Chapter 10 - THE SEVENTY-TWO-HOUR WINDOW
Seventy-two hours.
That was all Peter needed.
A temporary incapacity certification on Matthias.
A postpartum complication or sedation issue for me.
Richard steps in as emergency trustee.
Hensley closes.
Debt activates.
Assets shift.
Short positions explode in value.
Then even if we recover, the signatures already exist.
The plan was elegant.
Illegal.
Terrifying.
We changed everything.
Delivery hospital.
Medical teams.
Access codes.
No Dre family visitors without my approval.
No Vale relatives.
Independent security.
Peter needed proximity.
We removed it.
Then my contractions started.
Thirty-three weeks.
Too early.
The room became chaos.
Not plot chaos.
Real medical chaos.
I knew enough nursing to understand the monitor.
Our daughter was in distress.
Emergency delivery.
Matthias arrived five minutes before surgery.
He stood outside because I had not yet decided whether I wanted him in.
Then I did.
“Let him in.”
He came wearing scrubs.
No phone.
No board calls.
No Fiona.
Just Matthias.
Our daughter was born at 3:41 a.m.
Four pounds, nine ounces.
Crying.
Alive.
They took her to NICU.
I cried too.
Matthias touched my hand.
“She's perfect.”
I looked at him.
“She is.”
Then the room tilted.
My blood pressure crashed.
For one terrifying minute, I thought Peter's plan had reached us.
It hadn't.
Postpartum hemorrhage.
Natural complication.
Medicine.
Real risk.
I woke hours later.
No conspiracy.
No hidden drug.
Just my body surviving childbirth.
That distinction mattered.
Our daughter was named Claire Bennett Dre.
Bennett after my mother.
Dre after her father.
Both.
Then Adrian arrived with news.
Peter had tried to access the hospital server remotely during surgery.
Caught.
Trace led to a nearby hotel.
Police raided it.
Empty.
But they found medical scrubs.
Fake ID.
And a nurse credential under another name.
Peter planned to enter the hospital personally.
He failed.
Then they found a bag.
Inside:
Sedative.
Forged incapacity certificates.
And two signed Hensley closing pages.
Matthias's signature.
Fake.
Charles's.
Fake.
Peter had backup.
Even if the hospital plan failed, he intended to forge the closing.
Then one final document.
A confession.
Prepared for Fiona.
It claimed she orchestrated everything.
Peter planned to frame his own cousin.
And beneath it:
May you like
If needed, eliminate Sabrina permanently.
The conspiracy had run out of places to hide.
