Chapter 14 - Forty-Seven Seconds
Sophie did not scream.
Later, Laura would ask why.
Sophie would say, “Because Dad couldn’t scream loud enough underground.”
Children built logic out of terror.
Mason stepped closer.
“Come on.”
Sophie backed away.
“That’s mine.”
“You can have it.”
“Put it down.”
He smiled.
“You sound like your mother.”
Elias entered through the side door.
“Mason.”
Mason turned.
Elias saw the locket.
Then Sophie.
Everything happened at once.
Elias moved between them.
Mason struck him with a steel flashlight.
Sophie screamed.
Elias fell against the stall gate.
The horses panicked.
Mason grabbed Sophie’s jacket.
She twisted exactly as she had when Celeste grabbed her in the greenhouse.
The jacket tore.
Sophie dropped.
Crawled beneath a stall rail.
A horse kicked backward.
Mason stumbled away from the hoof.
Sophie ran.
The officer outside heard her scream.
Mason fled through the rear stable doors.
By the time police reached the tree line, he was gone.
He had dropped the locket.
But when Detective Torres picked it up, she immediately saw the problem.
The back plate had been pried open.
The microSD card was missing.
Laura arrived six minutes later.
Sophie ran into her so hard they both fell.
Laura held her daughter on the frozen ground.
“I’m sorry.”
Sophie sobbed.
“I wanted normal.”
“I know.”
“I’m sorry.”
“No. No, you do not apologize.”
Elias was taken to the hospital with a concussion and a fractured wrist.
He had possibly saved Sophie from being kidnapped.
Laura sat beside his bed that afternoon.
“This happened because I let her go.”
“No.”
“I knew there was a threat.”
“You had police.”
“I wanted to believe two officers were enough.”
Elias looked at her.
“Don’t turn their crimes into your guilt.”
Laura shook her head.
“I made the decision.”
“Then learn from it.”
He lifted his bandaged arm.
“But don’t make yourself responsible for Mason choosing to grab a child.”
It was the first mercy Laura had heard in weeks.
Mason’s attack changed the case dramatically.
He was no longer merely wanted for Daniel’s kidnapping.
He had attempted to abduct Sophie in front of a witness.
Federal marshals joined the search.
Celeste’s attorney withdrew from representing her.
A judge issued a no-bail warrant.
Avery Heritage Properties’ board removed Celeste from all management authority.
Laura should have regained control.
She did not.
Raymond Shaw remained acting CEO.
The board argued Laura’s family crisis made immediate reinstatement dangerous for the company.
Laura exploded.
“My family crisis is your CFO stealing millions.”
Raymond remained calm.
“And our lenders do not care whose fault it is.”
“Then maybe our lenders need a different CEO.”
“Right now they need stability.”
“You’re using my sister’s crimes to keep me out.”
“I am using the company’s circumstances.”
Power rarely announced itself as greed.
It called itself stability.
That evening Daniel sat with Sophie.
He held the damaged locket in his palm.
“I’m going to have it repaired.”
Sophie shook her head.
“I don’t want it.”
Daniel looked hurt.
Then understood.
“Okay.”
“You put bad stuff in it.”
“Yes.”
“It made Aunt Celeste want it.”
“Yes.”
“So it wasn’t a present.”
Daniel swallowed.
“It was a present first.”
“Then you changed it.”
“I did.”
Sophie looked at him.
“You made it scary.”
Daniel’s eyes filled.
“I’m sorry.”
He set the locket on the table.
“I won’t ask you to wear it again.”
Laura watched from the doorway.
Daniel had spent his career believing information could protect people.
But information had weight.
He had hung that weight around his daughter’s neck.
Later, Naomi arrived with news.
“The card may not matter anymore.”
Daniel looked up.
“Why?”
“The bank finally produced IP logs for the Ashcroft transfer.”
She opened her laptop.
The one-point-six-million-dollar transaction had been approved from Laura’s digital token.
But the IP address belonged to a hotel in Manhattan.
Laura had not been there.
Celeste had.
Credit-card records placed her at the hotel.
More importantly, hotel surveillance footage showed Celeste in the business center at the exact time Laura’s token was used.
“That ties her to credential theft,” Daniel said.
“Yes.”
“And Ashcroft?”
Naomi smiled for the first time in days.
“We got beneficial ownership.”
Laura leaned forward.
“Who?”
Naomi turned the laptop.
Ashcroft Nominee LLC was owned through a Nevada trust.
The trust’s sole beneficiary was Celeste Avery.
Laura closed her eyes.
Eight stolen percent.
Company money.
A forged transfer.
All ending with Celeste.
Samuel filed the records immediately.
The court suspended Ashcroft’s voting rights pending trial.
For the first time, Celeste lost the corporate control she had fought to steal.
Then federal agents arrived at the house.
Not for Celeste.
For Daniel.
Special Agent Mark Doyle held out a warrant.
“Daniel Hayes, you are under arrest on suspicion of wire fraud and unauthorized transfer of corporate funds.”
Sophie screamed.
Laura stepped in front of him.
“This is insane.”
Doyle’s face was expressionless.
“The six hundred thousand dollars was moved under his credentials.”
“It was preserved in escrow.”
“Part of it wasn’t.”
Daniel went pale.
“What?”
Doyle continued.
“Two hundred thousand dollars left that escrow account forty-eight hours later.”
Daniel stared.
“I didn’t move it.”
The agent handcuffed him.
Sophie began crying.
“Not again.”
Daniel looked at Laura.
And for one terrible second, she saw the question in his eyes.
Do you believe me this time?
Laura did not answer quickly enough.
May you like
Daniel saw the hesitation.
Then the agents took him away.
