Keep reading to see what the next chapter brings.

-10-

The black sedan tore down the expressway toward downtown Columbus, weaving aggressively through morning commuter traffic under a sky that had finally begun to clear, though heavy, bruising clouds still lingered on the horizon.

Emma sat in the passenger seat, her eyes fixed on the towering glass-and-steel monolith of the Carver Tower piercing the skyline ahead. At the very top floor, behind fifty-millimeter bulletproof glass, sat the executive boardroom where the emergency shareholder meeting was scheduled to begin precisely at noon.

“How did you survive that night five years ago, Dad?” Emma asked, turning to look at him as he shifted gears smoothly while exiting the ramp onto High Street.

“Celeste didn't just want the company; she wanted absolute control over the family trust’s international holdings,” her father explained, keeping his eyes fixed on the road ahead. “She poisoned my business partner first to test the compound, making it look like a sudden heart attack. When I found her financial ledger in the office safe and confronted her, she and Nathan staged a brake failure on my car while I was driving home through the gorge.”

“And you jumped out before the crash?”

“I had a feeling something was wrong,” her father said grimly. “I swapped cars with my driver an hour earlier. The man who went off that cliff in my vehicle was a private investigator who had discovered Celeste’s offshore accounts. The police report was closed before DNA could be re-tested because Nathan had already bought off the lead coroner.”

A cold anger settled deep in Emma’s chest. The depth of their deception wasn't just corporate greed—it was cold-blooded murder.

“The federal marshals are already converging on the building,” Emma said, checking her burner phone, which had finally died with one percent battery remaining. “Detective Miller said they intercepted Nathan’s comms. He’s planning to liquidate the remaining liquid accounts during the noon meeting and board a private jet out of the state by one o'clock.”

“He won't make it,” her father said, pulling the sedan directly into the subterranean VIP parking garage of the Carver Tower, bypassing the automated security gate with an old master override key that the corporate security system still recognized as active.

The tires screeched softly against the polished concrete as they parked in the CEO’s reserved stall—right beside Nathan’s silver Bentley.

Her father cut the engine, popped the trunk to retrieve a heavy metal briefcase, and turned to look at Emma with a fierce, unwavering light in his eyes.

“Ready to take back what’s ours?” he asked.