Chapter 7 - THE FIRST DEATH
Amelia was watching the board meeting through a secure video connection from the hospital.
When Victor mentioned Jonathan Blackwood, she turned pale.
Ethan saw it on the screen.
The room fell silent.
“Amelia?”
She hesitated.
Victor smiled.
“She knows.”
Ethan looked at his wife.
“What does he mean?”
Amelia closed her eyes.
“Your father didn’t die from a stroke.”
Ethan felt the floor shift beneath him.
Jonathan Blackwood had collapsed in his study nine years earlier.
The autopsy listed cerebral hemorrhage.
There had been no suspicion.
No investigation.
Ethan looked at Victor.
“You killed him?”
Victor’s expression was almost proud.
“No.”
That answer surprised everyone.
“Then who?”
Victor looked toward Margaret.
Margaret Voss whispered, “Don’t.”
Victor laughed.
“Oh, Margaret.”
“You wanted me silent five minutes ago.”
“Now you want loyalty?”
Ethan turned to Margaret.
She sat rigidly.
Victor said, “Jonathan discovered the thefts.”
“He confronted the wrong people.”
Margaret stood.
“You were stealing too.”
“Of course I was.”
Victor smiled.
“But I wasn’t the one who changed his medication.”
Ethan stared at Margaret.
Her face crumbled.
Amelia spoke through the screen.
“Jonathan called me the night before he died.”
“He said he had evidence.”
“He wanted to give it to you the next morning.”
Ethan remembered that morning.
His father had never arrived.
By noon, he was dead.
Margaret whispered, “He was going to destroy all of us.”
Ethan’s voice became quiet.
“So you murdered him.”
“No.”
She shook her head desperately.
“I only increased the blood thinner.”
Ramirez stared at her.
“You knowingly altered his medication?”
Margaret realized what she had admitted.
“It wasn’t supposed to kill him.”
Victor laughed again.
“You see?”
“We all told ourselves that.”
Margaret turned on him.
“You ordered the hospital fire.”
“You had Amelia kidnapped.”
“And you were happy to benefit.”
Ethan watched years of hidden alliances disintegrate.
Marcus received a message.
He passed the phone to Ramirez.
She read it.
Then looked at Margaret.
“Investigators have recovered archived pharmacy records from Jonathan Blackwood’s residence.”
Margaret sat down.
Ramirez walked behind her.
“Margaret Voss, stand up.”
Margaret began crying.
“I was protecting the company.”
Ethan looked at her with disgust.
“You were protecting your place inside it.”
Officers handcuffed her.
The boardroom now contained three empty chairs.
Sloan.
Crane.
Voss.
All exposed.
All implicated.
Victor looked almost entertained.
Ethan approached him.
“What else?”
Victor shrugged.
“What else what?”
“What other graves are underneath this company?”
Victor’s eyes sharpened.
“Careful.”
“Why?”
“You might discover your father wasn’t the saint you remember.”
Ethan did not react.
Victor leaned closer.
“Jonathan created the trust because he knew what Blackwood money did to people.”
“He watched it destroy his father.”
“Then his brother.”
“Then his friends.”
“So he tried to lock the empire behind bloodlines.”
Victor’s smile disappeared.
“And he made one mistake.”
“What?”
“He thought blood made people loyal.”
Ethan glanced at Lily.
“No.”
“He thought responsibility mattered.”
Victor shook his head.
“He made you heir.”
“That was his mistake.”
Ethan stared at him.
“No.”
“The mistake was believing you loved this family.”
Victor’s expression changed.
A small wound appeared behind his arrogance.
Then he said, “I did.”
Ethan almost laughed.
“You tried to kill my daughter.”
“I tried to save what belonged to me.”
“There it is.”
Ethan turned to the board.
“That sentence is the entire disease.”
He looked at Victor again.
“You thought people belonged beneath property.”
“You thought Amelia was paperwork.”
“You thought Lily was an obstacle.”
“You thought my father was a signature standing between you and a chair.”
Victor said nothing.
Ethan walked back to Lily.
She reached for his hand.
Ethan looked around the boardroom.
“Blackwood Group will cooperate with every criminal investigation.”
“We will open the books going back fifteen years.”
“And effective immediately, every director implicated in these crimes is suspended.”
One independent director asked, “And Victor?”
Ethan looked at his uncle.
“He isn’t suspended.”
Victor raised an eyebrow.
May you like
Ethan’s voice became ice.
“He’s finished.”
