the lock turned smoothly.Inside the bottom drawer, pushed beneath old tax returns, were three leather journals with dates embossed in gold.Where I had retrieved other implicating documents…I pulled out
149: THE LOBBY CONFRONTATION I
Liam's POVTwo days later… To get all these fixed up, the first place we had in mind was Charles…That means we needed to deal with the elephant in the room, so we did just that and went to Charles's company.It was forty floors of glass and steel rising above the city.The lobby was already full despite the early hour. I was surprised to see wedding guests mingling near the elevators wearing formal clothes that looked wrong against the corporate backdrop of marble floors and security desks.Board members clustered in small groups pretending to make small talk while actually sizing up the room.Servers moved between them carrying champagne flutes on silver trays…Claire walked beside me.She hadn't spoken since we left the hospital. The drive over had been forty minutes of silence broken only by the sound of the city outside the windows.The leather portfolio under my arm contained everything — Real bank records, forged document comparisons, Nathan's emails, the voice recording of C
148: PREPARING FOR WAR
Liam's POVWe had three days to stop Charles from executing whatever he had planned during Lily's wedding ceremony.Three days to gather evidence, build a counter strategy, and make sure we didn't lose everything.I called an emergency meeting at Vincent's secure office bringing together everyone I trusted.Claire, Elijah, Ashley, Vincent, and Torres. Even Vivian showed up despite Claire's objections about working with her mother."Let's start with what we know," I said while spreading documents across the conference table. "Charles and Nathan are planning something during the wedding. We need to figure out exactly what they're planning so we can stop it."Elijah pulled up his laptop. "I've been analyzing the wedding invitation along with the board meeting agenda that was sent out yesterday. Something doesn't match up.""What do you mean?" Claire moved closer to look at his screen."The board meeting is scheduled to last four hours. But weddings don't take that long even with elaborat
147: THE ALLIANCE FORM
Liam's POVI stared at the screen trying to make sense of what Vivian was showing us. "That doesn't make any sense. Nathan can't gain shares he doesn't have in a company he has no stake in.""You're thinking too directly." Vivian pulled up another email. "Nathan isn't trying to own shares. He's trying to create enough legal chaos that ownership becomes irrelevant during the investigation.""What kind of legal chaos?""He's going to make accusations about how you acquired the company in the first place." She scrolled through the emails. "He'll claim you coerced Claire into signing over ownership. That you used blackmail or threats. That the transfer of ownership was fraudulent from the start."Claire moved closer to the screen. "But that's not true. Liam never coerced me into anything.""Truth doesn't matter when you're facing a fraud investigation." Vivian announced. "Once Nathan makes the accusation the authorities have to investigate. That means freezing all company assets until the
146: VIVIAN'S BETRAYAL
Liam's POVBut what is the right way to go about it when there is too much evidence now?“I think you're right. Let's go.”We drove to Vivian's house in complete silence because Claire was too angry to speak while I tried to figure out the right way to handle this confrontation.Vivian had murdered her own husband then spent two years watching her daughter grieve while pretending to mourn alongside her.That level of deception required a coldness I couldn't fully comprehend.Claire parked in the driveway then got out before I could suggest we plan our approach.She walked straight to the front door then used her key to let herself in without knocking.I followed close behind as she moved through the house calling for her mother.Vivian was in the study pouring herself a drink when we found her. She looked up with mild surprise when Claire burst through the door holding the burner phone."Claire darling what's wrong?" Vivian set down her glass. "You look upset.""I found this in your c
145: SARAH'S FINAL WARNING
Liam's POVThe ambulance arrived within six minutes but those six minutes felt like hours while I held Sarah's wrist checking for a pulse that kept getting weaker.The paramedics took over immediately loading her onto a stretcher then rushing her into the vehicle.I climbed in after them despite one paramedic saying only family was allowed."I'm all she has," I said which wasn't exactly true but he didn't argue.They worked on her during the drive to the hospital pumping her stomach then administering medications I didn't recognize.Her vitals were crashing according to the monitors while her heart rate was dangerously low.The lead paramedic kept saying things like "come on" and "stay with us" which told me how bad this was.At the hospital they rushed her into emergency treatment while I waited in a hallway answering questions from doctors about what she'd ingested. I told them about the water bottle, how she'd been fine until she drank from it, and how quickly the symptoms appeare
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