Chapter 7 - THE MAN IN THE HOSPITAL BED
We drove through the night.
By the time we reached the hospital, dawn was beginning to break.
Daniel Reed was in a private room.
He looked older than I had imagined.
Thin.
Gray.
But his eyes were clear.
When I walked inside, he stared at me.
Then he smiled.
“You have your father's eyes.”
I couldn't speak.
I sat beside him.
“I'm Maddie.”
“I know.”
“How?”
“Your father talked about you.”
I took his hand.
“What happened twenty-seven years ago?”
Daniel closed his eyes.
“Your father saved my life.”
Barbara stood in the doorway.
Daniel saw her.
His expression changed.
“You.”
Barbara began crying.
“I was young.”
“So was I.”
She stepped inside.
“I thought you were dead.”
“I wanted you to.”
The words were quiet.
Not cruel.
Just tired.
I looked between them.
“Why?”
Daniel told us everything.
He had discovered that a group of investors planned to take control of my father's manufacturing company.
They intended to force a sale.
Daniel had found the documents.
Someone attacked him.
My father helped him disappear.
But before Daniel left, he signed an agreement giving my father temporary control of his inheritance.
The trust had never belonged entirely to me.
It had always been divided.
Half for me.
Half for Daniel's descendants.
The complication was that Daniel had been declared missing, not dead.
So the second half had remained frozen.
“That is what everyone was fighting over,” I whispered.
Daniel nodded.
“But there was something else.”
“What?”
He looked toward Bradley.
“Your husband came to see me.”
Bradley lowered his head.
Daniel continued.
“He told me you were going to lose everything.”
I looked at Bradley.
“Why would you tell him that?”
“Because Barbara told me the trust was about to be seized.”
I looked at Barbara.
She shook her head.
“I believed it.”
Daniel looked at her.
“You believed what Marcus told you.”
The room went silent.
“Marcus?”
Barbara's face went white.
Daniel continued.
“Your father's old business partner.”
Mr. Harris immediately stepped forward.
“What did Marcus want?”
Daniel looked at me.
“Control.”
“Of the company?”
“No.”
He pointed toward me.
“Of you.”
My stomach tightened.
“Why me?”
“Because your father left you voting control over the family foundation.”
I had never known I possessed it.
Bradley had known.
Barbara had known.
Marcus had known.
Daniel had known.
Everyone except me.
Daniel continued.
“Marcus needed you married to someone he could influence.”
I looked at Bradley.
His eyes filled.
“I didn't know.”
“Not at first,” Daniel said.
Bradley nodded.
“I knew there was money. I knew your mother wanted information. But I didn't know Marcus was behind it.”
I remembered the pool.
“You still lied to me.”
“Yes.”
“You still let your family humiliate me.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
He looked at me.
“Because every time I tried to stand up to them, they reminded me what I'd done.”
I frowned.
“What did you do?”
He reached into his pocket.
He removed a photograph.
It showed him meeting Marcus.
“Two years ago, I borrowed money from him.”
“For what?”
“To save my company.”
I stared.
His company had nearly collapsed.
He had hidden it.
Marcus offered help.
In return, Bradley agreed to gather information about my trust.
“I thought I could pay him back.”
“You couldn't.”
“No.”
“And then?”
“Then he owned me.”
I closed my eyes.
It explained Bradley.
It didn't forgive him.
Daniel looked at me.
“Your father knew Marcus would eventually come for you.”
He handed me an old brass key.
“The final records are in the family archive.”
I looked at it.
“Where?”
Daniel smiled faintly.
“Your father hid them where Marcus would never look.”
“Where?”
Daniel whispered,
“In the house you thought belonged to you.”
My heart stopped.
The house.
My house.
The one Barbara had tried to refinance.
The one Bradley had lied about.
Mr. Harris looked at me.
“We need to go home.”
Daniel caught my hand.
“Take the blue coat.”
I froze.
“Why?”
He looked toward the window.
“Because the key isn't for the archive.”
“What is it for?”
May you like
Daniel's eyes filled with fear.
“It opens the room where your father kept proof that Marcus was never working alone.”
