Chapter 7
The fraudulent vote could transfer control of Vale Industries within forty-eight hours.
The buyer was an offshore company with no public owner.
Marcus believed Conrad created it years earlier.
Even from custody, he was attempting to move the company beyond the government’s reach.
Only a court order could stop the sale.
We needed to prove Lily’s vote was forged.
Her trust’s biometric system recorded a valid fingerprint scan at 2:13 that morning.
Lily had been asleep inside a guarded hospital room.
Then I remembered Elise’s words.
Nora had forced Lily’s fingers onto scanners while she slept.
They could have created a replica.
Federal technicians examined devices found in Nora’s safe.
One produced artificial fingerprints from stored impressions.
But the board’s attorney claimed no evidence connected that machine to the vote.
The hearing was scheduled for the next morning.
Meanwhile, Amelia’s red book revealed the identities of the children used in Conrad’s trials.
One name stunned me.
Daniel Cross.
Daniel had joined Vale Industries twenty years earlier.
He now served as vice chairman.
His records showed he had been treated at Conrad’s first clinic when he was nine.
Conrad paid for his education and placed him inside the company.
Daniel was the Heir.
Federal agents searched for him.
His home was empty.
His office had been cleared.
The offshore buyer belonged to him.
Daniel had spent his entire adult life preparing to inherit everything Conrad built.
“He believes Conrad saved him,” Elise explained during another interview. “He doesn’t see himself as a victim.”
“What happened to him at the clinic?”
“He was the only child who responded well to an early compound. Conrad called him proof that the trials were justified.”
“How many children died before Daniel responded?”
Elise lowered her eyes.
“Eleven.”
Daniel contacted me that evening.
His image appeared on my phone.
He stood inside Amelia’s garden room at the estate.
“How did you get inside?” I asked.
“This house belonged to Vale Industries before you were born.”
“What do you want?”
“The red book.”
“It’s federal evidence.”
“Bring it to the estate, or I release every video of Lily.”
My stomach tightened.
“What videos?”
“Four years of her captivity.”
Nora’s hidden cameras had recorded Lily constantly.
Daniel planned to publish the footage if I did not obey.
“You would humiliate a child to protect Conrad?”
“I would expose the truth about your family.”
“She is not responsible for our crimes.”
“No one is innocent inside that house.”
The call ended.
Marcus opposed giving Daniel anything.
A federal team prepared to surround the estate.
Lily overheard us.
“Let him release the videos.”
“No,” I said.
“I’m not ashamed.”
“They show private moments.”
“Nora wanted me to feel small. Daniel wants the same thing.”
She held the red book.
“This belongs to the children, not to him.”
I looked at the daughter Nora had dressed as a servant.
The frightened child still existed inside her.
But beside that fear stood something stronger.
A girl reclaiming her own name.
We went to court the next morning.
Lily testified that she had never approved the company sale.
Technicians demonstrated Nora’s fingerprint machine.
Then the board’s attorney produced a signed statement from Daniel.
He claimed Lily voluntarily authorized the transaction before Nora’s arrest.
The judge hesitated.
The signature looked authentic.
Lily suddenly leaned toward me.
“Nora made me practice that signature.”
“Where?”
“In a blue notebook.”
Agents had recovered dozens of notebooks from the servants’ wing.
One contained hundreds of forced signatures.
A video on Lily’s phone showed Nora pressing her hand onto the biometric mold.
The judge blocked the sale and froze Daniel’s assets.
Before leaving the courtroom, Marcus received an alert.
Daniel had uploaded the captivity videos.
They were scheduled to become public in one hour.
Agents traced the upload to the estate.
Daniel was waiting for us.
When we arrived, flames were rising from Amelia’s garden room.
Daniel stood on the roof holding the server that controlled the release.
“If I drop this,” he shouted, “the world sees everything.”
Lily stepped from behind me.
“Then let them see what your family did.”
Daniel stared down at her.
“You should be ashamed.”
“I was a child.”
His face changed.
Lily continued.
“You were a child too, Daniel. Conrad hurt you, then taught you to hurt others.”
For one second, he lowered the server.
Then a gunshot came from the burning room behind him.
May you like
Daniel fell.
Someone else was still inside the house.
