Chapter 9 - What Margaret Knew
Margaret was arrested before noon.
She asked for Conrad Pike.
When detectives told her Pike had vanished, she stopped speaking.
The handwritten letter was not a confession. It was a message to Pike, written but never sent.
Ethan read the photocopy alone first.
Then he handed it to Ava.
The letter said the crash had gone wrong.
Ava had survived.
That survival created “a longer problem.”
Margaret described the months after the crash as an opportunity.
Pain medication.
Memory issues.
Dependence.
Isolation.
“If we establish incapacity,” she wrote, “Ethan can be persuaded to accept control for her own protection.”
Ava’s hands shook.
“She turned my recovery into part of the plan.”
Brooks nodded.
“The forged incapacity records began two weeks after you came home.”
Ethan stared at the floor.
His mother had attended every medical appointment.
She brought soup.
She adjusted pillows.
She told nurses Ava was too tired to answer questions.
She kept visitors away “so Ava could rest.”
Ava remembered thanking her.
That was the part that made her nauseous.
Margaret had not only hurt her.
She had made Ava grateful for it.
The district attorney charged Margaret with assault, unlawful administration of controlled substances, fraud, conspiracy, and attempted theft.
More serious charges depended on proving what happened to the brakes.
Pike remained missing.
Martin remained missing.
Victor Hale agreed to cooperate.
That evening, Ava asked Ethan to bring her laptop.
“I’m going back to work.”
“You’re still in the hospital.”
“I’ve been out of my company for eight months.”
“You need rest.”
Ava’s eyes sharpened.
“Do not tell me what I need because you’re scared.”
He stopped.
“You’re right.”
She opened the board portal.
Her stomach dropped.
Three emergency resolutions had been scheduled for Friday.
One would remove her as chair based on incapacity.
One would appoint Martin Monroe interim voting trustee.
And one would authorize the sale of a major research division.
The proposed buyer was a private equity firm Ava had never heard of.
Brooks ran the company name.
It led through three shell corporations.
The final beneficial owner was a Cayman entity.
Legal representative: Conrad Pike.
“He’s not running,” Ava said.
“He’s finishing the deal.”
Ethan leaned over the laptop.
“If the board votes Friday, what happens?”
“They can sell the division before the criminal case touches it.”
“What is the division worth?”
Ava stared at the number.
“About nine hundred million dollars.”
Lena, sitting by the window, whispered, “That’s what this was about?”
Ava shook her head.
“No.”
Everyone looked at her.
She opened an old board memo from her father.
The research division held patents for a drug-delivery technology not yet publicly announced.
If approved, it could be worth several billion.
Ava looked at Brooks.
“They weren’t trying to steal what the company is worth now.”
May you like
She turned the screen.
“They were trying to steal what it’s about to become.”
