Chapter 3 - Fifty-Five Percent
By morning, the snow outside the chalet had deepened enough to bury the lower steps.
Ryan had not slept.
Emma finally drifted off shortly after three, curled beneath his winter coat despite three blankets being available.
Ryan sat beside her bed until sunrise.
At seven, his phone began ringing.
Board members.
Reporters.
Attorneys.
Then Maya Sloan called.
“You need to get to Denver.”
Maya had been Nora’s closest friend in law school and later became Ryan’s outside corporate counsel.
“Why?”
“Celeste called an emergency board meeting.”
Ryan looked toward Emma.
“Of course she did.”
“There’s more.”
“What?”
“She’s moving to suspend you as CEO.”
Ryan laughed once.
“She assaulted my daughter and she’s suspending me?”
“She controls the votes.”
“No, she doesn’t.”
Silence.
“Maya?”
“Ryan, when was the last time you reviewed Emma’s trust?”
He felt a bad sensation develop under his ribs.
“After Nora died.”
“Specifically?”
“Celeste became successor trustee.”
“Under what document?”
“My father’s trust.”
“No.”
Ryan stood.
“What do you mean, no?”
“I pulled the original. Gerald named Summit Fiduciary as successor trustee if Nora died or became incapacitated.”
Ryan said nothing.
Maya continued.
“Celeste’s authority comes from a Second Amendment supposedly signed by Nora on January twenty-second, 2023.”
The cellar dates flashed through his mind.
January 19.
January 20.
January 21.
“January twenty-second?”
“Yes.”
“Two weeks after Nora disappeared.”
“Yes.”
“Three months before we found her body.”
“Yes.”
Ryan gripped the phone.
“Who notarized it?”
“Thomas Keene.”
Their father’s old estate lawyer.
Ryan knew him well.
“Is the signature Nora’s?”
“It looks like it.”
“Looks?”
“I’m not a handwriting expert.”
Ryan stared at the sleeping child.
“What does the amendment do?”
“It replaces Summit Fiduciary with Celeste as sole successor trustee and grants the trustee full voting authority over Emma’s twenty-percent shareholding.”
Ryan understood immediately.
Celeste’s thirty-five percent plus Emma’s twenty.
Fifty-five percent.
Control.
He had been running a company his sister technically controlled.
“How long have you known?”
“Forty minutes.”
Ryan’s voice hardened.
“File something.”
“I already am.”
“What?”
“Emergency petition in probate court to suspend Celeste’s authority over the trust pending investigation.”
“Good.”
“Ryan, listen to me. Do not confront her.”
He looked toward the hallway.
“Too late for that.”
Three hours later, Ryan walked into Mercer Alpine Holdings headquarters in downtown Denver carrying Nora’s photograph inside a protective folder.
The lobby fell silent.
Employees watched him cross polished granite toward the elevators.
By the time he reached the executive floor, Celeste was waiting.
So was Douglas Vane.
Victor’s chair was empty.
Celeste looked as immaculate as she had the night before.
“You brought a police circus into a family matter.”
Ryan stepped close enough that Douglas cleared his throat.
“You slapped Emma.”
“She stole confidential material.”
“She’s eight.”
“And you leave her with staff and relatives for weeks while you fly around acquiring resorts.”
The accusation landed because there was truth inside it.
Ryan had spent too much time away.
After Nora died, work became anesthesia.
He had convinced himself Emma needed stability.
He had not asked whether Celeste’s version of stability was safe.
Celeste saw the guilt in his face.
She smiled.
“Exactly.”
The boardroom doors opened.
Five directors entered.
Maya was already inside.
She looked at Ryan and shook her head slightly.
Don’t react.
Ryan sat.
Douglas opened the meeting.
“Given last night’s events and the potential reputational exposure—”
“My daughter was assaulted,” Ryan interrupted.
Douglas stopped.
“So if anyone uses the phrase reputational exposure before saying her name again, I’ll end this meeting myself.”
Celeste leaned back.
“You no longer have that authority.”
Maya slid a document across the table.
“Actually, Ms. Mercer’s authority over the voting trust is being challenged as we speak.”
Celeste’s eyes narrowed.
Maya continued.
“The document granting her control was allegedly executed while Nora Mercer was missing and, based on newly discovered evidence, possibly being held against her will.”
Douglas looked at Celeste.
She remained still.
“Our lawyers vetted that amendment years ago.”
“Your lawyers were given a notarized signature,” Maya said. “They were not given a photograph of Nora inside a locked cellar on the same property three days before execution.”
One director whispered something.
Celeste opened a leather folder.
“I had hoped not to do this.”
Ryan almost smiled.
“You say that whenever you’re about to do exactly what you planned.”
She placed copies of several pages on the table.
Text messages.
From Nora.
To Celeste.
Ryan read the first.
RYAN LOST IT AGAIN LAST NIGHT.
The next:
HE BROKE MY PHONE.
And another:
IF I LEAVE, I’M TAKING EMMA.
Ryan’s chest tightened.
Maya looked at him.
“Are these authentic?”
Ryan remembered the argument.
Two months before Nora vanished.
He had come home after midnight from negotiations in Utah.
Nora had accused him of caring more about acquisitions than his family.
She had raised her phone to record him.
He had taken it from her.
It fell.
The screen shattered.
He had never hit her.
But he had shouted.
Ugly things.
Words he had regretted before they finished leaving his mouth.
Celeste watched him.
“They’re real, aren’t they?”
Ryan stared at her.
“Some of them.”
Maya’s expression changed.
“Ryan?”
“I broke Nora’s phone during an argument.”
Celeste looked toward the board.
“He conveniently left that out.”
Ryan felt the room slipping from him.
Douglas cleared his throat.
“We have a duty to protect the company.”
Celeste moved a formal resolution forward.
“Pending investigation into Nora Mercer’s death, the rediscovered evidence, and Ryan’s undisclosed domestic conflict, I move that he be placed on administrative leave.”
“You’re under investigation too,” Maya said.
“I am cooperating.”
Ryan nearly laughed.
Douglas called for votes.
Two directors opposed suspension.
Two supported it.
Then came the trust-controlled seat.
Celeste voted Emma’s shares.
“For.”
Maya stood.
“That vote is legally disputed.”
“Challenge it in court.”
“We are.”
Celeste turned toward Ryan.
“For now, you’re out.”
Security appeared outside the glass wall.
Ryan recognized both men.
Employees he had hired.
He stood.
Celeste walked close.
Quietly, so only he could hear, she said, “You should have left the cellar locked.”
Ryan looked at her.
“You’re scared.”
“No.”
“You are.”
Her eyes hardened.
Ryan leaned closer.
“Whatever Nora found, Emma found part of it too.”
For the first time Celeste’s gaze shifted.
“Emma doesn’t understand what she saw.”
“Maybe not.”
Ryan picked up his coat.
“But I do.”
He started toward the door.
Maya followed.
Then Ryan stopped.
“What exactly did Nora supposedly sign on January twenty-second?”
Celeste smiled.
“The document that gave me control.”
Ryan looked directly at Douglas Vane.
“And if Nora was being held in that cellar when she signed it?”
Nobody answered.
Ryan opened the door.
His phone vibrated.
A message from Detective Ortiz.
WE FOUND VICTOR’S COMPANY SUV AT DENVER INTERNATIONAL.
Ryan opened the next message.
HE DIDN’T BOARD A FLIGHT.
Then a photograph arrived from airport security footage.
Victor Hale was standing beside a black sedan.
May you like
The timestamp showed 1:18 a.m.
And beside him was Douglas Vane.
