Chapter 4 - Whispers in the Boardroom
While Ethan Coleman was recovering safely in the VIP wing of Manhattan General Hospital, three miles away in the glass-and-steel tower of Coleman Global Enterprises, a very different kind of conversation was taking place.
Inside a dimly lit corner office on the 50th floor, Vance Sterling—the chief operating officer and Richard Coleman's stepbrother—sat behind an mahogany desk, sipping scotch from a crystal glass.
Opposite him sat Dr. Julian Mercer, a senior director on the hospital’s board of trustees.
"What do you mean the baby survived?" Vance asked, his voice dropping into a dangerous, razor-thin register.
"I mean the child is alive and breathing fine, Vance!" Dr. Mercer whispered frantically into his encrypted phone line. "The obstruction was removed twenty minutes ago!"
Vance’s hand tightened around his glass until his knuckles turned white. "You assured me that the specialized micro-valve formulation would dissolve without a trace within two hours of cardiac arrest! You said the medical team would classify it as Sudden Infant Death Syndrome or an genetic respiratory collapse!"
"It would have dissolved!" Dr. Mercer defended himself, cold sweat dripping down his collar. "The doctors had already pronounced the child dead! The monitors were flatlined! But some street kid walked into the room and noticed a tiny shadow on the neck that no one else saw! He made Harrison look again!"
Vance stood up, walking toward the floor-to-ceiling window overlooking the city skyline.
If Ethan Coleman had died, Richard would have been emotionally destroyed. In his grief, Richard had already prepared to step down as CEO, leaving Vance as the sole heir to the Coleman family trust and the controlling shareholder of the forty-billion-dollar enterprise.
Now, everything was at risk.
"A street kid?" Vance hissed, his eyes narrowing into cold slits. "Who is he? Where did he come from?"
"I don't know!" Mercer stammered. "Some poor brat who was returning Coleman's lost wallet! Coleman has already taken him under his wing! He sent his private security team to pick up the boy’s family!"
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Vance stared out at the city lights, his jaw tightly clenched.
"Find out everything about that boy, Mercer," Vance ordered quietly. "If Richard brings an outsider into his inner circle... he might start looking into how that silicone valve ended up in Ethan's baby formula in the first place."
