Chapter 17 - The Third Partner
Jake led Nathan through an emergency stairwell beneath the bridge.
The main gate was locked electronically.
The water climbed to Level Six.
Nathan shouted over the roar.
“Who can control this remotely?”
“Executive operations, maintenance director, system vendor.”
“Grant?”
“His access should be revoked.”
“Should be?”
Jake gave him a look.
“You built the company.”
Nathan almost laughed.
Fair.
They reached the lower service corridor.
A shadow moved ahead.
Jake grabbed a fire extinguisher.
“Stay behind me.”
Nathan stared.
“You remember I’m the one who punched you.”
“Exactly.”
They turned the corner.
Luis Ortega stepped out.
Hands raised.
“Don’t!”
Jake lowered the extinguisher.
“What are you doing here?”
“Someone called me. Said pump system malfunction.”
“Who?”
“Melissa Crane.”
Nathan froze.
Grant’s executive assistant.
The notary who had cooperated.
The woman who claimed she was being manipulated.
Luis continued.
“She said Helen needed me here immediately.”
Nathan’s chest tightened.
“Where is Melissa?”
A door slammed above them.
They ran upstairs.
Melissa was in the control room.
She held Grant’s missing emergency fob.
When she saw them, she bolted.
Jake tackled her before she reached the exit.
No punches.
Nathan noticed.
Police arrived twelve minutes later after Jake used a hardwired emergency alarm.
Melissa cried as officers handcuffed her.
“I didn’t hurt Lily!”
Ruiz arrived.
“Then start talking.”
Melissa broke quickly.
Much faster than Grant.
She had been more than his assistant.
She had managed Crescent Peak’s paperwork.
Moved payments.
Prepared the fraudulent postnup.
Deleted internal files.
And helped Grant create the SUCCESSION scenarios.
But she denied knowing Bianca intended to push Lily until after it happened.
“Why activate the rapids today?” Ruiz asked.
Melissa sobbed.
“Grant told me there was a backup drive in the control system.”
“What backup?”
“Manual access logs.”
Grant had realized the system stored a second audit record.
One proving his fob changed the current.
He instructed Melissa months earlier to disable automatic replication, but she had failed.
After his arrest, Bianca somehow learned the backup still existed.
Her emergency phone call from counsel’s office had gone to Melissa.
“You promised Lily would never talk,” Melissa had said.
Bianca answered:
“Then fix what Grant failed to fix.”
Melissa panicked.
She went to Silver Pine to destroy the logs.
She activated the pumps to force a system reset.
Instead she trapped Nathan and Jake.
Ruiz stared at her.
“You realize you just added evidence tampering and reckless endangerment to everything else.”
Melissa cried harder.
The backup drive survived.
It showed Grant’s emergency fob opened the equipment room at 12:41 p.m.
At 12:44, the rapids control console.
At 12:47, Level Six was selected.
At 12:50, the fob opened a private service gate near the stone bridge.
Thomas’s video began at 12:52.
Bianca pushed Lily at 1:01.
There was one more entry.
At 12:56, the fob opened equipment locker C-12.
The locker containing Lily’s vest.
Grant had repeatedly denied entering that locker.
Now he changed his story.
Prosecutors confronted him.
His cooperation agreement was at risk.
He finally admitted the truth.
Bianca asked him to cut the vest.
Grant refused.
Then she called him a coward.
He opened the locker for her.
He watched her take a black utility knife from her purse.
“What did you think she would do?” the prosecutor asked.
Grant looked down.
“I knew.”
“Say it.”
“I knew she was going to damage the vest.”
“Why?”
“To make rescue harder.”
“Did you believe she intended Lily to die?”
Grant’s face collapsed.
“Yes.”
The room went silent.
“Why did you help?”
Grant whispered, “Because I had twenty-two million dollars missing, Ridgewell was threatening to expose me, and Bianca said once Nathan controlled eighty-two percent, the sale would cover everything.”
There it was.
Money.
Fear.
Cowardice.
Not one dramatic mastermind.
A chain of people choosing themselves over a child.
Grant continued.
“I thought maybe she wouldn’t actually push her.”
The prosecutor stared.
“You increased the current.”
Grant covered his face.
“I know.”
“You opened the vest locker.”
“I know.”
“You watched her carry Lily toward the attraction.”
“I know.”
“And you did nothing.”
Grant began crying.
Nathan heard the confession later through Ruiz.
He felt no satisfaction.
Only exhaustion.
Grant agreed to testify against Bianca in exchange for prosecutors considering his cooperation at sentencing.
He would still face years in prison for fraud, conspiracy and his role in the attempted killing.
Bianca’s defense collapsed further.
But she still refused to plead.
She wanted a trial.
“She says Lily will fall apart on the stand,” David told Nathan.
Nathan’s face hardened.
“She’s seven.”
“That is exactly what Bianca is counting on.”
Nathan looked toward the room where Lily was working with Dr. Benson.
The words from the rapids returned.
Nobody would believe me.
May you like
Bianca had built everything around that belief.
Now she planned to use it one final time.
