Chapter 8
Audrey watched Sebastian’s face as Oliver’s voice came through the phone.
Men had threatened Sebastian with guns and watched him remain calm.
Judges had ruled against him and watched him smile.
Competitors had lost entire companies because they mistook silence for hesitation.
But an eleven-year-old boy asking whether Audrey had found his uncle left Sebastian completely unprepared.
Grace spoke hurriedly on the other end.
“I didn’t know he was awake. Give me a second.”
“No,” Oliver protested somewhere behind her. “I want to talk to Aunt Audrey.”
Audrey covered the microphone.
“Do you want me to tell him you’re here?”
Sebastian’s answer did not come immediately.
That alone stunned her.
Finally, he nodded.
Audrey uncovered the phone.
“Oliver?”
“Yeah?”
“I found him.”
Silence.
Then:
“My uncle?”
Audrey looked at Sebastian.
“Yes.”
Another pause.
“Is he mean?”
Sebastian closed his eyes.
Audrey almost laughed.
“He can be.”
Sebastian opened one eye and looked at her.
Oliver apparently considered this.
“Mom said he looks mean when he’s thinking.”
“That’s accurate.”
“Is he thinking now?”
Audrey’s smile softened.
“Very hard.”
Sebastian held out his hand.
Not commandingly.
Almost uncertainly.
Audrey gave him the phone.
He lifted it to his ear.
“Oliver.”
Nothing.
Sebastian looked suddenly alarmed.
Then the boy spoke.
“Hi.”
Sebastian swallowed.
“Hello.”
Another long pause.
Audrey had to turn away to hide her expression.
Finally Oliver asked, “Did my mom really break your nose when you were kids?”
Sebastian blinked.
“No.”
“She said she did.”
“She threw a dictionary at me.”
“Did it hit your nose?”
“Yes.”
“Then she broke it.”
Sebastian glanced at Audrey as if requesting legal arbitration.
She shrugged.
“Sounds convincing.”
A quiet laugh came through the phone.
Sebastian’s face changed.
The resemblance in that laugh nearly undid him.
Catherine used to laugh exactly that way when she had successfully irritated him.
“Oliver,” Sebastian said carefully, “I need you to listen to Grace tonight.”
“I always listen.”
Grace said something in the background.
Oliver amended, “Mostly.”
Sebastian almost smiled.
“She may need to take you somewhere different for a few days.”
“Because of the bad man?”
Sebastian’s expression hardened.
“What bad man?”
Audrey immediately looked at him.
Oliver lowered his voice.
“The one Mom said might ask questions someday.”
Sebastian’s hand tightened around the phone.
“What did she tell you to do if he came?”
“Go with Grace. Don’t use my last name. Don’t call anyone except Aunt Audrey.”
The words were too practiced.
Catherine had prepared her child for this.
Sebastian stared at the wall.
For the first time, he understood the depth of his sister’s fear.
Not abstract fear.
Not paranoia.
A mother had taught her son how to disappear.
“Oliver,” Sebastian said quietly.
“Yeah?”
“I’m going to help Audrey keep you safe.”
“Okay.”
The trust in that single word was unbearable.
“You don’t know me yet.”
“Mom did.”
Sebastian stopped breathing.
Oliver continued.
“She said if Aunt Audrey trusted you, I could too.”
Sebastian looked at Audrey.
Something passed between them.
Then Grace returned to the phone.
“We’re leaving now.”
Audrey took it back.
“Use the second route. Not the interstate.”
“I remember.”
“Do not tell me where you’re going.”
Grace understood.
“Okay.”
“Call in three hours.”
The line disconnected.
Sebastian stood silent.
Audrey returned his phone.
“Thank you.”
“For what?”
“Not asking.”
“I asked you enough.”
“That has never stopped you before.”
“No.”
They left the motel five minutes later.
Sebastian carried Catherine’s recorder.
Audrey carried the drawing.
They drove back through rain that had intensified into a coastal storm. Wind pushed against the car. Water collected along the highway.
Halfway to Atlantic City, Nico called again.
Sebastian put him on speaker.
“We found who accessed probate,” Nico said. “A junior clerk at the county archive. His bank account received twenty thousand dollars from a consulting company yesterday.”
“Malcolm.”
“Company leads to another shell, but yes.”
“What does the petition give him?”
“Legally? Not much yet. He’s trying to force disclosure by claiming Catherine’s share in the waterfront trust creates uncertainty over the redevelopment vote.”
Audrey frowned.
“What share?”
Sebastian looked at her.
“Catherine owned eighteen percent.”
Audrey stared.
“She never told me.”
“She probably didn’t care.”
“Eighteen percent of Ror Holdings?”
“No. The waterfront trust. Different structure.”
Nico interrupted.
“Except if Oliver inherited it.”
Sebastian’s jaw tightened.
“Then Malcolm has a problem.”
“A large one,” Nico said. “Catherine’s shares combined with Sebastian’s block make any hostile redevelopment impossible.”
Audrey understood.
“That’s why Malcolm wants Oliver found.”
“Or declared legally nonexistent,” Sebastian said.
Nico went quiet.
Audrey looked at him.
“What does that mean?”
“If Catherine’s heir cannot be established, those shares enter probate control.”
“And Malcolm can challenge control.”
“Yes.”
Audrey sat back.
The entire attack on the hospice suddenly looked different.
Malcolm had not targeted it merely because Catherine stayed there.
He had targeted it because he believed the hospice was the bridge between Catherine and Oliver.
Every evacuation notice.
Every photograph.
Every threat.
He had been shaking the building to see what fell out.
Sebastian understood at the same moment.
“He doesn’t want the property,” he said.
“No,” Audrey whispered.
“He wants you to run.”
She looked at him.
Sebastian’s eyes were cold now.
“People reveal what matters when they flee.”
Audrey felt sick.
“Grace just moved Oliver.”
“Which is why Malcolm forced the probate filing tonight.”
“You think he expected that.”
“I think he expected you to warn whoever you were protecting.”
Audrey grabbed Sebastian’s phone.
“Call Grace.”
He did.
No answer.
Again.
Nothing.
Audrey’s face drained of color.
“Again.”
Sebastian called.
Voicemail.
Nico was already speaking.
“I’m locating the device.”
“No,” Audrey said sharply.
Sebastian looked at her.
“If you can locate it, Malcolm might be able to.”
Nico stopped.
Sebastian made the decision.
“Do not ping the phone.”
“Boss—”
“Do not.”
He accelerated.
Audrey gripped the door.
“Where are we going?”
“The hospice.”
“Oliver isn’t there.”
“I know.”
“Then why?”
“Because Catherine prepared for this.”
Audrey stared at him.
“How do you know?”
“She gave you instructions. She gave Grace instructions. She created a timed motel package. My sister planned three moves beyond everyone in the room when she was twelve.”
Despite her fear, Audrey almost smiled.
Sebastian continued.
“If Malcolm found probate, Catherine expected him to. She left another step.”
They reached the hospice shortly before midnight.
The building was dark.
Too dark.
Audrey sat upright.
“Why are the exterior lights off?”
Sebastian was already reaching beneath his jacket.
She caught his wrist.
“No guns inside.”
He looked at her.
“Someone cut the power.”
“There are oxygen patients in there.”
“Which is why I’m carrying a gun.”
“Sebastian.”
He stared at her.
Then removed the weapon and locked it beneath the seat.
Audrey blinked.
“You actually listened.”
“Do not make me regret it.”
They entered through the side door.
Emergency lighting had activated, but only along one corridor.
A nurse hurried toward them.
“The generator stopped ten minutes ago.”
“Stopped?” Audrey asked. “It was serviced last month.”
“I know.”
Sebastian’s expression hardened.
Sabotage.
He called Nico.
“Generator room. Now.”
Then he turned toward Audrey.
“Where is Mrs. Bell?”
“East wing.”
They both started moving.
Halfway there, a scream came from the corridor.
Sebastian ran.
Audrey followed.
They found Mrs. Bell’s room empty.
The window was open.
Rain blew across the floor.
Audrey froze.
“No.”
Sebastian looked down.
A wheelchair track cut through the water toward the service stairwell.
He moved.
Fast.
By the time Audrey reached the rear exit, Sebastian was already outside.
Two men were struggling beside a dark van.
One had Mrs. Bell’s wheelchair.
The other had a hand clamped over her mouth.
Sebastian hit the first man hard enough to send him into the side of the van.
The second released Mrs. Bell and reached inside his jacket.
Sebastian stopped.
Audrey saw exactly what happened.
A year earlier, perhaps even a week earlier, Sebastian would have ended the encounter with blood.
Instead, he looked at Mrs. Bell.
Then at Audrey.
He remembered.
He grabbed the man’s wrist, twisted the weapon away, and drove him to the wet pavement without firing.
Nico and two security men arrived seconds later.
“Take them,” Sebastian ordered.
“Where?”
“The police.”
Nico stared.
Sebastian’s eyes narrowed.
“Did I stutter?”
“No.”
Mrs. Bell was shaking violently.
Audrey knelt beside her.
“You’re safe.”
The elderly woman grabbed her coat.
“They wanted Catherine’s book.”
“What book?”
“The blue one.”
Sebastian heard.
“What blue book?”
Mrs. Bell looked at him.
“The ledger.”
His eyes sharpened.
“She told me not to give it to anyone unless the lights went out.”
Audrey stared.
Mrs. Bell pointed toward the chapel.
“Under the last pew.”
Sebastian and Audrey looked at each other.
Catherine.
Again.
They found it ten minutes later.
A blue accounting ledger wrapped in plastic.
Inside were handwritten transaction numbers, property addresses, shell companies, dates, and signatures.
Thomas Hale’s handwriting covered the first half.
Catherine’s covered the second.
Sebastian turned pages slowly.
Then stopped.
One page listed thirteen properties Malcolm’s coalition had acquired through fraudulent insurance cancellations.
The hospice was number fourteen.
Audrey leaned closer.
Beside the hospice address, Catherine had written:
Not about land. Access route to Harbor Trust voting records.
Sebastian frowned.
Audrey turned the page.
A photocopy fell out.
A legal document.
Eleven years old.
Trust beneficiaries.
Catherine Ror.
And beneath her name:
Any biological issue of Catherine Ror.
Oliver.
Sebastian’s phone rang.
This time it was Grace.
Audrey nearly grabbed it from him.
He answered immediately.
“Grace?”
Silence.
Then breathing.
A child crying.
Sebastian’s blood went cold.
“Grace.”
Finally she spoke.
“We’re okay.”
Audrey closed her eyes.
Sebastian leaned against the pew.
“What happened?”
“A black SUV followed us for eight miles. I took the county road like Audrey said. A sheriff’s deputy appeared behind them and they turned away.”
“Where are you?”
Grace hesitated.
Sebastian looked at Audrey.
Then he said, “Don’t tell me.”
Audrey stared at him.
Grace exhaled.
“Thank you.”
Sebastian’s voice softened.
“Is Oliver all right?”
A sniff came through the phone.
Then Oliver’s voice.
“Uncle Sebastian?”
“I’m here.”
“Did you send the police car?”
“No.”
“Oh.”
Sebastian glanced at the ledger.
“But I’m going to find out who did.”
Oliver was quiet.
Then:
“Mom said you always find things.”
Sebastian looked at Audrey.
“Your mother was annoyingly confident in me.”
Oliver laughed.
That laugh again.
Sebastian closed his eyes.
“I’ll call tomorrow,” he said.
“Promise?”
The word froze him.
Promises had become dangerous things.
But this one felt different.
“Yes.”
Sebastian opened his eyes.
“I promise.”
After the call ended, Audrey stood beside him in the dark chapel.
“You’re changing.”
Sebastian looked at the rain against the stained glass.
“No.”
She raised an eyebrow.
He turned toward her.
“I’m discovering that control and protection were never the same thing.”
Audrey’s expression softened.
For one suspended second, neither looked away.
Then she stepped closer.
Sebastian did not move.
Her fingers touched his hand.
Not accidentally.
Deliberately.
“You protected Mrs. Bell without becoming the man Catherine was afraid you might become.”
His throat tightened.
“That sounds dangerously close to approval.”
“It is.”
Sebastian looked down at their joined hands.
Then back at her.
“Audrey.”
“Yes?”
He lifted his free hand to her face.
Slowly enough that she could stop him.
She did not.
His thumb brushed her cheek.
The world seemed to narrow.
Then Nico entered the chapel.
“Boss.”
Sebastian’s hand dropped.
Audrey stepped back.
Nico took one look at them and wisely said nothing.
“What?” Sebastian asked.
“We searched the men’s van.”
“And?”
“They had photographs.”
Sebastian’s expression changed.
“Of Oliver?”
“No.”
Nico looked at Audrey.
“Of her.”
Audrey went still.
Nico handed Sebastian an envelope.
Inside were photographs taken over several months.
Audrey leaving the hospice.
Audrey buying groceries.
Audrey visiting Catherine’s grave.
Audrey entering her apartment.
Audrey sleeping against the passenger window of a car.
Sebastian’s face became terrifyingly calm.
At the bottom of the stack was one final photograph.
Their wedding.
Audrey walking down the aisle toward Sebastian.
Across the bottom, written in black ink:
If she tells him the truth, remove her first.
Sebastian looked up.
May you like
Malcolm had never considered Audrey merely a witness.
She had been a target all along.
