Chapter 15 - The Chairman
On the memory card was a video recorded in a plain conference room.
Marcus Wynn stood at one end of the table. Vivienne sat at the other, turning her wedding ring around her finger. Between them lay a document marked RESTRUCTURING PLAN.
Then a third person entered.
A gray-haired man in a navy suit. Harold Vale.
Adrian’s father.
Adrian watched the footage without blinking. His father had built the original family company, retired publicly, and spent the last decade praising his son's leadership in front of cameras.
On screen Harold spoke calmly. “The girl is the leverage. The mother is the liability. We need Adrian compliant until the asset transfer closes.”
Vivienne asked, “And if he finds out about the children?”
“Then he learns what family loyalty costs.”
The recording ended.
Adrian got up and walked to the window. Outside the police safe house, snow was beginning to settle on parked cars.
“I grew up believing he was strict because he cared,” he said. “He made every decision for us and called it protection.”
Caleb sat across from me, both hands wrapped around a mug he hadn't touched.
“It's not just your family,” he told Adrian. “They used your medical network to hide kids whose parents were broke, sick, or easy to intimidate. The paperwork made the moves look legitimate. People who complained got threatened.”
Ortiz paused the video at Harold’s face. “This is serious evidence, but we need more than one recording to prove every part of the operation.”
Adrian turned around. “I'll give you the company servers.”
“You may lose control of the business.”
“I may deserve to.”
“That’s for a court to decide,” she said.
My brother stared at him. “Words are easy.”
Adrian nodded. “Then watch what I do.”
He called an emergency board meeting for eight the next morning and sent his outside counsel the archive. By midnight accounts had been frozen voluntarily and an independent review commissioned.
At 1:06 a.m. Harold called.
Adrian put him on speaker.
“You're embarrassing the family,” his father said.
“Where's Laurel?”
A long silence.
“You should worry about the daughter you still have,” Harold replied.
May you like
The line went dead.
Thirty seconds later the safe house alarm began to shriek.
