Chapter 14 - The Last DoorThe laughter came again.
Small.
Soft.
Impossible.
Cassidy looked around the room.
“Who is there?”
No answer.
Daniel raised his flashlight.
The beam crossed the shelves.
Nothing.
Then Arthur's phone rang.
He answered.
His face changed.
“What?”
Cassidy stepped toward him.
“Who?”
Arthur slowly lowered the phone.
“The hospital.”
Her stomach dropped.
“What's wrong?”
“They can't find your doctor.”
Cassidy's blood ran cold.
“What?”
“Your physician has disappeared.”
Lily whispered:
“They've moved the baby.”
Cassidy stared at her.
“My baby is with me.”
Lily shook her head.
“Not physically.”
Then Cassidy remembered.
The hospital had installed remote fetal monitoring.
Someone could access the system.
Someone who had corporate credentials.
Someone who had been watching her pregnancy.
Arthur pulled up the records.
There was a hidden authorization.
A transfer request.
Scheduled for the following morning.
The destination was not a hospital.
It was a private maternity facility owned by a Morrison subsidiary.
Diane's company.
Cassidy stared at the screen.
“They planned to take me there.”
Lily nodded.
“Before the birth.”
Daniel rushed toward the elevator.
“We should move you now.”
“No.”
Arthur stared.
“Cassidy?”
She looked at the clock.
“They expect us to run.”
“You can't stay.”
“I won't.”
She smiled faintly.
“We're going to let them think I did.”
She called a private driver.
Then sent a message to the security team.
Move.
The convoy left the building twenty minutes later.
Cassidy sat in the back seat.
Brendan was in another vehicle under guard.
Lily stayed beside Cassidy.
Arthur sat across from them.
“What happens now?”
Cassidy looked out the window.
“We take the company back.”
The convoy turned.
Then Cassidy noticed something.
They were not heading toward the safe house.
Daniel's driver had changed direction.
Cassidy called him.
“Where are you going?”
No answer.
She looked at Lily.
Lily checked the tracking map.
“Someone hijacked the route.”
The convoy accelerated.
Cassidy grabbed the door.
Daniel's car disappeared from the map.
Then Arthur's vehicle stopped.
The road ahead was blocked.
Black SUVs surrounded them.
Men stepped out.
Diane walked into the rain.
She wore a black coat.
No wineglass.
No smile.
Cassidy lowered the window.
Diane looked at her.
“You should have listened.”
Cassidy stared back.
“You poured freezing water over a pregnant woman.”
Diane's face remained empty.
“I wanted to remind you who you were.”
Cassidy shook her head.
“No.”
She looked at Lily.
Then at Diane.
“You wanted to remind me who you thought I was.”
Diane smiled.
“Give me the seal.”
Cassidy laughed softly.
“You still don't understand.”
Diane opened the rear door.
Two guards approached.
Then Cassidy heard another voice.
“Stop.”
Everyone turned.
Brendan stepped from the second vehicle.
His shirt was soaked in blood.
He held a gun.
Diane stared at him.
“You're alive.”
“Barely.”
He pointed the gun at his mother.
Cassidy looked shocked.
Brendan's voice broke.
“You were going to take my daughter.”
Diane's expression changed.
“She isn't yours.”
Brendan froze.
“What?”
Diane looked at Cassidy.
“The child belongs to the Ellisons.”
Cassidy's heart stopped.
Diane continued.
“Brendan was never the father.”
The rain seemed to disappear.
Arthur stared.
Lily looked at Cassidy.
Cassidy whispered:
“What did you do?”
Diane smiled.
“I switched the records.”
Cassidy's stomach tightened.
Diane leaned closer.
“The real father died three years ago.”
Silence.
“Your daughter isn't Morrison.”
Cassidy stared.
“Then who is?”
Diane's smile vanished.
“You know him.”
Cassidy searched her memory.
Then suddenly understood.
The genetic donor.
The anonymous donor used during a fertility procedure Cassidy had undergone before her marriage.
The donor identity had been sealed.
But only one person had access.
Nathaniel Ellison.
Her father.
Cassidy's face went white.
Diane whispered:
“The baby is pure Ellison blood.”
Brendan lowered the gun.
Lily stepped back.
Arthur looked horrified.
Then Cassidy heard a helicopter above them.
A spotlight flooded the road.
Daniel emerged from one of the supposedly destroyed vehicles.
He had never been captured.
The convoy had been a decoy.
Daniel raised his radio.
“Now.”
Every Morrison security vehicle surrounding them was disabled simultaneously.
Diane stared in disbelief.
Cassidy stepped out into the rain.
“No more games.”
She looked at Diane.
“You wanted the company.”
Then she looked at the helicopter.
“You can have the ruins.”
Diane's eyes narrowed.
“Ruins?”
Cassidy smiled.
“Because Morrison Global isn't the asset anymore.”
She touched her stomach.
“My daughter is.”
And then her phone rang.
Nathaniel.
Cassidy answered.
His first words were:
“Cassidy, the trust was never the final inheritance.”
She froze.
“What is?”
Her father whispered:
“Your daughter isn't inheriting the company.”
May you like
Cassidy waited.
“She is inheriting the entire Ellison empire.”
