Chapter 15 - The Man Who Sat Beside Me
Thomas Grant had advised me through mergers, lawsuits, my father’s death, and my marriage.
He had sat beside me at Lena’s birthday dinner two months earlier.
He had smiled at my daughter.
Then gone back to his office and kept the paperwork designed to take her away from me.
I called him.
No answer.
Police reached his downtown office forty minutes later.
His secretary was crying in the hallway.
Thomas had emptied his safe and left.
But he forgot one thing.
His office printer stored document history.
Mara recovered a file printed that morning.
It was a motion seeking emergency control of the Cole trust based on “succession uncertainty.”
The proposed temporary trustee was Thomas Grant.
He had never been loyal to Daniel.
He had been waiting for Daniel, me, and my mother to destroy one another so he could step into the gap.
“Where would he go?” Ruiz asked.
I knew immediately.
The trust records were not in the bank.
The original ledgers were stored in my father’s private archive beneath Cole Manufacturing headquarters.
We drove there with federal agents.
The underground archive door had already been opened.
Thomas stood inside beside three banker’s boxes and a portable shredder.
He looked at me with the tired expression of a man annoyed that dinner had been interrupted.
“You should have stayed home, Ethan.”
“You forged my medical records.”
“I prepared contingencies.”
“You helped hide my daughter.”
“I protected a corporate structure.”
“She is a child.”
“She is a succession event.”
I crossed the room before anyone could stop me.
Thomas stepped back.
For the first time, fear appeared on his face.
I did not hit him.
I wanted to.
Instead, I said, “Say that again in front of the federal agents.”
He looked past me.
Ruiz was recording.
Thomas closed his eyes.
Then a timer on the archive wall began beeping.
Mara looked down.
Smoke curled from beneath one of the banker’s boxes.
May you like
Thomas whispered, “You’re too late.”
