Chapter 1 - THE WOMAN FROM THE GRAVE
Vivienne Hartwell woke to the sound of a machine breathing beside her.
For several seconds, she did not know where she was.
White ceiling.
Muted lights.
Something tight around her arm.
An oxygen tube beneath her nose.
Then memory struck all at once.
The salmon.
The sweetness.
Adrian watching her.
Sloane smiling from the staircase.
The missing EpiPens.
The floor rushing toward her.
The hidden switch.
And the woman in white.
Vivienne's eyes flew open.
"Mom."
Her voice came out raw.
A chair scraped beside the hospital bed.
The woman who had supposedly been dead for fifteen years stood immediately.
Evelyn Hartwell looked older than the photographs Vivienne kept locked in a drawer, but there was no mistaking her.
Same blue eyes.
Same high cheekbones.
Same tiny scar near her left temple.
Same habit of pressing her lips together whenever she was trying not to cry.
"You're safe," Evelyn said.
Vivienne stared at her.
Safe.
The word almost made her laugh.
Her husband had tried to murder her.
Her sister had watched.
Her mother had returned from the dead.
Nothing about her life felt safe.
"Touch me."
Evelyn froze.
Vivienne swallowed painfully.
"I need to know you're real."
Evelyn stepped closer.
Vivienne reached out.
Her fingertips touched warm skin.
Her mother closed both hands around hers.
Vivienne began crying before she could stop herself.
Not graceful tears.
Not silent tears.
Fifteen years of grief came apart in a hospital room at two in the morning.
"You let me bury you."
Evelyn's face crumpled.
"I know."
"I stood beside your coffin."
"I know."
"I thought you were dead."
"I know."
Vivienne pulled her hand away.
"Stop saying that."
Evelyn went silent.
Vivienne turned toward the window.
Rain crawled down the glass.
Beyond it, two men in dark suits stood outside the hospital room.
"Where's Adrian?"
"In custody."
"Sloane?"
"Also being questioned."
"Questioned?"
Vivienne looked sharply at her mother.
"She helped him kill me."
"Attempted to kill you."
"Don't correct me."
"I'm not defending her."
"Then why isn't she in a cell?"
Evelyn hesitated.
That hesitation frightened Vivienne more than the answer.
"What?"
"Adrian's already talking."
Vivienne stared at her.
"He says Sloane planned the poisoning."
Vivienne almost laughed.
"Of course he does."
"And Sloane says Adrian planned it."
"Of course she does."
"They're turning on each other."
"Good."
Evelyn pulled the chair closer.
"But that's not the problem."
Vivienne studied her mother's face.
"What problem?"
"Adrian has an attorney who was waiting for him before the police arrived."
"So?"
"He knew you survived less than twenty minutes before that attorney began filing emergency motions involving Hartwell Medical Group."
Vivienne went still.
"What kind of motions?"
"Temporary removal of your voting authority."
"On what grounds?"
"Medical incapacity."
Vivienne's fingers tightened beneath the blanket.
"He tried to kill me, and now he's using the fact that he nearly killed me to take my company."
"Yes."
That was Adrian.
Even with handcuffs on his wrists, he was still reaching for her throat.
Vivienne looked toward the hallway.
"Call Elias Grant."
Her mother didn't move.
"Elias is already here."
Vivienne blinked.
Elias had served as her personal attorney for six years.
He was one of only three people who knew about the dead switch.
"Then bring him in."
Evelyn's expression changed.
"What?"
"There's something else."
Vivienne's stomach tightened.
"Say it."
"The financial freeze worked."
"Good."
"All eighteen million was stopped."
"Good."
"But someone tried to override it."
Vivienne stared at her.
"Adrian couldn't."
"I know."
"The system requires Hartwell bloodline authorization."
"I know."
Vivienne's voice dropped.
"Then who tried?"
Evelyn reached into her handbag.
She placed a printed security report on the blanket.
Vivienne looked at the authorization code.
Her blood went cold.
The override had not come from Adrian.
It had not come from Sloane.
It had come from credentials belonging to a man who had been dead for seven years.
Charles Hartwell.
Vivienne's father.
She looked at Evelyn.
"What did you do?"
"Nothing."
"That's Dad's authorization."
"I know."
"He's dead."
Evelyn said nothing.
Vivienne's heartbeat began climbing.
"Mom."
Evelyn looked at the closed hospital door.
Then back at her daughter.
"Your father is dead, Vivienne."
A beat passed.
"But before he died, he built something neither Adrian nor I completely understood."
Vivienne stared at the report.
"What?"
Evelyn leaned closer.
"A second Hartwell succession system."
"For the company?"
"For everything."
Vivienne's throat tightened.
"And someone activated it tonight."
Before she could answer, shouting erupted outside.
One of the guards slammed into the door.
"Mrs. Hartwell, stay back."
The lights flickered.
May you like
Then the entire hospital floor went dark.
And somewhere in the darkness, a man screamed.
