Chapter 5 - The Man Who Was Supposed to Disappear
Daniel pulled Vivian to the floor.
Glass rained across the office.
His assistant screamed from the hallway.
A heavy object struck the opposite wall and rolled beneath the conference table.
It was not a bullet.
It was a stone wrapped in paper.
Daniel waited several seconds before rising.
The window faced a narrow street four floors below. A dark motorcycle disappeared around the corner.
Vivian crawled toward the table and retrieved the stone.
The paper around it contained four words.
Stop looking for Price.
Daniel immediately called the police.
The storage drive was sealed as evidence, but the threat complicated everything. The unknown person who had sent the video might have been trying to help Vivian, or they might have wanted to draw her into a conflict she did not understand.
Police technicians examined the office.
No fingerprints were found on the stone or note.
The motorcycle had been stolen that morning.
By evening, news of the broken window had reached Thatcher.
He called Vivian for the first time since the hospital.
“You need to stop this nonsense,” he said.
“What nonsense?”
“Accusing people of crimes because you want leverage in a custody battle.”
“Did Beatrix give Sabina something?”
Silence followed.
Then Thatcher laughed.
“Listen to yourself.”
“There is a recording.”
“Anyone can fabricate a recording.”
“Where is Dr. Price?”
“He took leave.”
“Beatrix threatened him.”
“You are letting Mercer manipulate you.”
Vivian gripped the phone.
“Did you know?”
“Know what?”
“That Sabina had been given something.”
“She was sick.”
“That is not an answer.”
“You’re becoming hysterical again.”
The familiar word was meant to weaken her.
This time, it did not.
“Your attorney will receive a copy of the evidence,” Vivian said.
“Vivian, think carefully. You are attacking the people who protect this family.”
“No. I am protecting the child you abandoned.”
She ended the call.
Sabina was discharged the following morning.
Daniel arranged for Vivian and Sabina to stay at a secure residence owned by the trust. It was a quiet townhouse near the river, guarded by two private officers.
Sabina did not ask to return to Ashford Manor.
She carried her stuffed white fox into the guest room and placed it on the pillow.
“Will Dad know where we are?” she asked.
“He knows we’re safe.”
“Will Beatrix come here?”
“No.”
Sabina looked down at her hands.
“Did I make Dad angry?”
Vivian knelt before her.
“You did nothing wrong.”
“He said I was your problem.”
Vivian felt pain move through her chest.
“Sometimes adults say terrible things because there is something wrong inside them. That does not make their words true.”
“Does he love me?”
Vivian wanted to say yes.
She wanted to give Sabina a simple answer that would allow her to sleep peacefully.
Instead, she said, “A parent should make a child feel safe. Your father has not done that.”
Sabina’s eyes filled with tears.
“Is that a no?”
“It means his choices are not your fault.”
Sabina leaned forward and wrapped her arms around Vivian’s neck.
That evening, after Sabina fell asleep, Daniel arrived with an update.
The police had enhanced the recording from the storage drive. The voices appeared genuine.
They also found metadata showing that the video had been captured by a hidden camera disguised as a smoke detector.
“Who installed it?” Vivian asked.
“We don’t know.”
“Was it part of the security system?”
“No.”
“Then someone had been secretly recording the library.”
“For at least six months.”
Daniel placed several still images on the table.
The camera had recorded private meetings involving Thatcher, Beatrix, Gideon Vale, board members, politicians, and foreign investors.
Most files had been deleted from the drive.
Only the conversation with Dr. Price remained.
“Why send us one video?” Vivian asked.
“Perhaps the sender wants to control what we discover.”
“Or frighten Beatrix.”
“Possibly.”
Daniel handed her another document.
“We also identified the payment Dr. Price mentioned.”
Two days before Sabina became ill, five hundred thousand dollars had been transferred to an offshore account linked to the doctor.
The money originated from a consulting company owned by Gideon Vale.
“Can the police arrest Beatrix?”
“Not yet. The recording does not prove what she gave Sabina or whether the illness was intentional.”
“Dr. Price knows.”
“We must find him.”
Daniel’s investigators had traced Dr. Price’s last known location to a private airfield outside the city.
A plane registered to Vale Strategic Security had departed that night for Montreal. Dr. Price’s passport had been scanned there.
After that, he vanished.
Vivian walked toward the window.
“Why would Beatrix make Sabina sick?”
“To disrupt something.”
“What?”
“That is what we need to determine.”
Vivian remembered the dinner.
The Halcyon contract.
Mr. Harcourt.
“What happened after I left?”
Daniel’s expression changed.
“Thatcher signed a preliminary agreement with Harcourt.”
“During dinner?”
“At nine fifteen.”
“What did the agreement involve?”
“A transfer of several Ashford research subsidiaries to Halcyon Global.”
“Could he do that without the trust?”
“He claimed the transfer was temporary and operational.”
“Was it?”
“No. It would give Halcyon access to patents worth billions.”
Vivian began to understand.
“Sabina’s illness forced me out of the house.”
“And kept your attention elsewhere.”
“But why would that matter? I had no role in the contract.”
Daniel looked at her carefully.
“Are you certain?”
Vivian thought back to the first years of her marriage.
Before Sabina was born, she had worked as a biomedical researcher. She left her career after Thatcher insisted that Ashford family responsibilities required her full attention.
One of the subsidiaries involved in the Halcyon transfer was Ashford Biogenics.
The company where Vivian had worked.
“I helped develop one of their early patents,” she said.
Daniel nodded.
“Your signature was required to validate the transfer.”
“I never signed anything.”
“You signed a stack of household trust documents two weeks before the dinner.”
Vivian remembered.
Thatcher had placed papers beside her breakfast plate and said they concerned property insurance.
Her stomach turned.
“He hid the transfer authorization inside them.”
“That is my suspicion.”
“Then why make Sabina sick?”
“To ensure you would not attend the dinner, meet Harcourt, or hear the details before the agreement was signed.”
Vivian covered her mouth.
The illness had not been random cruelty.
It had been part of a plan.
Daniel’s phone rang.
He answered and listened silently.
Then he placed the call on speaker.
A man’s weak voice filled the room.
“Mrs. Ashford?”
Vivian recognized Dr. Price.
“Where are you?”
“I don’t have much time.”
“Did Beatrix give Sabina something?”
The doctor began crying.
“I thought it would only cause drowsiness. She said the dinner needed to happen without interruption.”
“What did you give her?”
“I didn’t give it directly. I prepared a bottle and left it with someone in the house.”
“Who?”
A loud noise sounded behind him.
Dr. Price gasped.
“They found me.”
“Tell me who gave it to Sabina.”
“It was placed in her evening medicine.”
“By whom?”
The line crackled.
Then Dr. Price whispered one name.
“Thatcher.”
May you like
A crash followed.
The call ended.
