Chapter 6 - THE CRASH WAS NO ACCIDENT
Noah’s words changed everything.
Captain Ortiz ordered Victoria away from the ambulance and placed two officers beside Noah. Under police escort, they drove to St. Matthew’s Clinic.
Dr. Samuel Price was waiting at the emergency entrance. He had been Daniel’s closest friend and Noah’s pediatric surgeon after the crash.
When he examined Noah, his anger showed immediately.
“These bruises are from repeated restraints,” he said. “And his medication levels are wrong. He’s been receiving a sedative that can weaken memory and balance.”
Victoria had called it treatment.
It was control.
Noah told Evelyn what he remembered. The afternoon before Daniel’s final flight, he had rolled into the private hangar looking for his father. From behind a stack of luggage, he saw Grant kneeling near the landing gear while Victoria held a toolbox.
At six, Noah did not understand.
After the crash, he told Charles.
Charles said trauma had confused him.
Dr. Price opened a locked cabinet and removed a small envelope.
“Daniel left this with me,” he said. “He told me to open it only if Noah was ever in danger from the family.”
Inside was a memory card and a handwritten note.
Evelyn recognized Daniel’s writing.
Sam—if you are reading this, my suspicions were right. Charles and Grant are stealing from the company pension fund. Victoria is helping them hide it through her charities. If I die, protect Noah. He owns the voting trust when he turns eighteen, but an emergency clause allows early transfer if the current trustees harm him.
Ortiz looked up. “Early transfer to whom?”
Dr. Price inserted the memory card into a laptop.
Daniel appeared in a recorded message.
“If my family harms Noah,” he said, “control transfers immediately to Noah’s court-appointed guardian.”
The screen displayed the guardian’s name.
Evelyn Brooks.
Evelyn stared, unable to speak.
May you like
Then every light in the clinic went dark.
From the hallway came the slow click of a gun being loaded.
