Chapter 2 - The Family Arrives
Julian Sinclair entered Victoria’s hospital room at 1:40 in the morning without knocking.
He had been doing that since she was a child.
At sixty-two, Julian still carried himself like the Sinclair family belonged to him.
Silver hair.
Navy overcoat.
A voice built for private clubs and boardrooms.
“My God, Victoria.”
He moved toward the bed.
She lifted one hand.
“Don’t.”
Julian stopped.
His expression shifted from concern to wounded patience.
“I came as soon as I heard.”
“You were at the foundation dinner.”
“I left immediately.”
Victoria glanced toward Detective Chen.
“Tell her where Adrian is.”
Julian frowned.
“What does Adrian have to do with this?”
Chen answered.
“His credentials were used to remove the substance found in Mr. Blake’s possession.”
Julian’s face hardened.
“That is absurd.”
“Where is he?”
“At our Aspen property.”
“He was there tonight?”
“He flew out yesterday.”
Chen wrote it down.
Victoria studied her uncle.
“You didn’t know?”
“Know what?”
“That his credentials were used.”
“How would I?”
Victoria had learned from her father that lies usually arrived too quickly or too slowly.
Julian’s answer had arrived perfectly.
That made her more suspicious.
The door opened again.
Graham Vale entered.
Victoria’s fiancé.
Sinclair Global’s general counsel.
Forty years old.
Measured.
Brilliant.
The one person who could calm her without making her feel managed.
Usually.
Tonight, he crossed the room and stopped beside the bed.
“Are you all right?”
“No.”
He touched her hand.
She let him.
For three seconds.
Then pulled away.
“Edmund tried to kill me.”
Graham’s face tightened.
“So I heard.”
“He had material from our lab.”
“I’ve already locked down the facility.”
Detective Chen looked at him.
“You did what?”
Graham turned.
“Preserved access logs.”
“Without police instruction?”
“As general counsel, I have a duty to prevent destruction of company records.”
“You also have a duty not to interfere with a criminal investigation.”
“I didn’t.”
Chen did not appear convinced.
Victoria watched both.
Graham looked back at her.
“You need to rest.”
“I need Adrian found.”
Julian sighed.
“Victoria, no one knows that Adrian had anything to do with this.”
“His credentials.”
“Credentials can be stolen.”
“So can company money.”
Julian’s expression changed.
Only slightly.
Graham noticed.
“What does that mean?”
Victoria said nothing.
Two weeks earlier, an internal audit had identified $38 million in unexplained transfers involving Sinclair Family Trust assets.
She had told almost no one.
Graham.
Her private accountant.
And Julian.
She had not yet confronted Adrian.
Before she could answer, Hannah entered with Ellie asleep against her shoulder.
Hannah had changed out of her uniform.
Ellie still held Rosie.
Victoria looked immediately at the pink backpack.
“Did you get another injector?”
“The pediatrician sent an emergency prescription. A twenty-four-hour pharmacy filled it.”
“How many?”
Hannah’s jaw tightened.
“Enough.”
Victoria understood the warning.
Do not buy your way into this.
Ellie woke.
Her eyes found Victoria.
“Are you breathing?”
Victoria almost smiled.
“Yes.”
Ellie considered that.
“Good.”
Julian turned.
“This is the child?”
Hannah stiffened.
Victoria noticed.
“This is Ellie Carter.”
Julian’s attention moved to Hannah.
“Housekeeping?”
“Hannah is my mother,” Ellie corrected.
The room went silent.
Victoria looked away so no one would see the beginning of a smile.
Julian crouched.
“Of course.”
Ellie immediately hid her face against Hannah.
Julian stood.
“She shouldn’t be in here.”
Victoria’s eyes became cold.
“She is here because she saved my life.”
“I mean for the investigation.”
“So did I.”
Julian looked irritated.
“Victoria.”
“No.”
The single word stopped him.
Graham intervened.
“Everyone’s exhausted.”
Detective Chen asked Hannah if Ellie could answer one or two simple questions with her mother present.
Hannah agreed.
Chen remained gentle.
“Ellie, where were you before you found Ms. Sinclair?”
“In the pantry.”
“Why?”
“Rosie was hungry.”
Hannah closed her eyes.
Victoria stared.
Ellie had been pretending to feed a stuffed rabbit crackers.
“What did you see?”
“Mr. Edmund had a blue bottle.”
“Where?”
“By the shiny drinks.”
“The champagne table?”
Ellie nodded.
“He looked around.”
“What did he do?”
“He put drops in the glass.”
“Then what?”
“He put the bottle in his pocket.”
Chen asked, “Did anyone else talk to him?”
Ellie frowned.
Everyone waited.
“A man.”
Victoria sat straighter.
“Who?”
Ellie looked around the room.
Not at Julian.
Not at Graham.
She seemed uncertain.
“He had black shoes.”
Julian gave a small laugh.
“We all have black shoes.”
Hannah’s expression hardened.
“Don’t pressure her.”
“I am doing no such thing.”
Ellie buried her face again.
Chen stopped questioning.
“That’s enough.”
Julian pulled Graham aside.
Their voices were low.
Victoria still heard one sentence.
“We cannot let this become a corporate story.”
She looked at them.
“It already is.”
Julian turned.
“Sinclair Global opens at nine. If investors hear our internal lab was used in an attempted murder—”
“I nearly died.”
“And I am trying to protect what your father built.”
Victoria’s face hardened.
“There it is.”
“What?”
“The company before the victim.”
Julian stared.
Something old passed between them.
An argument Victoria had watched between her father and uncle many times.
Graham stepped closer.
“Victoria, the board will need guidance before markets react.”
“Draft a disclosure.”
“Minimal?”
“Truthful.”
Julian said, “You are on medication.”
Victoria turned slowly.
“Finish that sentence.”
He did not.
Later, after everyone left except Graham, Victoria asked him to close the door.
“Where is my personal emergency kit?”
Graham frowned.
“The one from the foyer cabinet?”
“Yes.”
Victoria always kept two prescribed epinephrine auto-injectors in a coded drawer near the formal dining room.
The household medical protocol required it.
She had reached for that drawer once during a mild reaction three years earlier.
Graham stood.
“I’ll call security.”
They checked remotely.
The drawer was empty.
No injector.
No backup.
Nothing.
Someone had not merely contaminated Victoria’s drink.
Someone had removed the medicine she normally would have used to save herself.
Ellie had not simply interrupted an attack.
Her presence had destroyed a plan designed to leave Victoria with no rescue.
Detective Chen returned at 3:05 a.m.
She listened.
Then asked, “Who knew the code to that drawer?”
Victoria answered.
“Edmund.”
“Who else?”
“Me.”
“Anyone else?”
Graham hesitated.
Victoria looked at him.
He said, “I knew it.”
Chen wrote his name.
Then Julian’s.
Victoria frowned.
“My uncle shouldn’t know it.”
Graham looked uncomfortable.
“He asked me for the household emergency protocols last year after your reaction at the Palm Beach conference.”
Victoria stared.
“You gave them to him?”
“I gave him the family safety binder.”
“Without asking me?”
“He’s family.”
Victoria’s expression turned cold.
Graham added quickly, “Victoria—”
Her phone vibrated.
A secure email from Brackenridge security.
The mansion’s camera system had been reviewed.
Six minutes before Victoria collapsed, the foyer cameras went offline.
The override came from an authorized remote administrator.
Graham read over her shoulder.
“Whose account?”
Victoria opened the audit record.
The username belonged to her.
May you like
VICTORIA.SINCLAIR.ADMIN.
Her own credentials had disabled the cameras before someone tried to kill her.
