Chapter 6 - HE CAME BACK TO BURN THE TRUTH
Grant did not know the hidden cameras transmitted live.
He moved room to room wearing gloves, removing documents from Allison’s desk and placing them into a metal trash bin.
Detective McKenna dispatched officers while I watched from the hospital.
“He’s going toward my office.”
“Do not leave the hospital,” she ordered.
“The server controls are inside that room.”
“And the archive is backed up.”
“He may not know that.”
“Good.”
Grant poured gasoline over the papers.
Then he stopped beneath the smoke detector.
For several seconds, he stared directly into the hidden lens.
He smiled.
“Ryder,” he said, “you always did hide the important cameras.”
He knew.
Grant struck a match.
Before he could drop it, police entered through the front and rear doors.
He threw the match into the empty fireplace and ran toward the garage.
Officers caught him beside Allison’s car.
In the trunk, they found passports, cash, company drives, and two plane tickets to the Cayman Islands.
One ticket bore Grant’s name.
The other belonged to Allison.
Detective McKenna arrested her at the apartment Grant had leased.
She was packing.
At the police station, Grant asked for an attorney and said nothing.
Allison talked for nearly three hours.
She claimed Grant manipulated her.
She said the affair began because I was emotionally absent.
She said he convinced her that Mom’s shares rightfully belonged to the people who operated the company.
“Did he make you withhold food?” McKenna asked.
“Eleanor refused to eat.”
“Did he make you administer medication not prescribed to her?”
“She needed to calm down.”
“Did he make you strike Jade?”
Allison stopped answering.
Her attorney issued another statement describing her as a victim of a powerful executive.
Grant’s attorney described him as a loyal officer framed during a family dispute.
Bellweather denied knowledge of any illegal conduct.
The executive board still planned to hold Friday’s shareholder meeting.
Grant had supporters who believed removing him before the vote would damage the company.
They wanted to hear both sides.
I had learned to hate that phrase.
There were situations with two honest perspectives.
There were also situations where one person committed abuse and the other survived it.
Treating both as equal did not create fairness.
It created cover.
Mom insisted on attending the shareholder meeting.
“You are still recovering,” I said.
“They used my name and my shares. I will take both back.”
“You can appear by video.”
“No.”
Dr. Warren refused to clear her for travel.
Mom looked furious until Jade offered a compromise.
“Let them see you from the hospital,” she said. “Not because you’re weak. Because this is what they did.”
Mom agreed.
Jade also agreed to testify.
“Allison will call you a thief,” I warned.
“She already has.”
“The company lawyers will question why you stayed.”
“Then I’ll tell them.”
“Why did you?”
Jade looked through the glass at my mother.
“My grandmother died in a care home when I was nineteen. People saw the signs and decided it wasn’t their business.”
She touched the bandage above her eyebrow.
“I promised I would never become one of those people.”
On Friday morning, I entered Whitmore Sentinel’s headquarters for the first time since returning from Saudi Arabia.
Employees watched from behind glass offices.
Some nodded.
Others looked away.
Grant’s photograph still hung in the executive lobby beside mine.
The boardroom doors opened.
Allison sat at the far end of the table with her attorney.
She had been released on bond hours earlier.
The protective order allowed her to attend as long as she remained twenty feet away from me.
She smiled when I entered.
Grant’s chair was empty.
May you like
But his forged documents were already on the table.
Allison still believed she could complete what they had started.
