Chapter 6 - The Truth About My Father’s Final Flight
Genevieve stared at Gabriel.
“You changed the flight.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“To protect him.”
Adrian laughed.
“Excellent job.”
Gabriel ignored him.
“Charles learned someone had accessed the maintenance records. He believed his scheduled departure had been compromised.”
“So you moved it earlier.”
“Yes.”
“And the plane still crashed.”
Gabriel’s jaw tightened.
“Yes.”
Genevieve felt anger rising.
“You never told investigators?”
“I did.”
“No, you didn’t.”
“Not officially.”
“Why?”
“Because I was operating under a confidential corporate-security arrangement Charles created.”
“You let me believe Dad’s death was random.”
“I was trying to find the person responsible.”
“And did you?”
Gabriel looked at Adrian.
“Almost.”
Adrian smiled.
Genevieve turned to the federal investigators.
“Take him.”
Adrian lifted his hands calmly.
“On what charge?”
One agent answered, “We’ll start with conspiracy, fraud, falsification of legal instruments, and obstruction.”
“Based on what? Sabrina?”
Genevieve watched him.
Adrian was still too calm.
He knew something.
“What haven’t you told us?” she asked.
Adrian smiled.
“You’re finally asking the right question.”
Arthur’s phone rang.
He looked at the screen.
Then answered.
“Yes?”
Everyone watched him.
His face changed.
“When?”
He ended the call.
“Peter Voss’s transport was intercepted.”
Gabriel stepped forward.
“What?”
“The vehicle was found abandoned.”
“Voss?”
“Gone.”
Adrian smiled wider.
Genevieve felt cold.
“You arranged that.”
“You’ll have to prove it.”
The agents handcuffed him.
As they led him away, Adrian paused beside Genevieve.
“You still think the attack was about your shares.”
She held his gaze.
“What was it about?”
His voice dropped.
“The thing your father hid from you.”
Then he left.
For the next eighteen hours, the Laurent investigation exploded.
Richard Hale was arrested after bank records revealed payments from entities connected to Adrian.
Martin Shaw attempted to leave the country and was detained at the airport.
The fake officiant cooperated within two hours.
Sabrina entered formal witness protection pending charges of her own.
But Peter Voss remained missing.
And Adrian’s final words tormented Genevieve.
The thing your father hid from you.
At 3:00 a.m., Genevieve sat in a secure conference room with Gabriel, Julian, and Arthur.
Files covered the table.
“What did Dad hide?”
Gabriel shook his head.
“I don’t know.”
“You were his secret trustee.”
“That doesn’t mean I knew everything.”
Julian looked through Charles’s letter again.
“The birthday question.”
Genevieve frowned.
“What?”
“Charles said the emergency provision required something only you possess.”
“Choice.”
“That may unlock the trust.”
Arthur said, “Where?”
Gabriel placed a laptop on the table.
“There is a secure Laurent Holdings portal that only Charles used.”
They opened it.
A password request appeared.
Genevieve typed:
CHOICE
Access granted.
A single folder appeared.
LEGACY.
Inside were three documents.
One video.
One legal amendment.
One accounting archive.
Genevieve opened the video.
Charles appeared again.
This recording had been made the night before he died.
“Genevieve,” he said, “if you have reached this file, then you have already discovered that someone attempted to use your personal life as a route into Laurent Holdings.”
She leaned closer.
“His name may be Adrian Cole when you hear this. It was Andrew Colson when I began investigating him.”
Genevieve glanced at Gabriel.
Charles continued.
“But Andrew is not the most important name.”
Genevieve’s pulse increased.
“The organization behind him has targeted family-controlled companies for more than a decade. They identify an heir. Build trust. Create emotional dependency. Then exploit marriage, divorce, illness, scandal, or death to gain assets.”
Arthur whispered, “Corporate predation.”
Charles continued.
“I discovered at least six victims.”
Genevieve felt sick.
Adrian had done this before.
“Andrew was not acting alone.”
A list appeared on the screen.
Lawyers.
Consultants.
Private investigators.
Executives.
One name made Julian stand.
Martin Shaw.
Another made Genevieve freeze.
Richard Hale.
Then another.
Sabrina Vale.
But one name was highlighted.
EVELYN LAURENT.
Genevieve stopped breathing.
“My mother?”
Her mother had died sixteen years earlier.
Gabriel looked equally shocked.
“That’s impossible.”
The video continued.
“If you see your mother’s name, do not misunderstand. Evelyn was not part of the conspiracy.”
Genevieve leaned closer.
“She was its first Laurent target.”
Silence.
Charles explained that years earlier, before Laurent International became a giant, a financial predator had attempted to manipulate Evelyn’s inheritance through a sham investment and forged marriage-related agreements.
Charles exposed it.
The perpetrators disappeared.
But the network survived.
And years later, they returned.
Genevieve whispered, “For me.”
Gabriel nodded slowly.
Charles continued.
“I believe Andrew chose Genevieve because of what happened to Evelyn.”
Not random.
Revenge.
Money.
Access.
Everything together.
Then Charles’s expression changed.
“There is one final thing.”
Genevieve waited.
“If anything happens to me, do not assume the aircraft was the beginning.”
The screen displayed a date.
Three months earlier.
A medical report.
Genevieve recognized the hospital.
St. Jude Medical Center.
Her father had been treated there after a minor cardiac episode nobody told her about.
Charles said, “I was poisoned.”
Julian whispered, “My God.”
Genevieve’s hands went numb.
“The dosage was insufficient to kill me, but sufficient to frighten me. Someone wanted me to stop investigating.”
Charles continued.
“I did not stop.”
Then the video ended.
Arthur immediately called the federal investigators.
Gabriel opened the accounting archive.
Payments connected everything.
Northline.
Fairwick.
Adrian.
Richard.
Martin.
And an unknown master account.
Julian pointed.
“Who owns that?”
Arthur traced the number.
The response returned.
He stared at it.
“No.”
“What?”
“The beneficiary is a private trust.”
“Whose?”
Arthur looked at Genevieve.
“The trust was created sixteen years ago.”
The year her mother died.
Genevieve’s chest tightened.
“By whom?”
Arthur opened the registration record.
Trustee:
DR. ELIAS WREN.
Genevieve knew that name.
Her family doctor.
The man who had certified her mother’s death.
“He died years ago.”
Arthur shook his head.
“Apparently not.”
A current address appeared.
Thirty miles away.
They drove there before sunrise.
The address led to a private assisted-living residence.
Elias Wren was eighty-four.
Thin.
Frail.
Alert.
When Genevieve entered his room, he recognized her immediately.
“You look like Evelyn.”
Genevieve sat across from him.
“You knew my mother.”
“Yes.”
“You certified her death.”
“Yes.”
“Was it natural?”
Elias closed his eyes.
“No.”
Genevieve felt the room disappear.
“What happened?”
“She discovered the network had returned.”
“Adrian?”
“Not Adrian.”
“Who?”
Elias looked terrified even after sixteen years.
“His father.”
Genevieve stared.
Elias continued.
“Andrew Colson was raised for this.”
Arthur leaned forward.
“By whom?”
Elias whispered a name.
“Marcus Colson.”
Gabriel froze.
Genevieve noticed.
“You know him.”
Gabriel did not answer.
“Gabriel.”
He looked at her.
“Marcus Colson was my biological father.”
Silence.
The truth hit Genevieve harder than anything before it.
Adrian—Andrew—was connected to Gabriel’s father.
“How?”
Gabriel looked horrified.
“I don’t know.”
Elias answered for him.
“They were half-brothers.”
Genevieve stared at Gabriel.
Adrian was his brother.
The man who tried to take everything from her.
The man Gabriel claimed to be hunting.
Arthur’s phone rang.
He answered.
Then his face went pale.
“What?”
He turned toward Genevieve.
“Adrian escaped federal transport.”
Everyone stood.
Arthur continued.
“And he took Peter Voss with him.”
Genevieve’s phone vibrated.
A video arrived.
Adrian appeared on screen.
Peter Voss sat behind him.
Alive.
Adrian smiled into the camera.
“Genevieve, bring Gabriel to your father’s old estate.”
Gabriel’s face hardened.
Adrian continued.
“Come by midnight.”
Then his smile disappeared.
“Because tonight, your brother is finally going to tell you which one of us Charles Laurent was really trying to save.”
May you like
The video ended.
And Genevieve realized the story still had one secret left.
