Chapter 6 - The Counteroffensive
The next morning, Grant called an emergency secret meeting with the head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regional office and the State Attorney General.
Inside a private conference room at a neutral law firm in San Francisco, Grant laid out Claire’s evidence: water sample testing records, illegal shipping logs, and offshore bank transfers proving Arthur Cole had paid millions in bribes to local inspectors to cover up the toxic dumping.
The Attorney General, a stern woman named Evelyn Reed, looked through the documents with growing shock.
“This is catastrophic, Mr. Mercer,” Attorney General Reed said. “If these chemical logs are verified, Cole Maritime has caused one of the worst quiet ecological disasters on the California coast in twenty years.”
“They are verified,” Grant said coldly. “My late wife spent six months verifying every single coordinate. And Arthur Cole is currently using the profits from that illegal operation to try and force a hostile takeover of my company.”
“What do you want us to do?” Reed asked.
“I want you to execute a federal search warrant on Cole Corporation headquarters at exactly 10:00 AM this Friday,” Grant replied, leaning forward. “That is the exact time Arthur Cole has scheduled an emergency shareholder meeting to force Mercer Global out of the port project.”
Meanwhile, back at the estate, Emma was sitting on the back patio with her grandmother, Evelyn. The little girl was coloring in a new drawing book Grant had bought her.
Using her favorite blue crayon, Emma drew a picture of a large green tree, a bright yellow sun, and three figures holding hands: herself, her father, and a woman with long, floating brown hair wearing a white dress.
Evelyn walked over and looked down at the drawing. Her eyes welled with tears.
“Is that Mommy, sweetheart?” Evelyn asked gently, kneeling beside her granddaughter.
Emma smiled, nodding happily. “Mommy told me in my dream that Daddy is going to win.”
Evelyn hugged the little girl tightly, holding back her tears. “Your mommy was a very smart woman, Emma. And she’s watching over us right now.”
Unbeknownst to them, Vanessa Cole was sitting in her father’s office downtown, pacing back and forth nervously as Arthur Cole finalized his plans for the Friday shareholder meeting.
“Are you sure this will work, Dad?” Vanessa asked, nervously biting her manicured nail. “Grant has that security video. If he leaks it, I won't be able to show my face in San Francisco ever again!”
Arthur Cole laughed, a cold, arrogant sound as he poured himself a glass of expensive scotch. “Let him leak it! High-society gossip lasts a week, Vanessa. Power lasts forever. By Friday afternoon, I will control sixty percent of the shipping terminals on the West Coast. Grant Mercer will be bankrupt, and his little girl will be living in a rented apartment on the cheap side of town.”
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Arthur raised his glass in a toast. “To victory.”
Vanessa smiled, but a deep, unsettling knot of dread tightened in her stomach.
