Chapter 2 - The Housekeeper They Never Saw
The moment Chloe and Victor left my room, I opened my eyes.
The digital clock read 1:31 a.m.
Seven hours and twenty-nine minutes until nine.
Seven hours and twenty-nine minutes before whatever they had built around my supposed incapacity became active.
And somewhere outside that hospital, Elena was in danger.
I reached for the call button.
Then stopped.
If Chloe or Victor had someone watching the nurses' station, any sudden change in my condition could destroy my only advantage.
Instead, I took the prepaid phone Elena had hidden beneath my pillow earlier.
There was one number already saved.
ELENA.
I called.
No answer.
Again.
Nothing.
On the third attempt, someone picked up.
No one spoke.
“Elena?”
Breathing.
Then a whisper.
“Mr. Daniel?”
“Where are you?”
“In my car.”
“Where?”
“Outside my sister's apartment.”
“Don't go home.”
Silence.
“Why?”
“They know you heard something.”
Elena inhaled sharply.
A sound came through the phone.
An engine.
“Elena?”
“There's a car behind me.”
“Drive.”
“Mr. Daniel—”
“Drive now.”
The line filled with the sound of her engine starting.
I sat upright despite the pain tearing through my ribs.
“Elena, go somewhere public. Police station. Hospital. Anywhere with cameras.”
The engine behind her grew louder.
“They're moving too.”
“Don't go to your sister's building.”
“I won't.”
For the next twelve minutes, I listened helplessly as Elena drove through sleeping streets.
Finally she said, “They're gone.”
“Are you sure?”
“I turned into the emergency entrance of another hospital. They kept going.”
I exhaled.
“Stay there.”
“What about you?”
“I need you safe.”
“And Friday?”
“I'll handle Friday.”
After hanging up, I called the only person outside my family and company structure whom I trusted completely.
Detective Aaron Brooks.
Aaron and I had known each other since college. We had taken different paths—me into business, him into law enforcement—but we had never lost contact.
He answered on the fourth ring.
“Daniel?”
“You can't tell anyone I'm awake.”
There was silence.
Then, “Start talking.”
I told him everything.
The crash.
The documents.
Chloe.
Victor.
Friday.
Elena.
Aaron did not interrupt once.
When I finished, he said, “You understand what you're suggesting?”
“Yes.”
“You think someone may have caused the crash.”
“Yes.”
“And now you believe they're attempting financial fraud while you're incapacitated.”
“Yes.”
“And a witness may have been followed tonight.”
“Yes.”
Aaron exhaled slowly.
“Don't confront anyone.”
“I wasn't planning to.”
“Good. For once in your life, don't try to be the smartest man in the room.”
“I'll try.”
“I'll check the crash report and quietly get Elena somewhere safe.”
“Quietly.”
“Daniel?”
“Yes?”
“If someone did tamper with that car, Friday isn't the important part.”
“What is?”
“You surviving until Friday.”
At 6:40 a.m., Chloe returned.
She wore a cream coat and carried coffee.
Her eyes were swollen perfectly enough to suggest she'd been crying.
She sat beside me and held my hand.
A nurse entered.
“How's our patient?”
Chloe looked lovingly at me.
“Still fighting.”
The nurse smiled.
After she left, Chloe released my hand.
Her phone buzzed.
She read a message.
A tiny smile appeared.
Then disappeared.
“I wish you had made this easier,” she whispered.
My breathing remained slow.
At 7:52, Victor arrived.
At 8:11, Peter Lawson arrived carrying a leather briefcase.
At 8:24, Marcus entered.
Three people.
Three men I had trusted.
All standing around my hospital bed waiting for nine o'clock.
Chloe walked toward the window.
Victor checked his watch.
Peter opened his briefcase.
Marcus finally looked at me.
For one strange second, sadness appeared in his face.
Then Chloe said, “We should get ready.”
Peter removed a stack of documents.
My heart began pounding.
The plan was happening in front of me.
At 8:43, Peter said, “Once the medical certification is filed, emergency voting authority becomes effective.”
“Then what?” Marcus asked.
Victor answered.
“Then we stabilize the company.”
Chloe looked at him.
“And the accounts?”
Victor's eyes flicked toward Peter.
Peter frowned.
“That isn't part of what I was retained to discuss.”
Interesting.
Maybe Peter wasn't part of everything.
At 8:51, a nurse entered.
“Ms. Bennett?”
Chloe turned.
“There is someone downstairs asking for you.”
“Who?”
“She didn't give a name.”
Chloe hesitated.
Then her phone buzzed.
Her face lost its color.
She walked quickly into the hallway.
Victor followed.
Marcus stayed.
Peter kept reading.
I heard Chloe's voice outside.
“What do you mean you lost her?”
Victor replied too quietly for me to catch everything.
But I heard one sentence.
“Elena has the original.”
Original?
The paper Elena gave me was a copy.
There was another document.
Something more important.
At 8:57, Chloe returned.
Her calm expression was gone.
She approached my bed.
For the first time, she didn't look at me like a helpless man.
She looked at me like a locked safe.
Then she reached toward my pillow.
I kept my eyes closed.
Her fingers slid underneath it.
She was searching.
For the phone?
For the document?
I didn't know.
Then the door opened.
A hospital administrator stepped inside.
“Excuse me. Mr. Lawson?”
Peter looked up.
“Yes?”
“There appears to be an issue with the incapacity certification.”
Everyone froze.
“What issue?” Victor demanded.
The administrator looked at him.
“The attending physician has not signed it.”
Victor's face hardened.
“Why not?”
A voice came from the hallway.
“Because I refused.”
Dr. Nathan Harris entered.
Chloe stared at him.
The clock changed.
8:59.
Victor's phone rang.
He looked at the screen.
And whatever he saw terrified him.
May you like
Because instead of answering, he whispered:
“How does Elena know about Zurich?”
