Chapter 11 - Sarah’s Last Night
Daniel had spent three years refusing to replay Sarah’s last night in his head.
Cancer had taken almost everything from her by then—her strength, her voice, her ability to sit up without help.
But she had still been Sarah.
Sharp.
Stubborn.
Protective of the children until her final breath.
Crowe’s voice came through the laptop.
“She recorded a message twelve hours before she died.”
Daniel’s face hardened. “I was with her.”
“Not every minute.”
Nathan’s voice suddenly came through Daniel’s phone. He had patched into the room through hotel security.
“Daniel, keep him talking.”
Crowe smiled as if he had heard.
“I know your lawyer is listening.”
Daniel looked at Emma, then at Lang.
“What was on the recording?”
Crowe’s expression changed into something almost wounded.
“Sarah said she didn’t want Vanessa near the trust.”
Vanessa’s voice came over the phone from downstairs.
“That’s impossible. Sarah died a year before I met Daniel.”
Crowe paused.
Then smiled again.
“Exactly.”
Daniel’s stomach turned.
Grant frowned. “What are you saying?”
Crowe leaned back.
“The recording is fake. Of course it is.”
Lang swore under his breath.
Crowe continued, “But courts don’t begin with truth. They begin with evidence. Documents. Experts. Witnesses. Videos. Enough smoke buys time.”
Daniel finally understood.
“You never expected to win permanently.”
“No.”
“You only needed temporary control.”
Crowe nodded.
“Thirty days would have been enough.”
Nathan said, “Enough for what?”
Crowe’s eyes gleamed.
“To move assets that should never have belonged to Daniel in the first place.”
Daniel stared at the screen.
The Mercer Family Trust included a controlling interest in Mercer Biotech.
Thirty days of control could move stock voting rights, trigger loan covenants, destroy the company, or sell confidential research.
This was not about custody.
The children were leverage.
The wedding was theater.
Daniel said, “Who are you working for?”
Crowe’s smile faded.
May you like
Then the laptop screen went black.
At the same moment, every light on the executive floor shut off.
