Chapter 4 - The Secret Inside Harrington Global
Blake reached the stairs before anyone else.
“Mason!”
A second scream came from the upper hallway.
Olivia ran behind him.
Security poured into the house from both entrances.
Blake took the steps two at a time.
At the top, Mason stood outside his bedroom trembling.
Noah and Eli were behind him.
“What happened?” Olivia dropped beside them.
Mason pointed.
“There was a man.”
Blake looked down the hallway.
“Where?”
“In Mom’s room.”
Security moved immediately.
Two men entered Olivia’s bedroom.
Another checked the closets.
Windows.
Bathroom.
Empty.
One window stood open.
A length of rope hung outside.
The intruder had already escaped.
Blake looked at the security chief.
“How did anyone enter this property?”
The man looked furious.
“We’re checking.”
Olivia held the three boys against her.
Blake turned toward them.
“Did he touch you?”
“Noah shook his head.”
“What did he look like?”
“A black hat,” Eli said.
“And a mask.”
Mason added, “He dropped something.”
He pointed toward the carpet.
Blake saw it.
A silver cuff link.
He picked it up carefully using a tissue from the side table.
An H was engraved on the face.
Olivia looked at him.
“Harrington?”
“Yes.”
Blake turned it over.
His stomach dropped.
Three initials were engraved on the back.
B.H.H.
Blake Henry Harrington.
His initials.
Olivia’s face changed.
“That’s yours.”
“I know.”
“You wore those when we were married.”
“I know.”
“Where have they been?”
Blake stared at the cuff link.
“My father gave them to me when I graduated.”
“And?”
“I lost one.”
“When?”
He tried to remember.
Then did.
“The week before our divorce.”
Olivia went still.
“You told me you lost it at the office.”
“I thought I did.”
Daniel appeared upstairs.
“Police are coming.”
Blake handed him the cuff link.
“Bag this.”
Daniel saw the initials.
“Interesting.”
“It’s not interesting. Someone kept this for five years.”
“And brought it here today.”
Olivia looked toward her children.
The message was obvious.
Someone wanted Blake implicated.
Or wanted Olivia frightened of him.
They relocated that afternoon.
Not to one of Blake’s properties.
Olivia refused.
Instead, Brightline maintained a secure corporate residence in Westchester used for high-profile executives.
The boys treated it as an adventure once Olivia promised pizza and a movie.
Blake stayed only because they asked him to.
That surprised everyone.
Especially Blake.
During the movie, Mason climbed onto the couch beside him.
Ten minutes later the child fell asleep against his arm.
Blake did not move for almost an hour.
Olivia watched from across the room.
Blake looked down at Mason.
“What does he like for breakfast?”
“Blueberry waffles.”
“What about Noah?”
“Scrambled eggs. No cheese.”
“Eli?”
“Whatever Noah says he hates.”
Blake smiled.
“Competitive?”
“Professionally.”
He looked toward the sleeping child.
“What did I miss?”
Olivia knew what he meant.
“Everything.”
He closed his eyes briefly.
“Tell me.”
So she did.
First words.
First steps.
Noah once climbed onto a kitchen counter because he believed cookies were a constitutional right.
Eli broke his wrist at three after jumping from a playground structure wearing a cape.
Mason refused to sleep unless Olivia read the same book for seven consecutive months.
Blake laughed.
Then Olivia told him about the NICU.
His smile vanished.
“They were born ten weeks early.”
“I read the email.”
“Then you know.”
“I know words. Not what happened.”
Olivia looked toward the boys.
“They were tiny.”
Her voice changed.
“Two pounds, nine ounces. Three pounds, one ounce. Two pounds, twelve ounces.”
Blake stared down at Mason.
“He fit in my hand.”
Olivia nodded.
“I sat beside their incubators every day.”
“Alone?”
“My sister came. Daniel came. Nurses helped.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
Olivia didn’t answer.
Blake’s jaw tightened.
“I should have been there.”
“Yes.”
“I didn’t know.”
“I know.”
The simplicity of the answer hurt more than accusation.
At midnight, Daniel arrived with investigators.
The cuff link had partial fingerprints.
Not enough for identification.
But the security breach offered something better.
A camera captured the intruder’s vehicle leaving nearby woods.
The plate was fake.
However, facial recognition from a toll camera found the driver.
Marcus Cole.
Blake’s head of security.
Blake stared at the image.
“No.”
Daniel folded his arms.
“You trust him?”
“With my life.”
“Maybe that’s the problem.”
Blake called Marcus.
No answer.
Again.
Nothing.
Then Helen, Blake’s assistant, called.
“Mr. Harrington?”
“Helen, where is Marcus?”
“I don’t know.”
“Find him.”
“There’s something else.”
Blake walked away from Olivia.
“What?”
“The board scheduled an emergency meeting tomorrow.”
“Why?”
“Mr. Whitmore requested it.”
“Charles doesn’t have authority to call an emergency meeting without—”
“He has support from six directors.”
Blake went silent.
Helen continued.
“They’re questioning your fitness as CEO.”
“On what basis?”
A pause.
“An allegation that you concealed three biological heirs who collectively own eleven point eight percent of voting shares.”
Blake laughed once.
“They’ve known for one day.”
“The filing was prepared three weeks ago.”
Everything stopped.
Three weeks.
Before Blake met Olivia on the plane.
Before he learned about the boys.
Someone else had known.
Someone had been preparing.
Blake looked at Olivia.
She read the answer on his face.
“What?”
“The board knew before I did.”
Daniel stepped closer.
“How long?”
“Three weeks.”
Olivia’s expression darkened.
“That’s around when we discovered Whitmore intercepted the original notices.”
Daniel nodded slowly.
“Someone may have realized we were investigating.”
Blake grabbed his jacket.
“Where are you going?”
“Harrington Global.”
“No,” Olivia said.
He turned.
“If Charles is trying to remove me using my sons, I need to know why.”
“And if the person who broke into my house expects you to go there?”
Blake stopped.
Olivia approached.
“For five years, you solved every problem by walking directly into the room and assuming power would protect you.”
“That usually worked.”
“It won’t work with our children.”
Our.
Blake noticed it.
So did she.
Her eyes flickered.
He lowered his voice.
“What do you want me to do?”
It was perhaps the first time in their marriage or after it that Blake Harrington had genuinely asked her instead of deciding.
Olivia considered.
“We go together.”
“No.”
Her brows rose.
He corrected himself.
“I mean… that could put you at risk.”
“I’m already at risk.”
“Then the boys?”
“Protected here.”
Daniel nodded.
“We have independent security.”
Blake sighed.
“Fine.”
The next morning they entered Harrington Global through the private garage.
Olivia had not been inside the building since before the divorce.
The marble lobby looked unchanged.
Her reflection moved beside Blake’s.
Five years ago, they had entered together as husband and wife.
Now they were parents of three boys Blake had met yesterday.
Life had a vicious sense of timing.
The boardroom was full.
Charles Whitmore sat at the far end.
Silver-haired.
Elegant.
Calm.
He stood when Olivia entered.
“My dear.”
Blake’s expression turned dangerous.
“Don’t call her that.”
Charles smiled.
“There he is.”
Olivia sat.
Blake remained standing.
“You intercepted communications about my children.”
Charles folded his hands.
“Yes.”
Nobody moved.
Blake had expected denial.
The simple confession destabilized him.
“You admit it?”
“Of course.”
“Why?”
“To protect the company.”
Blake stepped forward.
“You kept me from my sons for five years.”
“And during those five years Harrington Global tripled in value.”
Olivia’s voice cut through.
“You decided three babies were a corporate inconvenience?”
Charles looked at her.
“I decided Blake was not capable of building an empire while playing husband and father.”
Blake’s hands curled.
“You had no right.”
Charles laughed.
“Your father disagreed.”
Blake froze.
“What?”
Charles opened a folder.
“Your father was terrified of what marriage did to you.”
“My father liked Olivia.”
“He liked her. He did not like the influence she had.”
Olivia looked disgusted.
“So you destroyed his family.”
“No. Blake destroyed his marriage without assistance.”
That landed because it was partly true.
Charles continued.
“I merely ensured the consequences did not interfere with the company.”
Blake leaned across the table.
“You sent someone to her house.”
“No.”
“Marcus works for you.”
“Marcus worked for the company.”
“Where is he?”
Charles’s smile disappeared.
“That is a question you should ask Olivia.”
Everyone looked at her.
Olivia frowned.
“What are you talking about?”
Charles slid another folder across the table.
Inside were bank records.
Transfers from Brightline Holdings to Marcus Cole.
Blake looked at Olivia.
She stared at the pages.
“I’ve never seen these.”
Charles leaned back.
“Your ex-wife has been paying your head of security for eighteen months.”
“That’s false.”
“Bank records rarely care about feelings.”
Daniel grabbed the documents.
“These can be fabricated.”
“Certainly.”
Charles stood.
“But perhaps this cannot.”
The boardroom screen activated.
A surveillance video appeared.
Olivia entering a hotel three months earlier.
Marcus followed two minutes later.
Blake stared at her.
Olivia looked genuinely stunned.
“I was meeting Daniel there.”
Charles pressed another button.
A second clip appeared.
Olivia leaving.
Marcus leaving shortly after.
Then audio began.
Olivia’s recorded voice:
“If Blake ever finds out about the boys, everything changes.”
Marcus replied:
“Then we make sure he doesn’t.”
Blake slowly turned toward Olivia.
Her face had lost all color.
“That isn’t what I said.”
The recording continued.
Her voice again:
“Do whatever you have to do.”
Charles stopped the audio.
Silence swallowed the room.
Blake looked at the woman he had begun believing.
Olivia whispered, “That recording is fake.”
Then the boardroom doors locked.
The lights went out.
May you like
And from somewhere in the darkness, Marcus Cole’s voice said:
“She’s telling the truth.”
