Chapter 11 - The Man My Father Trusted
Arthur Callahan switched on a flashlight.
“We have to leave now.”
I backed away. “How did you get in?”
“Your security code was disabled from inside company headquarters.”
Another contraction hit.
I gripped the bedframe.
Arthur moved to help me, but I raised one hand.
“Stay back.”
“Claire, Ethan knows where you are.”
“Did you tell him?”
His face tightened.
“No. But I helped create the system he’s using.”
Arthur admitted he had approved several of Ethan’s early financing deals. He believed Ethan was protecting the company from hostile investors.
By the time he discovered the shell vendors, his own signature was on the contracts.
“That’s why you abstained from the first vote,” I said.
“Yes.”
“You let him steal.”
“I was afraid.”
“So was everyone.”
Arthur looked ashamed. “Your father was afraid too. Fear built this disaster.”
Glass shattered in the hallway.
Daniel shouted.
Arthur locked the bedroom door and pushed a dresser in front of it.
“We need another way out.”
The apartment was on the sixth floor.
A maintenance balcony connected to the next unit, but reaching it meant climbing through a narrow window.
My contractions were six minutes apart.
The bedroom door shook under a heavy impact.
“Claire!” Ethan shouted from the hallway. “Open the door.”
My entire body went cold.
“You’re violating the protective order!” I yelled.
“You stole my company!”
“You stole it first.”
The doorframe cracked.
Arthur helped me through the window.
Wind whipped my hospital gown around my legs as I stepped onto the narrow ledge.
I refused to look down.
Behind us, the door burst open.
Ethan entered the bedroom.
Arthur climbed through the window after me.
Ethan grabbed his jacket and pulled.
Arthur lost his balance.
I caught his wrist with both hands.
Pain ripped across my stomach.
“Let him fall,” Ethan said.
Arthur’s feet slipped over the edge.
“Claire, let go!” he shouted.
I held on.
Ethan leaned through the window.
“This is your last chance. Sign the agreement, and I’ll get you to a hospital.”
“You think I’d trust you with my baby?”
His face changed.
Not guilt.
Calculation.
Then Daniel appeared behind him and drove him into the wall.
Police flooded the apartment seconds later.
Paramedics rushed me downstairs.
As they placed me in the ambulance, Rachel arrived with Lauren’s signed statement.
“We can beat the injunction,” she said.
A paramedic checked my blood pressure and swore under his breath.
“What is it?” I asked.
He looked at his partner.
“We need to move. Now.”
May you like
The ambulance doors slammed shut.
Then the baby’s heartbeat monitor began screaming.
