Chapter 13 - THE LAST HUNT
Security moved Claire and Raina into a reinforced basement room.
“Who found you?” Raina asked.
Claire didn't answer immediately.
Outside, men shouted commands.
A vehicle engine roared.
Then disappeared into the distance.
One of the guards came downstairs.
“Shooter fled. Local police are coming.”
Claire sat heavily.
“Peter.”
Raina stared.
“You knew he was alive?”
“Yes.”
“Why does he want you dead?”
“Because I'm the last witness who can destroy the story he built.”
“What story?”
Claire looked at her daughter.
“That your father stole the company.”
Raina frowned.
“I thought he did.”
“He bought it.”
“Through a hidden company.”
“Yes. Because Bryce was trying to force the estate into bankruptcy.”
Claire rubbed her hands.
“I asked Orson to buy the assets before Bryce could move them.”
“So Dad didn't steal them?”
“No.”
“Why didn't he tell me?”
Claire smiled sadly.
“Because your father is brilliant with corporations and terrible with human beings.”
Despite everything, Raina laughed.
Claire continued.
“He thought secrecy was safer.”
“Was it?”
“For a while.”
Raina sat beside her.
“What happened in Miami?”
Claire's face tightened.
“Bryce contacted me last year.”
“Why?”
“He was dying.”
“Of what?”
“Cancer.”
Raina's stomach dropped.
“He wanted to confess.”
Claire nodded.
“He told me Peter had resurfaced. Peter wanted control of the descendant trust.”
“Through Damon.”
“Yes.”
“Did Bryce know Damon targeted me?”
“He helped arrange it.”
Raina's eyes filled with anger.
“But then he regretted it?”
“Too late.”
Claire looked toward the ceiling.
“I met him at the hotel. Lacey was there.”
“Why?”
“She'd been working with him.”
“Damon?”
“Not initially.”
Raina tried to assemble the pieces.
“So Lacey worked with Bryce. Damon worked with his father. Eventually Damon and Lacey became involved.”
“Yes.”
“What happened on the balcony?”
Claire's voice became quiet.
“Damon arrived.”
Raina already knew she wouldn't like the rest.
“He argued with Bryce.”
“About what?”
“Bryce wanted to expose Peter and stop the guardianship plan.”
“Then?”
“Damon grabbed him.”
“Martha saw that.”
Claire nodded.
“Damon let go.”
Raina blinked.
“He didn't push him?”
“No.”
“Then who did?”
Claire looked at her.
“Lacey.”
Silence.
Raina's pulse pounded.
“Why?”
“Bryce had recordings proving Vanessa was innocent.”
“That would've cleared Lacey's mother.”
“Yes.”
“Why would she kill him?”
“Because Bryce was also going to expose Lacey's fraud.”
Claire swallowed.
“Lacey had been blackmailing him for years.”
Raina leaned back.
Everything was greed wrapped in grievance.
Real pain.
Real injustice.
Then more choices.
Worse choices.
“Did Lacey know you saw?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn't she kill you?”
“She tried.”
Claire lifted her sleeve.
A long scar ran down her forearm.
“I escaped.”
Raina closed her eyes.
Outside, sirens approached.
Claire took her hand.
“There is something else.”
Raina laughed weakly.
“There always is.”
“Your baby changes the trust.”
“I know.”
“No. Peter only knows half.”
Raina frowned.
Claire smiled for the first time.
“When your child is born, control doesn't pass to his father.”
“What?”
“It passes to you.”
Raina stared.
“The descendant provision activates your permanent voting authority over Claire Mercer intellectual property.”
“Why?”
“Because I wrote it that way.”
Raina almost laughed.
“So Peter's entire plan—”
“Was based on an old draft.”
“Then Damon destroyed his marriage for something he could never control?”
“Yes.”
Raina shook her head.
“That is unbelievably stupid.”
Claire smiled.
“Greedy people often become stupid when they think they're one signature away from winning.”
A guard opened the basement door.
“We're clear.”
Then his phone rang.
He answered.
His expression changed.
“What?”
Raina stood.
The guard looked at her.
“Ma'am, we just received word from the hospital back home.”
Her heart stopped.
“What hospital?”
“Your father was admitted twenty minutes ago.”
Raina grabbed the wall.
“What happened?”
The guard swallowed.
“He was attacked outside Mercer Capital.”
Raina's voice disappeared.
“By who?”
The guard looked down at the report.
May you like
“Peter Cole.”
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