CHAPTER 8: What Eleanor Had Hidden
Firefighters reached the warehouse before the roof collapsed.
Daniel, Eleanor, and Lydia escaped through a window after Daniel broke the glass with a steel pipe.
Most of the documents were saved.
The cassette recorder was not.
By the time federal investigators searched Malcolm Sterling’s home, he had disappeared.
His car was found at a train station.
His passport remained in his safe.
His bank accounts had not been touched.
It looked as though he had planned his disappearance for years.
Eleanor returned home with smoke damage to her lungs and a cut across her hand. A doctor advised her to rest, but she refused.
“There is something else I need to show you,” she told Daniel.
She led him to Thomas’s private study and removed a framed photograph from the wall.
Behind it was a sealed envelope.
Daniel stared at her.
“How many secrets did you keep in this house?”
“Too many.”
The envelope contained a birth certificate.
The child’s name was Malcolm James Reed.
His mother was Margaret Reed—Eleanor’s mother.
Daniel read the document twice.
“Malcolm is your brother?”
“Half brother.”
Eleanor explained that Malcolm had been born before her parents married. Her mother, frightened by scandal and family pressure, allowed another family to adopt him.
Years later, Malcolm discovered the truth.
Eleanor’s father welcomed him privately but refused to acknowledge him publicly or give him shares in Reed International.
“He believed the company was stolen from him,” Eleanor said.
“Did Dad know?”
“Yes.”
“And you still allowed Malcolm to become the company’s attorney?”
“I thought bringing him into the family would heal the wound.”
Instead, every promotion and private benefit deepened Malcolm’s resentment.
He did not want employment.
He wanted ownership.
Daniel looked at his mother.
“You knew he had a motive.”
“I knew he was angry. I did not know what he had become.”
A notification appeared on Daniel’s phone.
Reed International’s board had scheduled an emergency meeting for the following morning.
The request had been submitted by three directors loyal to Malcolm.
The agenda contained one item:
Temporary removal of Eleanor Reed due to mental incapacity and reckless exposure of company assets.
Attached was a medical evaluation declaring that Eleanor suffered from progressive cognitive decline.
The doctor’s signature appeared legitimate.
Eleanor stared at the report.
“I’ve never met that physician.”
Daniel looked at the board members who had supported the motion.
Malcolm had not disappeared.
May you like
He was beginning a takeover.
And he intended to make Eleanor watch as her own company was legally taken away from her.
