Chapter 19
THE MAN IN THE BLACK CAR
The café fell into darkness.
Someone screamed.
A chair crashed.
Marcus immediately grabbed Eleanor's arm.
“Stay down.”
Emergency lights flickered on.
Beatrice was gone.
“Beatrice!”
Eleanor looked around.
The back door stood open.
Marcus ran outside.
Eleanor followed.
Rain had begun falling.
Across the street, a black sedan accelerated away.
Marcus memorized the license plate.
Then he turned.
“She's been taken.”
Eleanor's stomach dropped.
“No.”
Marcus pulled out his phone.
“I’m calling the police.”
Eleanor shook her head.
“Wait.”
She looked at the USB drive in her hand.
“If they wanted Beatrice, they didn't take her because of the trust.”
Marcus understood.
“They took her because of what she knows.”
Eleanor stared at the disappearing car.
“Then they’ll come for me next.”
Three hours later, the police confirmed the vehicle had been stolen.
There was no trace of Beatrice.
Eleanor returned to the hospital.
She couldn't sleep.
At 2:13 a.m., her phone rang.
Unknown number.
She answered.
A man's voice spoke.
“You should have left the past alone.”
“Who are you?”
“You know what happened to Chloe.”
Eleanor froze.
“What did you say?”
“The truth is worth more than your entire empire.”
“Where is Beatrice?”
A pause.
“Safe.”
“Let me speak to her.”
“No.”
Eleanor's hand tightened around the phone.
“What do you want?”
“The trust.”
“No.”
“You have forty-eight hours.”
The call ended.
Marcus entered the room.
“Who was it?”
Eleanor told him.
He immediately called the police.
But Eleanor was staring at something else.
On the hospital security monitor, a black car was parked across the street.
The same model.
The same headlights.
Marcus noticed.
“Stay here.”
He ran downstairs.
Minutes later, he returned.
“The car's gone.”
Eleanor looked at the clock.
2:26 a.m.
Then she remembered her father's letter.
Trust Marcus.
She handed him the document.
“There's something we're missing.”
Marcus reread it.
“What?”
“The letter says, ‘There is something that belongs to the children.’”
“Yes.”
“But it doesn't say money.”
Marcus frowned.
Eleanor pointed at the USB.
“The money is only part of the trust.”
They returned to the financial investigator.
After hours of searching, they found another hidden account.
Not money.
Patents.
Dozens of them.
Medical patents developed under Thomas Sterling's original research foundation.
Marcus stared.
“These are worth hundreds of millions.”
Eleanor shook her head.
“Why would my father hide them?”
The investigator opened one patent.
A portable pediatric emergency device.
Another.
A low-cost neonatal monitor.
Another.
A diagnostic system designed for rural hospitals.
Eleanor's eyes widened.
“This could change children's healthcare.”
Marcus nodded.
“And that's why someone wants it.”
The investigator suddenly looked frightened.
“There’s one more file.”
He opened it.
The patent ownership had recently been challenged.
The claimant?
NORTHSTAR MEDICAL GROUP.
Eleanor stood.
“Northstar was dismantled.”
“Yes.”
“So who owns it now?”
The investigator hesitated.
“A private holding company.”
“Name?”
He looked at the screen.
Crowe Meridian Holdings.
Eleanor's blood ran cold.
Daniel Crowe had been convicted.
But his network hadn't disappeared.
Someone had rebuilt it.
And they were now coming after her father's greatest secret.
Eleanor looked at Marcus.
“We don't give them the patents.”
“What do we do?”
May you like
She picked up her coat.
“We finish what my father started.”
