“He got it.”
Marcus looked at me.
“That’s why Daniel changed the real succession documents.”
“Because of you?”
“No.”
He looked at my wedding ring.
“Because of you.”
Daniel winced as he stood.
I faced him.
“Start talking.”
“Claire—”
“No more scheduled emails.
No more secret folders.
No more telling me to trust you while you disappear into fake funerals.”
Marcus actually smiled.
Daniel didn’t.
He knew I was furious.
Good.
“The company charter my grandfather created has a succession clause,” Daniel said.
“If I died without a spouse or child, controlling shares moved into the Reeves Family Trust.”
“Controlled by your father.”
“He was still named executor in the original trust.”
“But he was legally dead.”
“Exactly.
Which meant the substitute executor could petition for control.”
“Who?”
Daniel looked toward the terminal entrance.
We heard footsteps.
Everyone turned.
Natalie stood there.
She held a gun.
Evelyn whispered her daughter’s name.
“Natalie.”
Daniel stepped in front of me.
Natalie’s eyes filled with tears.
“Don’t.”
Police shouted from somewhere outside.
Natalie raised the gun higher.
“I said don’t!”
Marcus moved slightly.
She pointed at him.
“You knew.”
“Natalie—”
“You knew he was alive!”
Her voice echoed through the terminal.
Evelyn looked between them.
“You knew about your father?”
Natalie started crying.
Not quietly.
Her entire body shook.
“He contacted me two years ago.”
Evelyn made a broken sound.
“He told me you abandoned him,” Natalie said.
“He said Daniel stole the company.
He said Marcus was embezzling money.
He said he just wanted what belonged to him.”
Daniel shook his head.
“He used you.”
“I know that now!”
“Put the gun down.”
“I didn’t kill Jacob.”
“Nobody said you did.”
Natalie’s eyes widened.
That was the moment she realized what she had admitted.
Marcus closed his eyes.
Daniel’s voice became very soft.
“Natalie.”
She sobbed.
“I only gave him the schedules.
Passwords.
Travel information.
I thought he was building a case against you.”
“You gave him my hotel.”
“I didn’t know he would take you!”
“You helped him declare me dead.”
“I thought it was temporary!”
Evelyn stared at her daughter.
“You let me bury your brother?”
“I thought Daniel was hiding!”
“YOU WATCHED ME CRY OVER THAT COFFIN!”
“I’m sorry!”
Something moved above us.
A metallic click.
Daniel’s head snapped upward.
“Claire, DOWN!”
He threw me to the floor.
A shot exploded.
Natalie screamed.
Her gun flew from her hand.
An officer on the upper walkway had fired into the concrete beside her.
Police rushed from both entrances.
Natalie collapsed.
“I’m sorry,” she sobbed as they handcuffed her.
Daniel watched silently.
I had never seen grief look so quiet.
Evelyn approached her daughter.
Natalie looked up.
“Mom—”
Evelyn stopped several feet away.
For a moment, I thought she might slap her.
Instead, Evelyn said:
“Your father died eleven years ago.”
Natalie stared.
Evelyn looked toward the door where rain blew inside.
“The man who came back was only the part of him we should have buried sooner.”
Then she walked away.
Daniel spent the night at Harborview Medical Center.
