Chapter 14 - THE BETRAYAL
Our attorney betrayed us the next morning.
Her name was Katherine Sloan.
She had represented the Blackwood family for twelve years before Damian assigned her to me after Noah’s birth.
I should have understood what that meant.
But fear makes familiarity look like safety.
Katherine knew everything.
The SOS evidence.
The trust documents.
Lila’s location.
Charles’s testimony.
Our plans for emergency guardianship.
At 9:16 a.m., she filed a sealed motion claiming I had obtained confidential Blackwood records illegally and was using the children to gain control of the trust.
By noon, a judge temporarily froze my proxy authority over Lila’s shares.
By 1:00, Eleanor’s attorneys were arguing that Charles lacked mental capacity.
By 2:00, three news networks were repeating the phrase:
BATTLE FOR BILLIONS.
Not battle for a stolen baby.
Not falsified medical records.
Money.
Exactly what Eleanor wanted.
I confronted Katherine in the courthouse hallway.
“How much did she pay you?”
Katherine’s face remained calm.
“This is bigger than you understand.”
“That sounds familiar.”
“Mara—”
“You knew my daughter was alive.”
Her eyes flickered.
That was enough.
“How long?”
She said nothing.
“How long?”
“Before the gala.”
I slapped her.
One strike.
Sharp.
Clean.
I did not regret it.
Security stepped forward.
I raised my hands.
Katherine touched her cheek.
“You just proved my point.”
“No.”
I looked at the cameras around us.
“I proved I’m done being polite to people who helped steal my child.”
Reed pulled me away before it became worse.
The betrayal cost us more than reputation.
Katherine had disclosed a safe location where Charles was staying.
By the time police arrived, the room had been searched.
Charles was gone.
Not abducted.
He had left voluntarily.
He left one note.
I HAVE TO END WHAT I STARTED.
Damian knew where he went.
“Blackwood Tower.”
“Why?”
“Board meeting.”
The company board was holding an emergency session to suspend Eleanor’s authority.
Charles intended to appear.
We raced downtown.
Too late.
When we arrived, the meeting had begun.
Charles stood at one end of a thirty-foot table.
Eleanor stood at the other.
She had walked into the building through a private underground garage.
Security belonged to the company.
Many still obeyed her.
Samuel was nowhere.
Nathaniel Voss was nowhere.
Eleanor smiled when she saw me.
“Mara.”
I looked at the board members.
“You’re harboring a wanted woman.”
Her attorney corrected me.
“Mrs. Blackwood has not been convicted of any crime.”
Reed entered behind me.
“She is now under arrest for obstruction, evidence tampering, conspiracy, and unlawful custodial interference.”
Eleanor did not move.
Instead, she placed a folder on the table.
“Before I go anywhere, the board should see this.”
Charles shouted:
“Don’t.”
Too late.
Copies were distributed.
Damian read the first page.
His face went blank.
“What is this?”
Eleanor smiled.
“A DNA report.”
I took the document from him.
DAMIAN BLACKWOOD.
PATERNITY EXCLUSION: CHARLES BLACKWOOD.
We already knew.
But the second page was worse.
TRUST ELIGIBILITY REVIEW.
Because Damian was not Charles’s biological son, Eleanor argued he was not part of Arthur Blackwood’s bloodline.
Therefore neither were Noah nor Lila.
Therefore the succession clause never activated.
Therefore there would be no mandatory audit.
Eleanor looked at me.
“All of this was for nothing.”
Charles slammed his palm onto the table.
“You know the trust recognizes legally adopted descendants.”
Eleanor smiled.
“Where are Damian’s adoption papers?”
Charles stopped.
“What?”
“I destroyed them twenty years ago.”
Damian stared at her.
“You erased me too.”
Eleanor looked at him almost tenderly.
“I protected you.”
“No.”
His voice changed.
“You protected yourself.”
She reached for him.
He stepped back.
Then Detective Reed’s phone rang.
He answered.
Seconds later, he looked at Eleanor.
“Samuel Pierce has been found.”
For the first time, her composure cracked.
“Alive?” I asked.
Reed nodded.
“Yes.”
Eleanor’s face changed.
Because Samuel had not only survived.
May you like
He had escaped with the one document she thought no longer existed.
Damian’s original adoption record.
