CHAPTER 10 — THE BOARDROOM COUP
Claire did not cry when Ethan was arrested.
She sat at the head of the Blackwood boardroom and placed her mother’s stock certificates on the table.
“With Ethan detained, his voting authority transfers to his legal proxy,” Adrian announced.
Margaret looked toward him.
“And that proxy is me.”
Adrian shook his head.
“Ethan changed it at the hospital.”
He handed Claire a document.
“His proxy is his wife.”
Claire now controlled her eighteen percent, Ethan’s shares and the voting rights attached to their unborn child’s trust.
She had enough power to suspend Marcus and Margaret until a full audit was completed.
Margaret rose.
“You are destroying a family you joined less than a year ago.”
“No,” Claire replied. “I am stopping the people who destroyed it nineteen years ago.”
She ordered every foundation account frozen.
Investigators found transfers routed through private clinics, false charities and shell corporations. Millions had been used to support Patient D.
Other payments had gone to Evelyn Carter.
Vanessa provided the recording from her dress and agreed to testify.
By nightfall, Marcus had disappeared.
Margaret remained at the estate, protected by attorneys.
Meanwhile, the remains identified as Daniel Blackwood were sent for independent testing.
The results did not make sense.
The deceased man shared extremely close DNA with Ethan, but he was not Ethan’s father.
He was more likely an uncle.
Adrian finally revealed the family secret.
Daniel Blackwood had an identical twin brother named David.
David suffered from severe behavioral problems as a young man. The family concealed his existence after he was committed to a private institution.
Nineteen years earlier, David was released under unexplained circumstances.
Three days later, Daniel’s plane crashed.
Claire visited Ethan in custody and showed him the report.
“The body may be David.”
“Then Daniel could still be alive.”
“Or the man we think is Daniel could be David.”
Ethan remembered the cassette recording.
Daniel had warned that someone might replace him.
The family could no longer be certain which brother had died in the crash, which brother had survived or which one had fathered Ethan.
That night, Vanessa received the results of her DNA test.
She called Claire immediately.
“I’m not Ethan’s sister.”
Claire felt a brief moment of relief.
Then Vanessa continued.
“The laboratory says Ethan and I are related through our mothers.”
“That’s impossible.”
“There is more.”
Vanessa sent Claire the report.
According to the analysis, Vanessa’s biological mother was not Olivia Vale.
It was either Helen Carter or her identical twin, Evelyn.
Claire stared at the screen.
If the test was correct, Vanessa was not Ethan’s sister.
She was Claire’s cousin.
Before Claire could respond, another file arrived from Vanessa.
It was a photograph of Claire’s mother taken two years after her supposed death.
Helen stood beside Patient D.
In her arms was a newborn baby.
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On the back was a handwritten name.
Claire.
