Chapter 5 - THE WOMAN BEHIND THE CURTAIN
Rachel refused to speak inside the courthouse.
She led me to a small café two blocks away.
Daniel followed.
She looked nothing like Jason.
Same dark eyes.
Different expression.
There was no arrogance in her face.
Only exhaustion.
“I’m sorry,” she said.
“For what?”
“For what my brother did to you.”
I sat across from her.
“You said Jason isn't my enemy.”
“He isn't the person who started this.”
“Who did?”
Rachel looked at Daniel.
“Do you know why Jason was so desperate to own the company?”
“To control the money.”
“No.”
She leaned forward.
“To keep someone else from controlling it.”
She pulled out a file.
Inside were copies of old medical patents.
I recognized the signature on several documents.
Robert Mitchell.
But another name appeared beneath his.
Rachel Mitchell.
“This technology wasn't invented by Robert,” she said.
“It was invented by me.”
She explained that their father had taken her research and turned it into a company.
Jason discovered the patents were worth billions.
Then he began moving assets.
But there was something he hadn't known.
Rachel had retained copies of the original research.
And she had recently discovered something terrifying.
The patents had been sold years earlier.
Not to Jason.
To a private investment group.
A group controlled by someone whose name I knew.
“Who?”
Rachel slid a document toward me.
I read the name.
My blood ran cold.
“That's impossible.”
Daniel leaned closer.
“Who is it?”
“My father.”
Daniel stared at me.
“My father died before Jason and I married.”
Rachel shook her head.
“That's what everyone believed.”
The room went silent.
“My father?” I whispered.
Rachel nodded.
“He didn't die.”
I couldn't breathe.
She explained that my father had disappeared after discovering Robert's financial crimes.
He had changed his identity.
He had built another company.
And for years, he had been secretly purchasing shares in Mitchell Medical Technologies.
“Why?”
Rachel looked directly at me.
“Because your father knew Jason would eventually destroy the company.”
My hands trembled.
“Then why did he never contact me?”
Rachel hesitated.
“Because he believed you were safer not knowing.”
A shadow passed over the café window.
Rachel suddenly stopped talking.
She looked outside.
A black SUV was parked across the street.
“Who's that?”
Rachel grabbed her bag.
“We have to leave.”
Daniel stood.
“Why?”
Rachel's face had gone white.
“Because Jason isn't the only one watching us.”
She pointed at the SUV.
“The man inside works for your father.”
I stared at her.
“My father is dead.”
Rachel shook her head.
“No.”
May you like
“He's alive.”
And then the SUV door opened.
