Chapter 6 - The Woman Beside Him
“Get the boys upstairs.”
Blake’s voice changed instantly.
Olivia did not argue.
She ran.
Daniel alerted security.
Blake moved toward the front entrance.
Daniel caught him.
“She said come alone.”
“She’s already here.”
“Which means she expected you to ignore the message.”
Blake looked through the security monitor.
Sabrina stood outside the gate.
The object in her hand was visible.
Daniel zoomed.
Blake exhaled.
“It’s not a gun.”
“A flare launcher?”
“Looks like one.”
Then Sabrina lifted her other hand.
A white cloth.
Blake frowned.
“She’s surrendering?”
Daniel opened an intercom.
“Place the object on the ground.”
Sabrina obeyed.
Security approached.
Minutes later, she was brought into the foyer.
Her glamorous confidence from the airport was gone.
Hair disheveled.
Eyes red.
Coat torn.
Blake stood ten feet away.
“Did you fabricate the recording?”
“Yes.”
Olivia had returned after locking the boys’ wing and leaving guards outside.
Blake looked at her, then Sabrina.
“Why?”
Sabrina laughed bitterly.
“Because Charles told me you would marry me.”
Blake stared.
“What?”
“He said once Olivia was legally discredited, you’d finally stop looking backward.”
“I wasn’t looking backward.”
Sabrina’s eyes filled.
“You changed the second you saw her on that plane.”
“You helped manipulate evidence involving my children.”
“I didn’t know about the children when I made the recording.”
“When did you find out?”
“At the airport.”
Olivia stepped forward.
“Why were you involved with Charles at all?”
Sabrina looked at her.
“My father lost everything because of Harrington Global.”
Blake frowned.
“Who was your father?”
“Anthony Vale.”
Blake knew the name.
A technology entrepreneur whose company Harrington Global acquired twelve years earlier.
After the acquisition, accusations of accounting fraud destroyed him.
Anthony died two years later.
Sabrina had been twenty-three.
“My father swore the records were falsified,” she said. “Charles Whitmore arranged the acquisition. He buried the audit. I spent years trying to get close enough to prove it.”
Blake’s voice hardened.
“So dating me was part of an investigation?”
“At first.”
“At first?”
Sabrina looked ashamed.
“Then it wasn’t.”
Olivia glanced at Blake.
That complication was not hers to solve.
Sabrina continued.
“Charles discovered who I was six months ago. Instead of exposing me, he offered me access.”
“In exchange for helping him frame Olivia,” Daniel said.
“Yes.”
“Why agree?”
“Because he promised me the original acquisition files.”
Blake laughed coldly.
“And you trusted him?”
“No. I used him.”
“You fabricated Olivia’s voice.”
“Yes.”
“You gave him executive access?”
“Yes.”
“Did you access the boys’ school records?”
Sabrina’s face changed.
“No.”
Blake stepped closer.
“Do not lie.”
“I’m not. I never went near their school.”
“Then who did?”
“Charles.”
“Using my credentials?”
“Yes.”
“What about the car that followed Olivia?”
“I don’t know.”
Blake looked at Daniel.
Sabrina reached into her coat.
Security reacted.
“Wait!”
She slowly removed a small key.
“Charles has a private archive beneath the old Harrington estate.”
Blake froze.
“My childhood home?”
“Yes.”
“That property has been empty for years.”
“That’s why he used it.”
“What’s there?”
“The original trust documents. Security logs. Your father’s private recordings.”
Blake stared.
“My father’s recordings?”
Sabrina nodded.
“And something about Olivia.”
Olivia stiffened.
“What?”
“I don’t know.”
“You told Blake you know where the documents are. Why come here?”
“Because Charles knows I copied the access key.”
Sabrina looked toward the windows.
“He’s been following me since this afternoon.”
Daniel checked with security.
No vehicles nearby.
Blake took the key.
“Police.”
Sabrina shook her head.
“Charles has people inside local departments.”
“We send federal investigators.”
“That could work.”
Blake looked at Olivia.
“You’re staying here.”
She almost smiled.
“You’re still learning.”
“Olivia.”
“If there are files about me, I’m going.”
“No.”
“Try again.”
Blake exhaled slowly.
“Would you please consider staying here because there may be danger?”
“Better.”
“And?”
“No.”
Daniel muttered, “Progress.”
Two hours later, federal agents entered the abandoned Harrington estate.
Blake, Olivia, and Daniel followed after it was secured.
Sabrina remained in protective custody.
The house was dark and largely empty.
Blake had not entered in eight years.
His father’s portrait still hung in the library.
He stopped before it.
Edmund Harrington had been a difficult man.
Brilliant.
Demanding.
Emotionally distant.
Blake had spent half his life trying to impress someone who rarely expressed approval.
Olivia touched his arm.
“You okay?”
“I don’t know.”
Daniel called from behind a bookshelf.
“Found something.”
A concealed stairway descended beneath the library.
At the bottom was a climate-controlled archive.
Hundreds of boxes.
Corporate records.
Family trust files.
Private correspondence.
Blake stared.
“Charles kept all of this?”
Daniel opened a cabinet.
“Apparently.”
Olivia walked along shelves labeled by year.
Then she stopped.
BENNETT, OLIVIA.
Her name.
A whole box.
Blake saw it.
Neither spoke.
Olivia pulled it down.
Inside were photographs from their marriage.
Medical records.
Her old consulting contracts.
Copies of private emails.
And a file labeled PREGNANCY.
Her hands trembled.
Blake reached for it.
She stopped him.
“I need to.”
He nodded.
Olivia opened it.
Ultrasound images.
Her first prenatal appointment.
A hospital report.
Then a handwritten memo.
Whitmore’s handwriting.
If pregnancy proceeds, grandchildren trigger Article IX. Prevent acknowledgment until transfer can be challenged.
Olivia’s face went cold.
Below it was another note.
E.H. objection remains obstacle.
“E.H.,” Blake whispered.
“Your father?”
“My father was already sick then.”
Daniel searched the cabinet.
“There may be recordings.”
An agent found an old digital recorder.
The files were dated during Edmund Harrington’s final months.
Blake selected one.
His father’s voice filled the archive.
“Charles, I don’t care what happens to the company. If Blake has children, they are Harringtons. Olivia will control their shares until adulthood. That is what the trust says.”
Whitmore’s younger voice answered.
“You’re making the company vulnerable.”
“I’m protecting my family.”
“Blake won’t understand.”
“Then he’ll learn.”
Blake closed his eyes.
His father had protected grandchildren he never met.
The recording continued.
“And leave Olivia alone.”
“She influences him.”
“She loves him, Charles. There’s a difference.”
Blake’s eyes opened.
Olivia stared at the device.
His father continued.
“My son has inherited my worst habit. He thinks providing money is the same as showing up. Maybe she’ll teach him otherwise.”
Blake looked down.
The voice softened.
“If he loses her, it will be because he chose badly. Don’t make that choice permanent for him.”
The recording ended.
Nobody spoke.
Olivia wiped one tear.
Daniel opened another folder.
“Blake.”
Inside was the original trust.
And something else.
A signed amendment.
Dated two days before Edmund Harrington’s death.
Daniel read quickly.
“This changes everything.”
“What?”
“The eleven point eight percent isn’t the entire inheritance.”
Blake approached.
Daniel pointed.
“If a biological grandchild was intentionally concealed from Blake through interference by a Harrington officer, controlling interest from the officer’s trust reverts to the grandchildren.”
“Whose trust?”
Daniel looked at him.
“Charles Whitmore’s.”
Olivia whispered, “Your father anticipated this?”
“He suspected Charles.”
Blake read the clause.
If proven, Whitmore would lose nearly seventeen percent.
The boys’ trust would become the largest voting block in Harrington Global.
Olivia stepped back.
“I don’t want it.”
“You may not have a choice.”
An agent called from upstairs.
“Mr. Harrington!”
Blake turned.
The agent hurried down.
“We have a problem.”
“What?”
“The security team at Ms. Bennett’s residence just reported an alarm.”
Olivia went white.
“The boys.”
“They’re safe. The interior detail confirmed all three are accounted for.”
She exhaled.
“Then what alarm?”
The agent hesitated.
“Someone entered the house.”
Blake grabbed his phone.
A live camera feed appeared.
The boys’ hallway.
Empty.
Kitchen.
Empty.
Study.
A figure stood inside.
Silver-haired.
Charles Whitmore.
He looked directly into the security camera.
Then he held up a photograph.
Blake zoomed in.
It showed Olivia in a hospital bed after giving birth.
Beside her stood someone Blake never knew had been there.
His father.
Olivia gasped.
“That’s impossible.”
Blake stared at the photograph.
Edmund Harrington had supposedly been in Switzerland that week.
But the date printed beneath the image was unmistakable.
The day the triplets were born.
Then Whitmore turned the photograph over.
Four words were written on the back.
May you like
BLAKE MUST NEVER KNOW.
And the handwriting belonged to Olivia.
