Chapter 11 - THE SHOT
The bullet hit Graham high in the shoulder.
He survived.
Frances disappeared through a service exit during the blackout.
Security footage showed a maintenance van leaving the estate thirty seconds later.
Its plates were fake.
Mara ordered a statewide alert.
Cedric sat beside Graham in the ambulance bay.
“Who shot you?”
“I didn’t see.”
“You know who wants you quiet.”
Graham laughed weakly.
“Everyone.”
“Start naming them.”
Graham looked at Portia through the glass doors.
“My daughter doesn’t know half of what I did.”
“That doesn’t make her innocent.”
“No.”
For the first time, Graham sounded tired instead of powerful.
He admitted that Frances took over Project Orchid after Henry died.
She used the files to force mergers and control board votes.
Graham helped because Vale Strategic Partners was drowning in debt.
The Blackwood marriage would erase that debt and give him access to voting shares.
“What happened to my mother?” Cedric asked.
Graham closed his eyes.
“Frances wanted Eleanor declared incompetent.”
“Instead she died.”
“That wasn’t the plan.”
“Whose plan was it?”
“Dr. Samuel Vale gave her a sedative meant to make her confused during a board meeting. Someone doubled the dose.”
Cedric’s voice dropped.
“Who?”
Graham looked away.
“I never knew.”
Alonzo entered carrying a tablet.
“We may.”
Flora had remembered a camera in Eleanor’s greenhouse that stored footage separately from the estate network.
One clip survived.
The night before Eleanor collapsed, Frances entered the greenhouse carrying a tea tray.
Ten minutes later, another woman entered.
Portia.
May you like
Cedric slowly turned toward his former bride.
Portia whispered, “I can explain.”
