Chapter 8 - THE BROTHER WHO LIED BEST
The bullet struck the chandelier above Sebastian.
Glass exploded across the dining room.
A second shooter behind the curtains fell with a wound in his shoulder.
Marcus crossed the room and kicked the weapon away.
“You might consider ducking when I apologize,” he said.
Sebastian looked at the wounded man.
A small crown tattoo marked his wrist.
Conrad’s private operatives had worn the same symbol during the old days.
Adrian finished his drink.
“You see why I avoid family gatherings.”
Valerie arrived with two security officers despite Sebastian’s order to remain at the hospital.
She looked pale but furious.
“Where is my mother?”
Adrian opened a hidden panel behind the wine cabinet.
A bank of monitors showed live feeds from safe houses around the city.
Eleanor appeared on one screen, bound to a chair in an abandoned theater.
A digital timer counted down from fifty-nine minutes.
Adrian touched the screen.
“This feed came online ten minutes ago.”
“Can you locate it?” Sebastian asked.
“Already did.”
The theater belonged to a shell company controlled by Ward Meridian.
Sebastian turned to leave.
Adrian stopped him.
“There is another problem.”
He displayed a second feed.
Ward Meridian’s board members were gathering for an emergency vote.
The motion would remove Sebastian as chief executive and transfer control to Conrad Ward Holdings.
“You cannot save Eleanor and your company,” Adrian said.
Sebastian looked at Valerie.
She knew what the company meant to him.
It was not wealth.
It was the only structure he had built that did not belong to the man who raised him.
“Go to the board,” she said.
He studied her face.
“You think I would choose a building over your mother?”
“I think Conrad expects you to choose me.”
Adrian smiled without warmth.
“She understands him.”
Valerie took the silver key from Sebastian’s coat.
“I will rescue my mother.”
“You are not going alone.”
“I am going with the brother who knows how your family lies.”
She looked at Adrian.
“Do not make me regret it.”
As they left, Sebastian received an encrypted message from his own board chair.
May you like
The vote was not to remove him.
It was to declare him legally dead.
