Chapter 4 - What Elena Remembered
Elena Ruiz looked smaller than she had in the photograph.
The machines around her seemed too large for the narrow body in the bed. Her hair had been cut short near the back of her skull where surgeons had needed access. A brace encircled her torso. Both legs lay still beneath a thin blanket.
Her eyes tracked toward me when I entered.
“Vance?” she whispered.
“Yes.”
“The real one?”
I pulled a chair closer. “That depends on what the blonde one told you.”
The corner of her mouth moved. Not quite a smile.
“Chloe.”
Maya remained near the door with Teresa. A nurse checked Elena’s monitor and warned us not to push her.
I did not ask about the fall.
Instead, I placed the blue notebook on the bedside table.
“You wanted me to have this.”
Elena stared at it, then closed her eyes.
“The support columns were wrong.”
Her voice came in fragments. “Not built wrong. Reported wrong. Numbers changed after inspections.”
“By Brantham?”
She gave a tiny nod.
“Dominic?”
Another nod.
“And Chloe?”
Her breathing changed.
“She came to the site.”
“When?”
“The night I fell.”
The room became very quiet.
Elena swallowed with difficulty. “She said I was ruining everything. Said Dominic had promised her they’d be rich after the project refinanced.”
“What did she want from you?”
“My phone. Notebook. Photos.”
“Did she push you?”
Elena’s eyes opened.
“No.”
That answer surprised me.
“Who did?”
“I don’t know.”
Her fingers tightened against the blanket. “Lights went out. Someone grabbed my jacket. I twisted. The temporary gate behind me was open.”
“Was it supposed to be locked?” Maya asked.
“Yes.”
“Did you see the person?”
Elena stared at the ceiling.
“Smelled something.”
“What?”
“Cedar.”
My skin prickled.
My father had worn the same cedar cologne for as long as I could remember.
The scent had followed him through every room of my childhood.
But scent was not proof.
I forced myself not to move.
“Elena, did Chloe say anything about my father?”
“She called someone.”
“What did she say?”
Elena’s eyes closed again.
“She said, ‘Dad, she won’t listen. I need you to make her understand.’”
Teresa made a sound behind me.
I heard the click from my knee when I stood.
Elena’s hand lifted weakly.
“Wait.”
I leaned closer.
“She wanted your signature.”
“On what?”
“An indemnity transfer.”
Maya stepped forward immediately. “Explain.”
Elena’s voice faded to almost nothing. “Brantham wanted Vance Meridian to accept retroactive responsibility for the temporary supports. If you signed, their altered load reports become your problem.”
My heart began beating harder.
I finally understood the phrase in the notebook.
CHLOE SAYS HER FATHER CAN MAKE THE OWNER SIGN.
My parents had not returned simply because they needed my money.
They needed access to me.
Access to my signature.
The million-dollar demand had been a door opener.
A distraction.
Maybe even bait.
Maya’s phone buzzed.
She looked down, and her expression changed.
“What?” I asked.
“Our document system just flagged a new upload to the Hudson North legal folder.”
“By whom?”
“Your executive assistant’s credentials.”
My assistant, Lena, was sitting outside Elena’s hospital room with a security officer.
Maya opened the file on her phone.
The document was an indemnity transfer agreement.
My name was already signed at the bottom.
The signature looked perfect.
Because it was mine.
Copied from a financing document I had signed six months earlier.
Timestamp: eight minutes ago.
Uploaded from my office.
I was thirty miles away.
Someone was inside Vance Meridian using my identity.
Again.
May you like
And this time, they were not buying Chloe a dress.
They were trying to make me legally responsible for a catastrophe that might have crippled a woman for life.
