Chapter 8 - THE YACHTThe Coast Guard ordered the Persephone to return to port.
The captain refused.
Lucas claimed they were taking a private family trip.
Through a helicopter camera, agents saw Maya raise one hand.
Her wrists appeared bound.
That transformed the situation into an active kidnapping.
A tactical team approached from behind.
Before they could board, the yacht’s engines stopped.
Smoke rose from the lower cabin.
Someone had started a fire near the electrical system.
The crew abandoned the vessel using a smaller boat.
Lucas was among them.
Maya was not.
The tactical team boarded through the smoke.
They found her locked inside a storage compartment below deck.
She was conscious but weak.
An agent carried her outside as the fire suppression system activated.
Lucas’s boat reached a private marina near Sausalito.
Police were waiting.
He attempted to run.
Officers arrested him before he crossed the parking lot.
Robert and Victoria were not on the yacht.
Neither was Adrian.
Inside the lower cabin, investigators found two metal cases.
One contained cash and foreign passports.
The other contained original property records.
Claire’s riverfront home.
Hannah’s apartment building.
My Mission Bay condo.
The forged deed had been printed on archival paper and prepared for immediate filing.
There was also a passport carrying my photograph under another name.
An airline reservation had been made for the following afternoon.
The destination was a private medical facility in Switzerland.
The family had planned more than stealing my condo.
After Adrian attacked me, they intended to portray me as unstable.
A Caldwell physician would recommend emergency treatment.
I would be transferred abroad before I could challenge the deed.
Victoria would take my home.
Adrian would claim he was protecting me.
The plan had worked before.
Maya was taken to a secure hospital.
I visited her after my own discharge.
There were bruises on her wrists.
Her voice was weak.
“I should have told you sooner.”
“You saved me.”
“I waited too long.”
“Why did you have Claire’s files?”
Maya looked toward the closed door.
“Claire was my sister.”
I stared at her.
“Lucas knew?”
“No.”
“My mother remarried when I was young.”
“I used her last name.”
“Lucas never met me before Claire died.”
Maya had entered the Caldwell family deliberately.
She worked as Robert’s assistant.
She gained access to financial records.
Then Lucas became interested in her.
She married him to uncover what happened to her sister.
“For six years, I searched,” she said.
“I found payments, forged deeds, medical records.”
“But I never found proof Claire was alive after the accident.”
“Until last month.”
She reached beneath the hospital blanket and removed a small key.
“It opens Claire’s safe.”
May you like
“Where is it?”
“Inside your condo.”
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