Chapter 7 - Six Days Until Eight.
Ethan released Mason only enough to let him breathe.
“What changes on Lily's birthday?”
Mason rubbed his throat.
“I don't know all of it.”
“Then tell me what you do know.”
Mason looked past him toward the police lights flickering through the trees.
“Victor paid me to get Claire and Lily onto that flight.”
“How much?”
“Two hundred thousand.”
Ethan nearly hit him.
He stopped because Lily's face flashed through his mind.
“What was Claire getting?”
Mason hesitated.
“A lot more.”
“How much?”
“Five million if the transfer worked.”
The number made no sense until Ethan remembered Hannah's trust.
His grandfather had built Carter Aeronautics from a machine shop into a defense technology company worth hundreds of millions.
Hannah had owned twelve percent through family shares inherited from her father.
After her death, those shares had been placed in trust for Lily.
Ethan had never studied the details because Victor managed the paperwork.
“On her eighth birthday,” Mason said, “the trust changes trustees.”
“To whom?”
“I only heard pieces.”
Ethan grabbed the front of his sweatpants waistband and shoved him against the wall again.
“Try harder.”
“To you and Lily jointly, I think.”
Mason winced.
“But if Lily becomes legally resident outside the United States before that date, an international guardian clause activates.”
Ethan felt sick.
“Victor.”
Mason nodded.
“Victor controls the foreign trust.”
The scheme became visible all at once.
Ethan pictured Victor presenting the arrangement to a foreign court while Claire played the frightened mother and he became the dangerous father left behind.
By the time Ethan fought through appeals, Lily's birthday would have passed and the company vote would be over.
Claire would take Lily abroad under emergency guardianship.
Ethan would be portrayed as violent and unstable.
Victor would control Lily's shares.
And Carter Aeronautics had a board vote in nine days over a merger Ethan had repeatedly opposed.
Twelve percent of the company could decide it.
“Was Hannah killed because of those shares?”
Mason looked away.
“I never met Hannah.”
“Did Victor say anything about her death?”
“No.”
“Claire?”
Mason's silence answered before his mouth did.
Ethan stepped closer.
“What did Claire say?”
“She said Hannah almost ruined everything the first time.”
The words struck harder than any confession.
Police lights suddenly swept across the greenhouse windows.
Mason panicked.
“If Victor knows I told you, I'm dead.”
“You should have considered that before helping abduct a child.”
“I thought Claire had custody.”
“You saw Lily in the suitcase.”
“I came downstairs after she was already inside.”
Ethan wanted to despise him completely, but fear was pouring off Mason now.
“Who started the fire?”
“I did.”
Ethan stared at him.
“Victor texted me during the blackout and told me to burn the nursery.”
“Show me.”
“My phone is in the house.”
A gunshot cracked through the darkness.
The greenhouse glass shattered beside Mason's head.
Ethan dropped instinctively.
Mason made a choking sound and fell against him.
Blood spread across Mason's upper arm.
A second shot hit the metal frame.
Someone was firing from the carriage road.
Ethan dragged Mason behind a stone planter.
Mason gripped his bleeding arm.
“He knows.”
“Who?”
Mason stared into the darkness with absolute terror.
“Victor knows I'm talking.”
Then Ethan's phone vibrated.
May you like
A message from an unknown number appeared on the screen.
STOP DIGGING OR YOUR DAUGHTER WILL NOT TURN EIGHT.
