Chapter 9 - NO MORE BLACKWOOD SECRETS
At 6:00 the next morning, Ethan called an emergency meeting.
Not with the board.
With prosecutors.
Federal investigators.
Auditors.
Employees.
Margaret thought he had lost his mind.
“You want to voluntarily open every Blackwood account to investigators?”
“Yes.”
“Every subsidiary?”
“Yes.”
“Every executive archive?”
“Yes.”
“Ethan, there are legitimate confidential materials worth billions of dollars.”
“Then investigators can sign protective orders.”
“This will damage the company.”
“Good.”
Margaret stared.
He continued.
“A company that can only survive by hiding crimes should be damaged.”
For the first time, she smiled.
“Now you’re thinking like someone I can represent without drinking.”
Ethan ordered Blackwood Industries to suspend all executives connected to Harold or Victor.
Two directors resigned immediately.
Another lawyer threatened litigation.
Ethan released a public statement.
Blackwood Industries will cooperate fully with authorities regarding evidence of historic criminal conduct by former and current leadership.
No individual, including members of my family, will be protected from investigation.
The financial markets reacted violently.
Blackwood stock fell seventeen percent in ninety minutes.
News channels surrounded headquarters.
Commentators called it a corporate civil war.
Ethan watched none of it.
He sat beside Lily while Amelia slept.
“What happens if the company goes away?”
Lily asked.
Ethan looked at her.
“What do you think happens?”
“Do we lose the house?”
“Maybe one day.”
She considered.
“Can we keep Mommy?”
He felt tears burn his eyes.
“Yes.”
“Can I keep you?”
“Yes.”
“Then I don’t care.”
Ethan laughed softly.
The clarity of children could be brutal.
And healing.
At 10:18 a.m., Victor agreed to speak.
Ruiz conducted the interview.
Ethan watched through one-way glass.
Victor looked smaller without his tailored authority.
Still arrogant.
But tired.
Ruiz placed photographs of Amelia and Lily on the table.
“You ordered the hospital fire.”
Victor stared at them.
“Harold ordered it.”
“You paid the contractors.”
“Under his direction.”
“You paid Nora.”
“Yes.”
“You ordered Ethan poisoned.”
Victor paused.
“No.”
Ruiz leaned forward.
“Nora says you did.”
“Nora believes what Harold wanted her to believe.”
Ethan frowned behind the glass.
Ruiz asked.
“Did you know digitalis was being placed in Ethan’s tea?”
“Yes.”
“Did you stop it?”
“No.”
“Why?”
Victor smiled bitterly.
“Because if Ethan died, my problems ended.”
Ruiz stared.
“That sounds close enough to participation for a jury.”
Victor shrugged.
“Then charge me.”
“What do you want in exchange for talking?”
Victor looked toward the mirror.
He knew Ethan was there.
“I want protection.”
“For yourself?”
“For my daughter.”
Ethan went still.
Victor had no children.
At least none publicly.
Ruiz asked.
“What daughter?”
Victor looked at the mirror again.
“Harold has her.”
“Since when?”
“Twenty-three years.”
The room changed.
Victor explained.
At thirty-two, he had an affair with a Blackwood accountant named Diane Mercer.
She became pregnant.
Victor intended to leave the family business.
Harold discovered it.
After the baby was born, Diane died in what police called a car accident.
The infant vanished.
Harold later showed Victor a photograph.
The child alive.
Raised by another family.
Victor obeyed from that day forward.
Ethan felt sick.
Everyone had been someone else’s hostage.
Marcus’s son.
Victor’s daughter.
Amelia.
Lily.
A chain of fear stretching decades.
Ruiz asked.
“Where is your daughter now?”
“I don’t know.”
“What’s her name?”
“Claire Mercer.”
Ethan knew the name.
He stepped away from the glass.
Margaret looked at him.
“What?”
“Claire Mercer works for Blackwood Industries.”
“Where?”
“Legal compliance.”
Margaret stared.
“She’s the whistleblower who raised concerns about shell company transfers last year.”
Ethan understood.
Harold had not simply kept Victor’s daughter alive.
He placed her inside Blackwood.
Just like Lily.
Close enough to control.
Close enough to use.
Ruiz continued.
“What is Crane’s endgame?”
Victor looked exhausted.
“He wants the Blackwood name destroyed.”
“We know.”
“No.”
“You think he wants scandal.”
“He wants something symbolic.”
“What?”
Victor leaned back.
“At noon today, he plans to release the forged files.”
“Then at 12:05, he plans to trigger debt covenants using shell companies that secretly hold Blackwood obligations.”
Margaret cursed.
“He can force default.”
Ethan returned to the room.
He entered without asking.
Ruiz frowned but did not stop him.
“What happens after default?”
Victor smiled weakly.
“Blackwood gets broken apart.”
“Factories.”
“Real estate.”
“Logistics.”
“Everything.”
“Who buys it?”
Victor looked at Ethan.
“A foundation.”
“What foundation?”
“The James Crane Restitution Trust.”
Ethan understood.
Harold planned to dismantle the Blackwood empire and transfer the assets into a structure bearing his father’s name.
Revenge disguised as justice.
But thousands of employees would lose jobs.
Pensions could collapse.
Families with no connection to old Blackwood crimes would pay the price.
Ethan leaned toward Victor.
“Where is Harold?”
“I don’t know.”
“Guess.”
Victor closed his eyes.
Then opened them.
“There’s one place he always said belonged to his father.”
“Where?”
“The original Blackwood steel mill.”
“Closed twenty years ago.”
Ethan knew it.
On the river.
Scheduled for demolition.
Victor continued.
“Harold said the Blackwoods built their fortune there.”
“And one day, the family would watch it burn there.”
Ruiz stood immediately.
Before anyone moved, Ethan’s phone buzzed.
Unknown number.
A photograph appeared.
Harold Crane stood inside the abandoned steel mill.
Beside him was Claire Mercer.
Her hands were bound.
And behind them, displayed on an enormous screen, was a countdown.
01:37:22
A message followed.
BRING AMELIA’S ORIGINAL TRUST DOCUMENT.
COME WITH YOUR WIFE.
NO POLICE.
May you like
Then another line.
OR VICTOR LOSES HIS DAUGHTER THE WAY YOU LOST YOURS.
