Chapter 4 - THE DETECTIVE WHO ALREADY KNEW THE PASSWORD
I turned toward Mara Ellis.
She stood across the hospital room speaking with an officer.
For the first time, I noticed the small Bellweather emblem engraved on the inside of her wristwatch.
A circle divided by seven silver lines.
The same symbol printed on the Continuity files.
I said nothing.
Julian had warned me not to trust her.
But a warning from a stranger claiming to be my brother was not proof.
I asked Mrs. Harris to remain with Samuel and Lily.
Then I told Ellis I needed air.
She followed me into the corridor.
“Nathan, you should not leave the secure floor.”
“Why?”
“Amelia and Julian may attempt contact.”
“You say that like they are the threat.”
Her expression remained calm.
“They abducted a newborn from a medical facility.”
“A newborn created without my consent.”
“We do not yet understand the full circumstances.”
I looked at her watch.
“Where did you get that?”
She glanced down.
“A retirement gift from a former unit.”
“What unit?”
Her pause lasted less than a second.
“Financial crimes.”
She was lying.
Protocol mattered in investigations.
So did patience.
I walked into the men’s restroom and texted my private attorney, Daniel Cho.
RUN ELLIS. BELLWEATHER CONNECTION. DO NOT USE COMPANY SYSTEMS.
When I returned, Ellis stood beside the elevator.
“Someone called you.”
“How do you know?”
“Your expression changed.”
She was trained to notice.
So was I, though my training came from boardrooms rather than police work.
I smiled.
“I just learned I have a brother.”
Her face revealed nothing.
“You should avoid believing unverified claims.”
“Did you know?”
“No.”
The elevator opened.
Two hospital security officers stepped out.
Ellis told them to escort me back to Samuel’s room.
That was when Lily appeared at the end of the hallway.
She had slipped away from Grace.
In her hand was the white envelope addressed to her.
“Mr. Carter!”
Ellis turned.
Lily froze.
Then she pointed at the detective.
“That lady was in Grandma’s apartment.”
Ellis moved toward her.
“When?”
“The night Grandma got sick.”
Grace hurried around the corner.
Ellis reached Lily first.
I stepped between them.
“Do not touch her.”
The corridor filled with tension.
Ellis placed one hand near her coat.
Not her badge.
Her weapon.
Grace saw it.
So did hospital security.
“Detective,” Grace said carefully, “step back.”
Ellis smiled.
Then every light in the hallway went out.
Emergency alarms began sounding.
A voice announced a power failure.
Someone grabbed my shoulder in the darkness.
I struck backward.
A woman whispered,
“Gray winter, seven bells.”
Amelia’s security phrase.
She pulled me through a side door.
The emergency lights flickered on.
Amelia Grant stood in front of me wearing hospital scrubs and a surgical mask.
Older.
Thinner.
Alive.
“We have sixty seconds.”
“Where is Julian?”
“Captured.”
“By Voss?”
“By someone worse.”
She handed me a flash drive.
“Your father never funded Bellweather to preserve fertility. He funded it to preserve ownership.”
“What does that mean?”
“Samuel’s birth activated a dormant trust clause.”
My father’s trust transferred emergency voting control to a guardian if a biological Carter child existed but the legal father was incapacitated.
Bellweather planned to declare me mentally incompetent.
Samuel’s guardian would then control my shares.
“Who is listed as guardian?”
Amelia looked toward the hallway.
“Mara Ellis.”
The detective was not merely connected to Bellweather.
She had been legally positioned to control my son and my company.
“Why?”
“Because Mara is Charles Voss’s daughter.”
The alarm stopped.
Lights returned.
Amelia pulled open another door leading to a service staircase.
“Take Lily and Samuel out of the hospital.”
“Where?”
“Your estate is compromised.”
“Then where are you going?”
“To find Julian.”
I grabbed her wrist.
“You abandoned a newborn behind my wall.”
“I placed him where Lily would find him.”
“You used a seven-year-old child.”
Pain crossed her face.
“I had no other route that Voss was not monitoring.”
“That does not make it acceptable.”
“No.”
The honesty stopped me.
She did not ask forgiveness.
She only gave the truth.
Then gunshots sounded upstairs.
Amelia pushed the drive into my hand.
“If Ellis reaches Samuel, she won’t kill him.”
May you like
“What will she do?”
“She’ll make the world believe you did.”
