Chapter 5 - THE ESCAPE CLAUSEChaos erupted in the boardroom.
Two of the board members whose names appeared on the offshore accounts stood up and bolted for the private elevator, only to find the doors blocked by federal agents. Harrison didn't run. Instead, a cold, mocking smile spread across his thin lips as the steel cuffs clicked around his wrists.
"You think arresting me stops anything, Daniel?" Harrison laughed softly as the marshals pulled him toward the door. "The legal framework protecting the Sterling Institute’s custody rights over Noah was signed by a federal judge. Even from a jail cell, I legally control his medical directives until he turns eighteen. If you try to remove him from our care protocol without judicial consent, child protective services will seize him within the hour!"
Daniel stopped in his tracks, the blood rushing in his ears. "What did you say?"
"Check the emergency guardianship clause in the master medical trust you signed six years ago, while you were half-mad with grief over Claire’s death," Harrison sneered over his shoulder as they dragged him out. "You signed away his medical independence to the Institute permanently. He’s our asset, Daniel!"
The elevator doors closed, cutting off his laughter.
Daniel stood frozen in the center of the boardroom. The directors who weren't implicated sat paralyzed, staring at him in horror.
"Mr. Mercer," Emily said, walking briskly over to him and placing a tablet in his hands. "He’s bluffing. Well, partly bluffing."
"What do you mean, partly?" Daniel demanded, turning on her. "Did I sign that clause?"
"Yes, you did. Back when you were grieving and letting Harrison handle all the legal paperwork," Emily said grimly. "Which is why we aren't fighting this in civil court. We’re going straight to the federal appellate judge who issued the original sealing order—Judge Robert Vance. And we’re presenting the digital trail of bribery that proves Harrison blackmailed him into signing it."
"Vance is notoriously corrupt," Daniel said, shaking his head. "He’s protected Harrison for a decade."
"Vance was corrupt," Emily corrected, tapping the tablet screen. "Until forty minutes ago, when my sister—who happens to be a senior investigator for the Department of Health and Human Services—raided his vacation home in Lake Geneva and found three hundred thousand dollars in cash stuffed inside a golf bag."
Daniel stared at her, a slow, grim realization dawning in his chest. "You didn't just come to my house to be a nanny, did you, Miss Parker?"
Emily looked him straight in the eye. "My name isn't Emily Parker. It’s Dr. Emily Parker-Mercer. Claire was my older sister."
The room seemed to tilt on its axis.
"Your... her sister?" Daniel gasped, stepping back. "Why didn't you tell me?"
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"Because if I had walked up to your front door six weeks ago and told you that your billionaire lifestyle was funding the people who murdered my sister and crippled your son, you would have had your security guards throw me into the lake," Emily said fiercely. "I had to get inside. I had to see if my nephew was still alive. And I had to see if there was anything left of the man Claire fell in love with."
Daniel had no defense. He had no words. He simply looked at the woman standing before him—the sister of the woman he had failed to protect—and felt the full, crushing weight of his sins.
