Chapter 17 - THE CRASH SITE
Cedric did not go alone.
He wore a wire.
Mara and Alonzo stayed hidden beyond the tree line.
The crash site was a rural intersection beside an abandoned church.
Frances stood beneath the old stone bell tower holding a leather ledger.
“You brought police.”
Cedric stopped.
“You expected me not to?”
“I expected you to understand family.”
“My family seems to have confused love with blackmail.”
Frances smiled.
“You sound like Eleanor.”
Cedric looked at the ledger.
“That proves everything?”
“Everything worth proving.”
“Why keep it?”
“Insurance.”
Of course.
Project Orchid had never been about information.
It was about fear.
Frances said Henry created it because he believed power belonged to whoever knew what everyone else was ashamed of.
After Henry died, Frances inherited the files.
Then she became addicted to control.
“You ordered Marcus to follow Sofia.”
“Yes.”
“You poisoned my mother?”
“No.”
“Martin did.”
“Yes.”
“And you covered it up.”
Frances’s eyes hardened.
“Eleanor was about to collapse everything Henry built.”
“So you let her die.”
“I let consequences happen.”
Cedric felt disgust rise.
Frances opened the ledger.
“One signature from you and I disappear. You keep Blackwood Holdings. I keep my freedom.”
She held out a document.
Cedric looked at it.
A transfer of controlling shares to a foreign trust.
“No.”
Frances smiled sadly.
“Then you lose the company.”
Cedric thought of Maisie’s red cheek.
Sofia’s photograph.
His mother’s video.
Portia lunging for the envelope.
“Then I lose it.”
Frances’s smile vanished.
Cedric stepped closer.
“I’m done paying for this family name with other people’s lives.”
May you like
Frances reached into her coat.
Alonzo moved first.
