Chapter 14 - Blackout in Queens
Vance shoved Olivia behind a steel storage cabinet as Daniel pulled her close.
“Stay down,” he ordered.
Another crash exploded through the darkness.
Emergency lights flickered red along the ceiling.
Arthur and Ward crouched behind the worktable while Vance moved toward the aisle.
“Federal agent!” Ward shouted. “Stop!”
The footsteps accelerated.
A silhouette flashed across the end of the corridor.
Vance pursued.
Daniel stayed with Olivia, one hand gripping her shoulder and the other clutching the leather notebook beneath his coat.
“Daniel,” she whispered.
“I know.”
Someone had followed them.
Or someone had already been waiting.
A metal door slammed.
Seconds later, Vance’s voice echoed.
“Clear!”
The overhead lights returned.
One of the security officers entered through the loading bay.
“Suspect got out through the fire exit. Gray sedan headed east.”
Vance returned, furious.
“He knew the building.”
Olivia stood.
“Did he touch anything?”
They examined the archive.
The shipping envelope remained open on the table.
Nothing obvious was missing.
Then Olivia noticed a small object on the floor.
A wireless camera.
Someone had mounted it beneath the opposite shelf.
Daniel stared at it.
“They were watching the box.”
Vance crouched beside the device.
“Probably motion-triggered. The second Olivia removed the envelope, someone received an alert.”
Ward’s expression hardened.
“This wasn’t an improvised break-in.”
“No,” Vance said. “Rourke knew exactly where Rachel sent the ledger.”
Olivia looked confused.
“But Rachel said she never told anyone.”
Evelyn’s warning came back to Daniel.
Calvin handled surveillance.
Phones.
Email.
Payments.
“Rachel was monitored,” Daniel said.
Arthur opened the notebook again.
“We need this in federal custody immediately.”
Ward agreed.
“But first we photograph every page here. I want redundant copies before this book moves.”
For the next hour, investigators photographed each handwritten entry.
The more they read, the worse it became.
Margaret had paid consultants to manipulate shareholder votes.
She had funded surveillance against Daniel’s former girlfriends.
She had purchased medical information about Olivia before their engagement.
There were payments to private clinics.
Payments to women whose names Olivia didn’t recognize.
Settlement agreements.
Travel arrangements.
Housing costs.
Then Vance found the first Northstar entry.
A woman identified as L.K.
Colorado.
Twelve years ago.
A second.
M.S.
Connecticut.
Nine years ago.
A third.
J.P.
Massachusetts.
Seven years ago.
Beside each appeared the same notation.
MATERNAL CONTRACT TERMINATED.
Arthur’s face turned gray.
“What does that mean?”
Ward shook her head.
“We don’t know.”
Then Daniel found another page.
His name appeared beside a payment authorization made when he was twenty-six.
“That can’t be right.”
Olivia looked over his shoulder.
The entry claimed Daniel had approved a $600,000 transfer to Northstar.
“I was in London that entire month,” he said.
Vance studied the handwriting.
“Forged authorization.”
“No.”
Daniel looked closer.
“The authorization code is real.”
The room went silent.
Daniel remembered the executive trust system.
Margaret had controlled access to his digital credentials for years.
She had used them to authorize Rachel’s procedure.
What else had she authorized?
Ward took the notebook.
“Daniel, we need to assume your biological material may have been used before Rachel.”
Olivia felt nauseated.
Daniel seemed unable to breathe.
For months, they had believed Margaret’s conspiracy began with Rachel.
Now the timeline reached backward more than a decade.
Before Daniel married Olivia.
Before he even met her.
“This is insane,” he whispered.
Olivia took his hand.
“You didn’t consent.”
“But if children exist—”
“We find the truth.”
He looked at her.
There was fear in his eyes Olivia had never seen before.
Not fear of scandal.
Fear of responsibility.
If other children carrying Daniel’s DNA existed somewhere, he would never abandon them simply because their existence complicated his life.
Olivia knew that.
It was one of the reasons she loved him.
Ward’s phone rang.
She answered, listened for several seconds, and looked toward Vance.
“Patrol found the gray sedan.”
“Rourke?”
“Gone.”
“Evidence?”
“Plenty.”
She turned to Daniel.
“The vehicle contained forged passports, burner phones, and printed surveillance photographs.”
“Of us?”
Ward hesitated.
“Mostly Olivia.”
Daniel’s expression became murderous.
Ward held up one final photograph.
It showed Olivia walking into Mount Sinai on the night Amelia and Grace were born.
A red circle had been drawn around her pregnant stomach.
On the back, someone had written:
May you like
THE WRONG HEIR WAS NEVER THE PROBLEM.
THE MOTHER WAS.
