The Contract in the Private Study
Chapter 03 - The Contract in the Private Study
Ethan, Nora, and two trusted officers entered the estate through a side door while police were called. Upstairs, the private study was already unlocked. A laptop glowed beside a leather folder stamped with the Cole Maritime seal.
Inside was a contract transferring Ethan’s voting shares to Richard if Ethan became “medically incapacitated” before midnight. The document carried Ethan’s digital signature, but he had never seen it.
A second page named Vanessa as co-trustee after their marriage. Together, Richard and Vanessa would control the company, its ports, and a six-billion-dollar redevelopment deal.
“They didn’t need you dead,” Nora said. “They only needed you unconscious long enough to declare you unfit.”
A private physician paid by Richard had already certified that any collapse at the gala would prove Ethan’s heart condition was worsening. By dawn, Richard would take control, and Vanessa would marry a powerless heir while receiving half his trust.
A sound came from behind the bookcase.
The missing masked woman stepped out, holding Nora’s phone. She removed her mask, revealing Evelyn Cole, Ethan’s mother, who had been absent from the family for seven years.
Ethan froze. “You left us.”
“I was forced out,” Evelyn said. “Richard threatened to destroy your father’s name if I returned.”
She handed Nora the phone. “I took it before Calvin could. I needed them to think the evidence was gone.”
Evelyn had spent years tracing money Richard stole from Cole Maritime. Ethan’s father discovered the fraud shortly before his fatal boating accident. Richard blamed the tragedy on bad weather, then convinced Ethan that Evelyn had abandoned him.
The laptop contained encrypted files Evelyn needed. Nora’s key card had opened the only room where Richard stored the password device.
Before they could copy anything, the study doors slammed shut. Smoke poured through the air vents.
Calvin’s voice came through the intercom. “Leave the contract and phone on the desk.”
The windows would not open, and the electronic lock was dead. Ethan wrapped his jacket around Nora’s face while Evelyn searched the shelves.
Nora remembered Vanessa hiding the vial behind a blue book before slipping it into her purse. She pulled the same blue book from the shelf.
Behind it was a manual release switch.
The door opened as flames climbed the curtains. They escaped with the contract, laptop, and phone.
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Below them, applause erupted from the lawn.
Vanessa had returned to the stage. Wearing her mask again, she announced that Ethan had suffered a medical emergency—and Richard Cole was now taking control of the company.
