Chapter 11 - My Father Needed Me Dead
It sounded insane until Sarah explained the trust.
Not Carter Maritime.
A second trust.
One my father had never told anyone about.
“My father-in-law created it before he supposedly died,” Sarah said. “It was designed to transfer automatically to Thomas’s first surviving child.”
“Me.”
“Yes.”
“At twenty-five?”
“No.”
Sarah looked at me.
“At the moment Thomas died.”
I felt sick.
“Then why did Dad’s recording say twenty-five?”
“Because the money stayed sealed until your identity could be verified at twenty-five.”
“How much?”
“Not money.”
“What?”
“Ownership.”
The trust held forty-one percent of Carter Maritime through old voting shares no one on the public board knew still existed.
Enough to take control of the company.
If I survived publicly, anyone controlling me could control those shares.
If I died publicly but survived secretly, the shares remained frozen until I reappeared with proof of identity.
My father had turned my death into a shield.
“So he let the bomb go off.”
Sarah nodded through tears.
“He discovered the device that morning. He knew Reed’s people were watching the yacht. If he called police, they would move against you another way. Thomas decided to use their own attack to erase you.”
“And himself?”
“He thought he had time to escape after putting you in the water.”
“But he didn’t.”
“No.”
“Why?”
Sarah looked at the security footage again.
“Because someone changed the timer.”
The original device should have detonated twelve minutes later.
It exploded less than four minutes after my father pushed me overboard.
Someone had shortened the countdown.
Someone who knew his plan.
My phone rang.
Julian.
I answered.
“You’ve been busy,” he said.
“You recognized me from one camera.”
“I’ve been looking for you for years.”
“To kill me?”
“To find out whether Thomas succeeded.”
“Why would you care?”
“Because if you’re alive, Mother loses control of the company.”
“So this is about Evelyn.”
“No.”
He sounded exhausted.
“Emily, listen carefully. The person who shortened the timer is still alive.”
“Who?”
“I’ll tell you in person.”
“Why should I trust you?”
“You shouldn’t.”
A strange answer.
“But if Sarah is with you, ask her what she did at 6:19 that morning.”
I looked at my mother.
Her face had gone white.
Julian continued.
“Ask her why she was inside the harbor control room when the timer changed.”
The call ended.
I stared at Sarah.
“What did you do at 6:19?”
She looked toward the door.
Then back at me.
“I tried to save your father.”
“How?”
Her eyes filled with tears.
“By sending the command that detonated the yacht early.”
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