Chapter 4 - The Poisoned Ledger
By the third day in the ICU, the magnesium treatments had successfully stabilized my contractions, and the internal bleeding in my placenta had begun to heal.
However, the war outside my hospital room was just beginning.
At 2:00 PM on Thursday, my personal attorney, Sarah Lin, stepped into the room carrying a heavy leather briefcase. She looked exhausted, her silk blouse rumpled, but her eyes held a sharp, victorious fire.
"How are we doing today, momma?" Sarah asked, setting her briefcase on the rolling tray table.
"Sore, but stable," I replied, sitting up slightly with Marcus’s help. "What did you find in the corporate trust records?"
Sarah pulled out three thick binders bound in black plastic and laid them out across my bed.
"When Isabella was arrested," Sarah explained, "the police seized her personal residence in Gold Coast. Inside her master closet, hidden behind a false mirror, state investigators found a second laptop and a set of encrypted flash drives."
Marcus leaned forward, his hands resting on the edge of the bed. "What was on the drives?"
"It wasn't just your mother's medical records, Khloe," Sarah said, looking at me with deep sympathy. "Isabella was a serial extortionist. For six years, she used her position as Marcus's senior financial director to embezzle over twelve million dollars from the Mercer Enterprise logistics accounts."
"Twelve million?" Marcus repeated, his eyebrows shooting up in surprise.
"She was laundering the money through shell companies registered in the Cayman Islands," Sarah continued. "And do you know who was helping her manage those accounts? Marcus’s cousin—Julian Mercer."
Marcus froze. The blood seemed to drain from his face, leaving his features carved out of stone. "Julian?"
"Julian was the one who authorized Isabella’s security pass to enter the hospital wing on Tuesday morning," Sarah revealed, sliding a printed log sheet across the tray. "He disabled the primary security desk at the floor entrance three minutes before Isabella walked into Khloe's room."
"My own cousin..." Marcus whispered, his fists clenching so hard his knuckles popped in the quiet room. "He gave her the key to murder my wife and child."
"Julian holds fifteen percent of the voting shares in Mercer Enterprises," I realized, the terrifying corporate puzzle assembling itself in my mind. "If Marcus was ruined by a public tragedy—if I died and the baby was lost—Julian would have stepped in as temporary chairman of the board while Marcus was grieving."
"Exactly," Sarah confirmed. "It was a coordinated coup. Isabella got the money and her revenge, and Julian got controlling interest in the multi-billion-dollar maritime shipping empire."
Marcus stood up slowly. He walked over to the large floor-to-ceiling window overlooking the rainy Chicago skyline, his reflection dark and menacing against the gray glass.
"Sarah," Marcus said, his voice dropping into a register that sent a chill down my spine. "Call a special meeting of the Mercer Board of Directors for nine o'clock tomorrow morning."
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"You're going to confront Julian in front of the board?" Sarah asked.
"No," Marcus replied, turning around with an icy, terrifying smile. "I'm going to let him present his motion to remove me as CEO... and then I'm going to have the State Police arrest him in the middle of the boardroom."
