Chapter 10 - Everything Comes Into the LightGrant’s arrest cracked the entire conspiracy open.
No answer.
Again.
Nothing.
Security at the estate wasn’t responding.
He was halfway to the elevator before Khloe grabbed his arm.
“You can’t go alone.”
“I’m not.”
Police were already moving.
Detective Brooks ordered Marcus to stay away.
He ignored her.
Khloe didn’t argue that he should remain at the hospital.
She knew he couldn’t.
Instead she said, “Bring her back.”
Marcus kissed her.
“I will.”
The Thorne estate sat thirty miles north of Chicago behind iron gates and acres of winter-bare trees.
Marcus had grown up there.
Grant had practically grown up there too.
He knew every entrance.
Every alarm.
Every hidden corridor built during renovations.
Police found the front gate open.
Security guards were unconscious but alive.
Sedative.
Same substance Diana carried.
Marcus remained behind the tactical line until officers cleared the ground floor.
No Evelyn.
Then a sound came from the library.
A phone ringing.
Grant had left Marcus’s mother’s phone on a table.
Beside it was another note.
Where your father taught us loyalty.
Marcus knew instantly.
The old boathouse.
As teenagers, Marcus and Grant had spent summers there with Marcus’s father.
Police moved toward the lake.
Grant stood inside the boathouse.
Evelyn sat in a chair several feet away.
Her hands were bound loosely.
She appeared frightened but uninjured.
Grant held no visible weapon.
“Marcus!” Evelyn shouted.
Grant raised one hand.
“Stop.”
Police aimed weapons.
Marcus remained outside.
Grant laughed.
“Look at all this.”
“Let my mother go.”
“She’s fine.”
“Then let her walk out.”
“I needed you here.”
“For what?”
“To listen.”
Marcus stared at his former friend.
Grant looked exhausted.
No perfect suit.
No polished executive smile.
Just a desperate man watching his constructed world disappear.
“You think this is about money,” Grant said.
“You stole millions.”
“I built that company with you.”
“You worked there.”
“I saved it!”
Marcus shook his head.
“My father funded it. I founded it. Thousands of employees built it.”
Grant’s eyes hardened.
“And Khloe gets everything.”
There it was again.
Khloe.
Always Khloe.
Marcus finally understood she had become the symbol Grant used for everything he resented.
“She doesn’t run Thorne Global.”
“She runs you.”
“No.”
Marcus stepped closer despite police warnings.
“She reminded me there are things more important than you.”
Grant flinched.
“You abandoned me.”
“I got married.”
“You changed.”
“I grew up.”
The words landed harder than Marcus expected.
Grant looked toward the lake.
“We said we would build something together.”
“We did.”
“And then you started cutting me out.”
“You stole from the company.”
“That came later.”
“No.”
Marcus’s voice softened.
“It started when you decided friendship meant ownership.”
Evelyn watched silently.
Grant’s face twisted.
“She was supposed to leave.”
“Khloe?”
“She wasn’t supposed to get hurt.”
Marcus felt rage surge.
“But she did.”
“Isabella lost control.”
“You created the conditions.”
“I never told her to kick anyone.”
“You paid people to spy on my wife.”
Grant said nothing.
“You manipulated my sister.”
Silence.
“You used Caroline’s obsession with class.”
Silence.
“You sent someone into my wife’s hospital room with a syringe.”
“I needed time.”
“You started a fire.”
Grant finally looked at him.
“No one was supposed to die.”
Marcus laughed once.
No humor in it.
“That’s what cowards say when they create danger and want credit for surviving it.”
Grant’s expression hardened.
“You think you won because of one camera?”
“No.”
Marcus looked toward his mother.
“The camera only showed me what I refused to see.”
Grant grabbed Evelyn suddenly.
Police shouted.
Marcus froze.
Grant pulled something from his pocket.
Not a gun.
A small remote.
“If anyone comes closer, this whole boathouse burns.”
Police saw wiring along the wall.
Fuel cans.
A crude ignition setup.
Marcus stared.
“You said nobody was supposed to die.”
Grant’s hand shook.
“Nobody has to.”
“Let her go.”
“I need a car.”
“You’ll never get away.”
“I need a car!”
Evelyn suddenly spoke.
“Grant.”
He looked down.
“I changed your diapers.”
For one bizarre second, Grant blinked.
Evelyn continued.
“You spent Christmas in my home for fifteen years.”
“Stop.”
“You called me Mom after your own mother died.”
“Stop.”
“And now you’re using me to punish my son?”
Grant’s hand trembled harder.
Evelyn looked almost sad.
“This isn’t loyalty.”
Grant’s eyes filled.
“It was supposed to be mine too.”
“What?”
“The company.”
Evelyn stared.
Then understanding crossed her face.
Marcus’s father had once discussed giving Grant equity.
A small percentage.
He changed his mind after discovering irregular expense reports years earlier.
Grant had carried the resentment ever since.
Evelyn remembered.
“You think Robert cheated you.”
“He promised me.”
“He considered rewarding you.”
“He promised.”
“He discovered you were stealing.”
Grant went still.
Marcus stared.
“What?”
Evelyn looked at her son.
“Your father found fake invoices fifteen years ago.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“He didn’t want to destroy your friendship.”
Grant’s face collapsed.
The truth exposed something Marcus had never known.
Grant’s betrayal wasn’t new.
It had simply grown.
Marcus’s father had quietly covered the loss and removed Grant from certain accounts.
Grant waited years.
Built trust again.
Then started stealing on a larger scale.
Police negotiators kept him talking.
Marcus saw Evelyn subtly working one wrist free.
Grant didn’t notice.
She pulled loose.
Then shoved his arm upward.
The remote flew.
Police rushed in.
Grant lunged.
An officer pinned him against the wooden floor.
Another grabbed the remote.
Evelyn ran into Marcus’s arms.
For one long moment, Marcus held his mother like a child.
Behind them, Grant screamed.
“You chose her!”
Marcus looked over his mother’s shoulder.
“No, Grant.”
May you like
Officers cuffed him.
“I chose the truth.”
