Chapter 5 - The Price of an Empire
Jason watched the black screen long after Victor’s call ended.
His empire.
That was what Victor wanted.
Not Lucas.
Not Emmanuel.
Not even Stephanie’s evidence.
Those were pieces on a board.
Jason was the prize.
Lucas sat against the wall, looking shattered.
Jason turned toward him.
“You knew.”
Lucas shook his head.
“Not this.”
“You knew Victor wanted access to my companies.”
“Yes.”
“But not why?”
“I thought he wanted money.”
Jason laughed without humor.
“Everyone thinks billionaires are surrounded by people who want money.”
He looked at Lucas.
“The dangerous ones want control.”
Paulie inserted Stephanie’s flash drive into an isolated laptop.
The screen requested a password.
Lucas looked over.
“Try her birthday.”
Jason shook his head.
“Too obvious.”
Benita studied the handwritten note.
“Stephanie expected Jason to find this.”
She looked at him.
“So the password is probably something meaningful to both of you.”
Jason thought.
Then typed:
MERCER.
Incorrect.
He tried the date he bought the building.
Incorrect.
Then he remembered something Stephanie used to say whenever he became obsessed with work.
“Money builds houses. Trust builds homes.”
Jason typed:
TRUSTBUILDSHOMES.
The drive unlocked.
Folders appeared.
Hundreds.
Financial records.
Emails.
Audio files.
Photographs.
Company registrations.
Jason stared.
Stephanie had documented everything.
Paulie opened the first spreadsheet.
Victor’s network spread across countries.
Lucas’s shell companies were only a tiny section.
The amounts were enormous.
Jason whispered, “How much?”
Paulie scrolled.
His expression changed.
“This goes way beyond forty-eight million.”
“How much?”
“I can’t calculate it yet.”
“Estimate.”
Paulie looked at him.
“Hundreds of millions.”
Lucas covered his face.
Jason stared at his brother.
“You opened my front door and invited a hurricane inside.”
Lucas’s voice cracked.
“I know.”
“No. You don’t.”
Jason rolled closer.
“You were afraid of disappointing me over eight million dollars, so you helped someone steal hundreds of millions.”
Lucas looked up.
“I was going to fix it.”
“That sentence has destroyed more families than almost any lie in history.”
Lucas’s eyes filled with tears.
Jason didn’t feel satisfaction.
Only exhaustion.
Then Paulie opened another folder.
“Jason.”
“What?”
“This one is labeled ‘If I Don’t Make It.’”
The room fell silent.
Jason hesitated before opening it.
A video appeared.
Stephanie.
Alive.
Sitting in a small room.
Jason stopped breathing.
Her face filled the screen.
“If you’re watching this, something happened before I could explain.”
Jason’s eyes burned.
Stephanie continued.
“Jason, I need you to understand something first.”
She looked directly into the camera.
“Lucas made terrible choices.”
Lucas lowered his head.
“But Lucas is not the person at the top.”
Jason glanced at his brother.
Stephanie continued.
“Victor Dane has been using your companies because your reputation protects him. Every legitimate business you built became camouflage for something you never approved.”
Jason’s jaw tightened.
“I tried to collect enough evidence to bring you everything at once.”
She paused.
“I was afraid you wouldn’t believe me if Lucas denied it.”
Jason whispered, “I would have.”
But he wasn’t certain.
That hurt most.
Stephanie continued.
“Evelyn helped me.”
Lucas began crying silently.
“She discovered unusual transactions months before I did. She tried to confront Lucas privately because she loved him.”
Jason looked toward Lucas.
Lucas nodded.
“She did.”
Stephanie’s video continued.
“But Victor knows Evelyn is helping us now.”
Jason’s chest tightened.
“If Evelyn disappears, Jason, protect her. She risked everything.”
The video ended.
Jason sat silently.
Then another file appeared.
A list.
Names.
Judges.
Executives.
Bankers.
Accountants.
Politicians.
Contractors.
Jason’s expression hardened.
Victor had influence everywhere.
That explained Stephanie’s fear.
Benita whispered, “You can’t fight this alone.”
Jason nodded.
“I know.”
He looked at Jaden.
“Contact federal financial investigators.”
Lucas immediately stood.
“Jason, wait.”
Jason stared at him.
Lucas wiped his eyes.
“If Victor has people everywhere, sending this blindly could tell him exactly what we have.”
Jason hated that Lucas was right.
Paulie nodded.
“We need someone outside the network.”
Jason thought carefully.
Then remembered one name.
Rachel Cole.
A forensic attorney who had once represented Jason during a hostile acquisition.
Brilliant.
Independent.
And impossible to intimidate.
“Call Rachel.”
Two hours later, Rachel arrived.
She reviewed the first files.
Her reaction told Jason everything.
“This is bigger than your family.”
“I know.”
“No.”
Rachel looked at him.
“You don’t.”
She turned the laptop.
“Victor wasn’t stealing from you.”
Jason frowned.
“He was using your companies to acquire hidden ownership.”
“Of what?”
“Your own empire.”
Jason stared.
Rachel explained.
Layer by layer, Victor had been purchasing debt, minority interests, proxy voting rights and hidden contractual options.
Lucas’s unauthorized transactions had created openings.
Victor had exploited every one.
“How close?”
Rachel hesitated.
“To what?”
“To taking control.”
She looked at Jason.
“If these agreements are enforceable?”
Jason waited.
“Seventy-two hours.”
Benita gasped.
Jason stared at Rachel.
“In three days?”
“Victor could trigger a chain of defaults and challenge your control.”
Lucas looked sick.
Jason understood Victor’s timing now.
Stephanie’s evidence.
Evelyn’s kidnapping.
The pressure at the mansion.
Everything was happening because Victor was almost ready.
Rachel leaned closer.
“There’s something else.”
She opened a scanned contract.
Lucas’s signature appeared at the bottom.
Jason looked at him.
“What is this?”
Lucas stared.
“I don’t remember signing that.”
Rachel pointed to a clause.
“Then you should start remembering.”
Jason read it.
His blood ran cold.
Lucas had pledged something as collateral.
Not his own property.
Voting shares belonging to a family trust.
Jason looked at his brother.
“You pledged our family shares?”
Lucas shook his head violently.
“I never agreed to that.”
“Your signature is here.”
“I signed dozens of documents Victor gave me.”
Jason stared at him.
Lucas realized what he had just admitted.
Rachel sat back.
“That may actually help us.”
“How?”
“If Victor fraudulently altered documents after execution, we can attack the entire structure.”
Jason’s phone rang.
Victor.
Jason answered.
“Where is Evelyn?”
“Safe.”
“I want proof.”
“You already received it.”
“What do you want?”
Victor chuckled.
“You know.”
Jason looked at Rachel.
She motioned for him to keep talking.
Victor continued.
“Tomorrow morning, your board receives documents proving your brother misappropriated company funds.”
Lucas closed his eyes.
“By afternoon, lenders begin calling loans.”
Victor’s voice remained calm.
“By evening, your empire starts collapsing.”
Jason said nothing.
“Unless?”
Victor laughed.
“You’re learning.”
“What do I sign?”
“A transfer of controlling interests.”
Rachel silently shook her head.
Jason continued anyway.
“And Evelyn?”
“She comes home.”
Jason paused.
“All right.”
Everyone stared at him.
Victor sounded pleased.
“I knew you were practical.”
“Send the papers.”
The call ended.
Lucas stared at Jason.
“You can’t give him the company.”
Jason turned toward Rachel.
“I’m not.”
A slow understanding appeared on her face.
Jason looked at Lucas.
“You spent four years letting Victor believe fear controls this family.”
He turned toward the laptop containing Stephanie’s evidence.
“Tomorrow, we teach him something else.”
“What?”
Jason’s expression became cold.
“He doesn’t own my empire until I surrender.”
Jason looked at Rachel.
“And I’m going to give him exactly what he wants.”
Benita stared at him.
“Jason?”
He smiled faintly.
“A signature.”
Then he added:
May you like
“On the document that destroys him.”
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