Chapter 7 - SAMUEL VOSS
Samuel Voss agreed to meet Nenah.
Not Reed.
Nenah.
At his attorney’s office.
Neutral.
She entered alone with Leah.
Samuel stood when she came in.
Tall even at seventy.
White hair.
Eyes dark gray.
Same as hers.
That proved nothing.
Still.
He stared at her for a long time.
Then:
“Evelyn.”
Nenah’s chest tightened.
“No.”
His face broke.
“Nenah.”
He knew.
“Are you my father?”
Samuel sat slowly.
“Yes.”
No dramatic denial.
Twenty years compressed into one word.
“Why didn’t you find me?”
His eyes filled.
“I thought you died.”
There.
Again.
Who told him?
Marshall.
Samuel had loved Evelyn before she married Thomas.
They could not marry.
Voss and Kincaid families were enemies then.
Evelyn became pregnant.
They planned to run.
Samuel was arrested on weapons charges—later reduced—and imprisoned briefly.
During that time, Evelyn gave birth.
Marshall approached Samuel.
Told him baby died after respiratory failure.
Produced death certificate.
Fake.
Then Evelyn later married Thomas.
Samuel assumed grief broke them.
He never knew child lived.
“Did Evelyn know I was alive?”
“Yes.”
“She raised me?”
“No.”
“She was trying to recover you after temporary foster placement.”
But Marshall intercepted communications between Evelyn and Arthur.
Then Evelyn died in car crash.
Accident?
Samuel’s face hardened.
“I never believed it.”
Reed later had records reopened.
Brake failure.
Could be mechanical.
No proof sabotage.
No need manufacture murder.
Still suspicious.
Then Samuel looked at Nenah.
“I have no right to ask anything from you.”
Good.
“I would like to know you if you choose.”
Nenah appreciated wording.
Then:
“Why is Marshall afraid of you?”
Samuel laughed coldly.
“Because twenty-one years ago I knew he was stealing from Thomas.”
Not money.
Information.
Marshall secretly sold family operational details to political intermediaries.
Small betrayals.
Samuel confronted him once.
Marshall threatened to expose Evelyn’s child.
Samuel backed off because he believed child dead.
Then years passed.
Marshall became indispensable.
Thomas died suddenly of heart attack at fifty-three.
Natural? Medical records strong.
But Marshall used chaos to consolidate control around Reed.
Then Samuel revealed something else.
Thomas had written a second will.
One that gave Nenah’s trust shares direct voting power at age twenty-one.
Current trust documents delayed full voting rights to thirty.
Who changed it?
Marshall.
Forgery likely.
If original will restored, Nenah could vote immediately.
She did not want power.
But power already existed in her name.
Then Samuel handed her copy.
Signed.
Witnessed.
Stored with Voss attorney because Thomas distrusted internal counsel.
Why never surface?
Thomas died before filing update.
Samuel believed Nenah dead.
Until now.
Nenah stared at pages.
Six percent.
Voting rights.
Enough with Reed’s shares to remove Marshall from executive council.
Then her phone buzzed.
Reed.
She ignored.
A second message.
Not Reed.
Marshall.
I NEVER WANTED TO HURT YOU.
Nenah laughed.
Finally.
Anger clean.
She typed:
Then stop hiding.
No response.
May you like
Ten minutes later, Kincaid security reported Marshall had emptied his office.
He was gone.
