Chapter 17 - The Boardroom Trap
We did not go home.
We went to the boardroom.
Adrian expected obedience.
Claire expected that expectation.
At 4:03 p.m., Carter Medical’s emergency board session began.
Nine directors sat around the glass table.
Adrian Voss sat in my father’s old chair.
Noah and Lily were nowhere in sight.
Adrian smiled at Claire.
“Thirteen months. You look tired.”
Claire sat beside me.
“You look like my father.”
His smile faded.
Without the makeup, Adrian did not resemble Dad much. But the posture, the voice, the tiny gestures had been studied for years.
He had turned imitation into authority.
I placed the death certificate on the table.
Then Elena’s letters.
Then the behavioral files.
Directors began talking at once.
Adrian did not move.
“You think paperwork beats control?”
Claire nodded toward the wall screens.
“No. Streaming does.”
Every screen came alive.
The files were being uploaded to regulators, journalists, and federal investigators.
Adrian finally lost his smile.
Then the upload stopped at twelve percent.
Hale checked his phone.
“Network cut.”
Adrian leaned back.
“My building.”
Claire whispered, “Not for long.”
A fire alarm sounded.
Sprinklers activated.
Not water.
A fine mist.
My heart stopped.
“The ventilation system,” I said.
Adrian smiled.
Around the table, directors began coughing.
Claire pulled masks from her bag.
We covered our faces.
Vanessa smashed the nearest vent with a chair.
Adrian walked toward me through the mist.
Then my father’s voice came from hidden speakers.
“Daniel. Sit down.”
My knees weakened.
Claire grabbed me.
“Don’t listen.”
“Daniel. Sit.”
My body obeyed.
I dropped into a chair.
Adrian leaned close.
“Good son.”
Then Noah’s voice came through the intercom.
“Dad, don’t.”
I looked up.
On the security monitor, Noah stood inside the control room.
He was holding Lily’s hand.
He had escaped.
And he had just locked Adrian out of his own system.
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