Chapter 8 - The Second Will
By sunrise, federal agents had joined the search for Marcus.
Airports received photographs.
Border crossings were alerted.
Grace remained under protection at Helen’s farmhouse.
Two officers stayed outside twenty-four hours a day.
Claire refused to let fear take another night from her.
She slept on Helen’s living-room sofa.
Ethan slept in a chair.
At six in the morning, tiny footsteps woke Claire.
Grace stood beside the sofa holding her rabbit.
“Claire?”
Claire sat up.
“Yes?”
“Can I get in?”
Claire froze.
Grace pointed to the sofa.
“Here?”
“Oh.”
Claire lifted the blanket.
“Of course.”
Grace climbed beside her.
She smelled like strawberry shampoo.
Claire’s chest hurt.
For several minutes, Grace said nothing.
Then she whispered, “Miss Helen says you used to sing.”
Claire smiled.
“Badly.”
“Can you sing?”
Claire looked toward the chair.
Ethan was awake.
He pretended not to be.
Claire sang the only lullaby she remembered.
Halfway through, Grace rested her head against Claire’s shoulder.
Claire nearly stopped.
She kept going.
When the song ended, Grace was asleep.
Ethan opened his eyes.
Claire looked at him.
Neither spoke.
They didn’t need to.
At nine, Thomas arrived with federal attorney Rebecca Shaw.
She brought the second will.
Charles Blackwood’s real will.
It had been sealed as part of the federal investigation.
Ethan read it at Helen’s kitchen table.
His father’s handwriting appeared on the final page.
Charles had left his personal property to Ethan.
But control of Blackwood Global rested inside a succession trust created with Thomas Whitmore decades earlier.
Thomas explained.
“When Blackwood was struggling, I provided the capital that kept it alive.”
“How much?” Ethan asked.
“Thirty-two million dollars.”
Ethan stared.
“In the nineties?”
Thomas nodded.
“I received forty-eight percent economic interest.”
Claire looked at her father.
“You never told me.”
“You were nineteen when I intended to explain it.”
“And then?”
“You met Ethan.”
Claire almost smiled.
Thomas continued.
“Charles and I thought joining the families through marriage simplified everything. We were wrong.”
Under the original trust, Thomas’s interest transferred to Claire after his legal death.
Charles’s interest eventually transferred to Ethan.
But a later amendment created a deciding voting block.
Seven percent.
It went to Claire.
That gave her effective voting control.
Ethan looked at her.
“You own fifty-five percent of the votes.”
Claire shook her head.
“I don’t want your company.”
Ethan almost laughed.
“Apparently it was always partly yours.”
Thomas looked grim.
“Marcus forged an amendment after Charles died. He removed Claire’s voting rights and redirected them to a management trust controlled by Eleanor.”
Claire looked at Ethan.
“Your mother has been voting my shares?”
“For years,” he said.
Rebecca Shaw nodded.
“And if Claire had been declared legally dead without an heir, the original structure would have created a prolonged estate dispute.”
“But Grace changed that,” Ethan said.
“Exactly.”
Claire felt sick.
“Marcus needed Grace.”
“Eventually,” Shaw said. “Yes.”
“Why?”
“If he obtained legal guardianship and Claire remained legally incompetent, he could potentially influence both interests.”
Claire looked toward the hallway where Grace was coloring.
“She’s three years old.”
Rebecca’s expression hardened.
“To Marcus, she was an asset.”
Claire stood.
“No.”
Everyone looked at her.
“He doesn’t get to turn her into that.”
“He won’t,” Ethan said.
Claire faced him.
“You still run the company?”
“Yes.”
“Then freeze everything.”
Thomas looked surprised.
Claire continued.
“All transfers. Every account connected to Marcus. Every discretionary fund Eleanor can access. I want an independent audit.”
Ethan nodded.
“Done.”
“You don’t have to ask the board?”
A strange smile crossed his face.
“If this will is authentic, you’re the board’s biggest problem now.”
For the first time in days, Claire laughed.
It felt unfamiliar.
By noon, Blackwood Global announced an emergency governance review.
Its stock fell fourteen percent.
News networks camped outside headquarters.
Commentators argued about scandal, inheritance, and attempted murder.
Claire ignored all of it.
Until a video appeared online.
The video showed her inside Bellweather.
She was screaming.
Throwing a chair.
Hitting a nurse.
The caption read:
THIS IS THE WOMAN DEMANDING CONTROL OF BLACKWOOD GLOBAL.
Within twenty minutes, it had millions of views.
Ethan found Claire staring at the phone.
“Don’t watch it.”
“It happened.”
“You were drugged.”
“I threw that chair.”
“What happened before the camera started?”
Claire looked at him.
She remembered.
“They told me my baby was dead.”
Ethan sat beside her.
“Then that matters.”
“People online don’t care.”
“I do.”
Claire laughed bitterly.
“That won’t help a board vote.”
“It may help the person who has fifty-five percent.”
She looked at him.
“You believe the will.”
“I believe my father.”
“Even though it costs you control?”
Ethan thought about that.
“My wife came back from the dead. I discovered I have a three-year-old daughter. My mother was arrested twice in forty-eight hours. I found out our family attorney may have murdered my father.”
He leaned back.
“I’m having trouble caring about voting percentages.”
Claire smiled despite herself.
Then her phone rang.
Unknown number.
Ethan immediately looked at Brooks, who was across the room.
Brooks activated tracing equipment.
Claire answered.
“Hello?”
A man’s voice.
“Claire.”
Marcus.
Her entire body went cold.
Brooks signaled her to keep talking.
“Where are you?”
“You’ve been busy.”
“You stole three years of my life.”
“You’re alive.”
“That isn’t a defense.”
“No.”
He sounded almost amused.
“It’s a complication.”
Claire looked toward Grace.
“What do you want?”
“The drive Thomas has.”
“What drive?”
“The recordings.”
Claire met her father’s eyes.
Marcus continued.
“You give me the drive and I disappear.”
“You tried that already.”
“This time I mean it.”
“You were taking my daughter.”
Silence.
Then Marcus said, “Grace belongs to the trust.”
Claire’s face changed.
Ethan saw it.
“What did he say?” he whispered.
Claire held up a hand.
“My daughter belongs to no one.”
“You’re emotional.”
“And you’re a coward who runs from three-year-olds.”
Marcus’s breathing changed.
Good.
She had hit something.
“You think Ethan is on your side?” he asked.
“He is.”
“Ask him about June twenty-third.”
Claire looked at Ethan.
“What happened June twenty-third?”
Ethan frowned.
“I don’t know.”
Marcus laughed softly.
“Ask him what he signed at 4:16 that afternoon.”
The call ended.
Brooks looked at the tracing screen.
“Burner phone. Signal bounced.”
Claire stared at Ethan.
“June twenty-third.”
His face had gone pale.
“What?”
He stood suddenly.
“I remember.”
Claire’s stomach tightened.
“What did you sign?”
Ethan looked horrified.
“Three years ago, Marcus came to my office with estate papers after you were declared dead.”
“And?”
“He said one was an authorization to close a dormant trust.”
Thomas stood.
“What trust?”
Ethan looked at him.
“The Whitmore-Blackwood succession trust.”
Claire stopped breathing.
“You signed it?”
“I didn’t know.”
“You signed away my shares?”
“I thought you were dead.”
Her anger exploded.
“You keep saying that!”
“Because I did!”
“And somehow every lie they told you became my prison!”
Ethan stared.
Claire immediately regretted the words.
But she didn’t take them back.
Ethan nodded slowly.
“You’re right.”
That silenced her.
“I should have questioned more.”
“You were grieving.”
“That doesn’t make the signature disappear.”
Thomas spoke.
“Marcus needed Ethan’s signature.”
Everyone looked at him.
“For what?”
“If the document Ethan signed was the amendment I suspect, Marcus didn’t just redirect Claire’s voting rights.”
Thomas’s face drained.
“He may have transferred them permanently.”
“To whom?” Claire asked.
Thomas looked toward the Blackwood Global documents.
“To whoever controls Crescent Holdings.”
Ethan turned to the laptop.
He searched the corporate registry.
Crescent’s ownership was hidden through layers of companies.
Rebecca contacted a federal analyst.
Twenty minutes later, the first answer arrived.
Crescent Holdings ultimately belonged to a Nevada trust.
Its beneficiary had been concealed.
Until that morning.
Claire read the name on the screen.
Her blood went cold.
Beneficiary:
GRACE ELEANOR VALE.
Helen gasped.
“That isn’t her name.”
Claire stared.
Marcus had secretly created a financial identity for her daughter.
He hadn’t been planning to kidnap Grace merely to escape.
He intended to control the child who legally controlled billions.
Then Brooks’ phone rang.
She answered.
Her expression sharpened.
“We have a problem.”
“What?” Ethan asked.
Brooks looked toward the window.
“The officers outside just found one of their patrol cars empty.”
Claire stood.
“Where is Grace?”
Everyone turned toward the hallway.
The coloring book lay open.
May you like
The crayons were scattered across the floor.
Grace was gone.
