Chapter 19 - The Ghost in the Machine
I spent the night watching the footage.
It wasn't of me and Richard.
It was of the night Sarah died.
The garage cameras at the estate.
It showed Ethan—and Chloe—tampering with the brakes of a car.
And it showed Marcus Thorne standing in the background,
watching,
a cigarette in his hand.
The betrayal was complete.
A sister-in-law,
a brother,
and a rival CEO.
They had been working together for ten years.
I woke Richard at 3:00 AM.
“We have them,”
I said.
We didn't go to the police.
Not yet.
We went to the boardroom of Apex Bio.
We arrived as the sun was rising,
forcing our way past the security with the power of the Vance name.
Marcus Thorne was sitting in his office,
looking at the early morning stock reports.
He looked up,
surprised to see us.
“You’re early for your defeat,
Richard.”
Richard set the laptop on his desk.
“We’re here for your resignation,
Marcus.
And your confession.”
He pressed play.
Thorne watched the footage,
his face going from arrogance to terror in sixty seconds.
“Where did you get this?”
he whispered.
“It doesn't matter,”
I said,
stepping forward.
“What matters is that this is going to the FBI in ten minutes.
Unless you sign the papers dropping the lawsuit and admitting the fraud.”
Thorne looked at the screen,
then at Richard,
then at me.
He saw that he was beaten.
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He saw that the "nurse" had outplayed him.
He signed.
