Chapter 7 - THE BILLIONAIRE LOSES CONTROL
Henrique smashed his fist into the office desk.
Samara flinched.
Caio covered his ears downstairs.
Henrique heard it.
His rage vanished instantly.
He looked toward the doorway.
Samara said nothing.
That was worse.
“I scared him.”
“Yes.”
Henrique closed his eyes.
“I keep doing that.”
“Yes.”
He looked at her.
“You don’t soften anything, do you?”
“People have softened things for you your whole life.”
That landed hard.
Henrique sat.
For the first time in years, he looked powerless.
“My wife used to know what he needed.”
Samara hadn’t known there had been a wife.
“Caio’s mother?”
“Marina.”
“What happened?”
“Car accident. Four years ago.”
His voice cracked on the last word.
Henrique stared at the floor.
“She understood him before anyone had a diagnosis. She knew when the refrigerator hum bothered him. She carried the same crackers everywhere. She could tell when he needed pressure and when he needed space.”
“And you?”
“I worked.”
Samara waited.
Henrique laughed bitterly.
“I told myself I was providing.”
“You probably were.”
“I missed his fifth birthday.”
Samara said nothing.
“I missed the first school meeting. I missed his evaluation. Laura handled the foundation. My assistants handled the appointments. Specialists sent me summaries.”
His eyes burned.
“I knew every quarterly number in twelve companies.”
He looked toward the stairs.
“But I didn’t know my son hated flickering lights.”
Samara sat across from him.
“Guilt isn’t useful unless it changes what you do next.”
Henrique nodded slowly.
“What do I do next?”
“Find Laura.”
He called security.
Her car had left ten minutes earlier.
Destination unknown.
Then Samara noticed something in the safe.
A tiny red light.
She leaned closer.
“What is that?”
Henrique frowned.
A tracking unit.
Attached beneath the shelf.
His security chief examined it remotely through video.
“That isn’t ours.”
Henrique’s face hardened.
Someone had been monitoring when the safe opened.
Samara whispered, “Laura wasn’t stealing records just to hide them.”
“What else?”
“She wanted to know when you started looking.”
Henrique’s phone rang.
Unknown number.
He answered.
Dr. Brandão’s voice trembled.
“You need to stop.”
Henrique stood.
“Where is Laura?”
“I don’t know.”
“You’re lying.”
“She has copies of everything.”
“Everything what?”
Brandão breathed hard.
“Funding transfers. Internal videos. Restraint logs.”
Henrique went cold.
“Why would she have those?”
“Because Halcyon wasn’t the point.”
“What was?”
Silence.
Then Brandão said something Henrique couldn’t understand.
A crash sounded.
The call went dead.
Samara stared at him.
“What did he say?”
Henrique replayed the last seconds in his mind.
Then he understood.
Brandão had said:
“Look at Argentum.”
The merger.
The $2.4 billion deal Henrik’s board was voting on the next day.
Henrique rushed to his computer.
He searched the corporate structure.
Argentum Health Holdings.
Subsidiaries.
Behavioral health investments.
Private clinics.
Then he saw it.
Halcyon Center was owned through three shell companies.
At the top sat Argentum.
Henrique stared at the screen.
Laura hadn’t been protecting a therapy center.
May you like
She had been protecting the merger.
And tomorrow, Henrique was supposed to buy the company that had hurt his son.
