Chapter 5 - Ninety-Four Minutes
Detective Collins advised Ethan not to leave the hospital.
His attorney advised the same.
Hannah did not.
“Go,” she said.
Ethan stood beside her bed, torn between the monitors surrounding his wife and the emergency board meeting that could transfer control of the company, the estate, and the unborn child’s trust.
“I’m not leaving you again.”
“You’re not leaving me. You’re stopping them.”
“What if labor starts?”
“Then the hospital will call you.”
He looked at the security officer outside.
Hannah squeezed his hand. “Vivian wants you frightened and divided. Don’t give her what she wants.”
Ethan leaned down and kissed her forehead.
“I’ll be back before Lily is born.”
“You’d better be.”
Detective Ruiz accompanied him to Mercer Holdings headquarters. Collins stayed behind to complete Hannah’s statement and coordinate with hospital security.
The board meeting was being held on the thirty-second floor, inside a glass conference room overlooking downtown Philadelphia.
When Ethan entered, twelve directors were seated around the table.
Vivian sat at the far end wearing a cream suit, fully dressed and composed as though nothing had happened at the estate.
Logan occupied Ethan’s usual chair.
Dr. Malcolm Voss sat beside them.
Ethan stopped in the doorway.
Voss was in his late fifties, silver-haired and polished. He wore the expression of a man accustomed to having his credentials end arguments.
Vivian looked at Detective Ruiz.
“This is a private corporate meeting.”
“I’m here as an observer,” Ruiz said.
“Our attorneys were not informed.”
“You can call them.”
Ethan walked to the head of the table.
“Before anyone votes, I want the evidence presented.”
Logan stood. “You assaulted me this morning.”
“You helped my mother restrain and drug my wife.”
“That is insane.”
Ethan placed the forged custody petition on the table.
Several directors leaned forward.
Vivian did not move.
“This document carries my signature,” Ethan said. “I did not sign it.”
Dr. Voss cleared his throat. “Mr. Mercer is exhibiting symptoms consistent with acute paranoid ideation.”
Ethan looked at him. “Have you ever examined me?”
“I reviewed relevant medical records.”
“What records?”
Voss slid a folder across the table.
The file included reports describing insomnia, violent outbursts, addiction, and delusions. It claimed Ethan had privately admitted fantasies of harming Logan.
Every page bore the Mercer Health Group letterhead.
Every signature appeared legitimate.
All of it was false.
One director, Ruth Caldwell, adjusted her glasses.
“Dr. Voss, did you personally conduct these evaluations?”
“I supervised them.”
“That wasn’t the question.”
Voss hesitated. “Some sessions occurred remotely.”
Ethan opened Logan’s cracked phone and played the video of Hannah being forced to her knees.
The boardroom filled with Vivian’s recorded voice.
“This house belongs to my sons. Not to some waitress from Ohio.”
Then Logan appeared on-screen, gripping Hannah’s wrist.
No one spoke when the video ended.
Vivian clasped her hands.
“A carefully edited recording taken during a psychiatric crisis.”
“It came from Logan’s phone.”
“He was documenting her behavior.”
Director Caldwell looked at Logan. “Why were you laughing?”
Logan’s mouth opened, but no answer came.
Ethan connected his laptop to the boardroom display.
“I also reviewed the transaction records for the missing $842,670.”
A spreadsheet filled the screen.
“The money did not go to Hannah. It moved through six shell companies and was used to pay Hartwell Behavioral Transport, Blackwood Psychiatric Center, Dr. Voss, three law firms, and a private investigative agency.”
Murmurs spread around the table.
Vivian looked sharply at him.
She had assumed the financial network was too complex to trace quickly.
What she had forgotten was that Ethan designed the company’s fraud-detection software.
“I followed the authorization tokens,” he continued. “All transfers originated from a device registered to Logan Mercer.”
Logan stood. “That’s impossible.”
“Your tablet automatically connected to the estate network this morning. The backup server recorded its identity.”
Vivian’s gaze hardened.
She had not known about the backup server.
Detective Ruiz stepped forward. “Mr. Mercer, do you still possess that device?”
Logan’s confidence vanished.
“It was stolen.”
“When?”
“This morning.”
“By whom?”
“I don’t know.”
“You used it to access company accounts at 7:13 a.m.”
Logan turned toward his mother.
Vivian remained silent.
The company’s general counsel, Martin Shaw, looked at Dr. Voss.
“You received eighty-two thousand dollars from one of these entities.”
“Consulting fees,” Voss replied.
“For diagnosing two people you never examined?”
“I reject that characterization.”
The conference-room door opened.
A young woman entered carrying a sealed envelope.
She whispered to Martin Shaw, who read the contents and went pale.
“What is it?” Vivian demanded.
Shaw handed the paper to Ethan.
It was a temporary restraining order issued less than ten minutes earlier. Vivian, Logan, and Dr. Voss were prohibited from contacting Hannah or approaching the newborn child.
The order also froze any attempt to alter trusteeship until the court reviewed evidence of fraud.
Vivian stood so abruptly that her chair struck the wall.
“This is absurd.”
Director Caldwell looked at the board.
“I move that we suspend this emergency vote.”
“Seconded,” another director said.
“All in favor?”
Ten hands rose.
Logan remained standing, staring at Ethan with hatred.
Vivian gathered her purse.
“You think you’ve won because you found a few payments?”
Ethan studied her.
“What haven’t I found?”
For the first time, she smiled.
“The delivery plan.”
Ethan’s phone rang.
St. Catherine Medical Center.
He answered immediately.
A nurse spoke rapidly.
“Mr. Mercer, your wife’s labor has progressed. The fetal heart rate is dropping. We’re preparing for an emergency delivery.”
Ethan ran from the conference room.
As the elevator doors closed, Vivian called after him.
“You should ask which doctor is operating.”
The doors met.
Ethan stared at his reflection in the polished metal.
May you like
Then he called the hospital.
“Do not let anyone take my wife into surgery until you verify every person in that room.”
