Chapter 9 - The Missing Five Minutes
Emily was stunned.
David had been dead five years before Daniel’s crash.
Vale was lying.
Or so they thought.
Then Torres examined David Miller’s old files.
One fact changed everything.
Before his death, David had created an emergency data protocol.
If suspicious activity occurred inside Kang Meridian, an automated system would alert a private network.
Someone had reactivated it.
The night Daniel crashed, that network sent a warning.
Grace received it.
So did another person.
Walter Miller.
Noah’s grandfather.
Emily confronted her father.
Walter finally confessed.
David had told him everything before he died.
Walter had promised to protect Emily and Noah.
When the alert arrived, Walter followed Daniel’s vehicle using coordinates transmitted by David’s old system.
He reached the wreck minutes before paramedics.
Walter pulled Daniel’s head above rising water in the ditch.
He kept him breathing.
Then he left before police arrived because he feared Vale’s people were watching.
Daniel stared at him.
“You saved my life.”
Walter shrugged.
“My son-in-law would’ve expected me to.”
Noah looked delighted.
“My grandpa is a spy.”
“No,” everyone said together.
For the first time in months, they laughed.
Daniel’s board reconvened.
Vale was gone.
The merger collapsed.
Emily exercised the trust vote.
Daniel was restored as CEO.
But he surprised everyone.
He didn’t return immediately.
“I’m not ready.”
The old Daniel would never have admitted that.
Instead, he appointed an interim leadership committee and continued rehabilitation.
He walked farther every week.
Noah’s drawings changed too.
They stopped predicting recovery.
They began depicting life.
Daniel at a baseball game.
Daniel burning pancakes.
Daniel losing at cards.
Daniel and Emily sitting together beneath a tree.
One evening, Daniel asked Noah about that picture.
“Why am I holding your mom’s hand?”
Noah looked confused.
“Because you like her.”
Daniel nearly choked.
Emily entered at exactly the wrong moment.
“What?”
“Nothing,” Daniel said.
Noah corrected him.
“He likes you.”
Emily stared at Daniel.
Daniel stared at Noah.
“Betrayal,” Daniel muttered.
Noah grinned.
Later, Emily found Daniel in the garden.
“You know he’s eight.”
“He’s dangerous.”
“He likes you.”
Daniel looked down.
“I like him too.”
Emily waited.
Daniel added, “A lot.”
“And?”
Daniel looked at her.
“And his mother is tolerable.”
Emily laughed.
Daniel kissed her.
It was slow.
Uncertain.
Nothing like the life he had planned.
Everything like the life he wanted.
Then his phone rang.
Torres.
Daniel answered.
Her voice was tense.
“We found something in Vale’s records.”
“What?”
“A payment made two weeks before your crash.”
“To whom?”
Torres hesitated.
“Lauren Pierce.”
Daniel went still.
“How much?”
“Ten million dollars.”
“For what?”
“We don’t know.”
May you like
Then Torres added the part that erased Daniel’s smile.
“Lauren escaped custody twenty minutes ago.”
