Chapter 10 - THE BOARDROOM TRAP
Victor Blackwood entered the Blackwood Holdings boardroom with the confidence of a man who believed his enemies were already dead.
Twelve directors sat around the long glass table.
Malcolm Reed sat beside him.
Reporters waited downstairs.
Victor had carefully created the image of a family emergency.
Ethan was supposedly ill.
Lily was supposedly an impostor.
And Victor was supposedly stepping forward to save the company from chaos.
Margaret Sloan opened the meeting.
“Before the succession motion begins, Ethan Blackwood has requested permission to address the board.”
Victor smiled.
“From his hospital bed?”
The screen at the end of the room came alive.
Ethan appeared.
Standing.
Healthy.
Completely calm.
Victor’s smile disappeared.
“Good morning, Uncle.”
The room went silent.
Victor recovered quickly.
“I’m relieved you survived whatever episode occurred last night.”
“You mean the digitalis in my tea?”
Several directors turned toward Victor.
He laughed.
“Is this some sort of performance?”
Ethan held up a sealed evidence report.
“My physician confirmed enough digitalis to cause cardiac arrest.”
Victor leaned back.
“And you believe I had something to do with it?”
“No.”
Ethan paused.
“I know you did.”
The conference-room doors opened.
Police officers entered.
But they did not arrest Victor.
Not yet.
Ethan wanted him talking.
Malcolm Reed rose.
“This meeting is becoming ridiculous.”
Ethan looked at him through the screen.
“Dr. Reed.”
“You’re looking remarkably healthy for a man who died in Maine four years ago.”
Reed froze.
Margaret placed copies of his false death records on the table.
Then Ethan displayed the Hawthorne Ridge files.
Victor’s expression hardened.
Reed tried to leave.
An officer blocked him.
Ethan continued.
“Seven years ago, Dr. Reed signed death certificates for Amelia Blackwood and our daughter Lily.”
“Both were fraudulent.”
The directors erupted.
Victor slammed one palm against the table.
“Enough.”
“You have no DNA evidence proving that child is yours.”
Ethan had expected this.
The screen changed.
Samuel Hayes appeared from a certified laboratory.
“We completed an emergency kinship analysis using Mr. Blackwood’s stored medical samples and Lily’s current sample.”
He lifted the report.
“Probability of paternity exceeds 99.99 percent.”
Nobody moved.
Victor’s face became almost gray.
Ethan leaned closer to the camera.
“So Lily Blackwood is alive.”
“And under the family trust, your succession claim is void.”
Margaret closed the folder before Victor.
“Effective immediately, your emergency motion has no standing.”
For one beautiful second, Ethan believed they had won.
Then Victor started laughing.
Softly at first.
Then louder.
“You still don’t understand.”
He pulled out his phone.
The boardroom screen suddenly changed.
Ethan’s connection vanished.
A video appeared.
Amelia sat tied to a chair.
Beside her was Rose.
Victor looked directly at the camera filming him in the boardroom.
“Ethan.”
“You have one daughter.”
“I have the other.”
“And if you want your wife and Rose alive…”
May you like
He smiled.
“You will bring Lily to me.”
