Chapter 6 - THE FIRST ATTACK
The attack came the next morning.
Nathan was driving Lily to a protected federal location when a black SUV appeared behind them.
It accelerated.
Nathan saw it in the mirror.
“Lily, get down.”
“What?”
“Down, baby!”
The SUV slammed into them.
Lily screamed.
Nathan fought the wheel.
Their car spun across two lanes.
The SUV struck again.
Nathan saw a concrete barrier ahead.
He turned hard.
The car crashed sideways.
Airbags exploded.
For three seconds, Nathan heard nothing.
Then Lily cried.
“Daddy!”
Nathan tore off his seat belt.
“I'm here.”
Blood ran down his forehead.
“Are you hurt?”
“My arm.”
Nathan climbed into the back.
Lily's wrist was bruised but not broken.
The SUV stopped.
A man got out.
Nathan recognized Richard.
Richard raised a gun.
Nathan threw himself over Lily.
A shot shattered the rear window.
Then another car slammed into Richard's SUV.
Grace.
She had followed them with a federal agent.
Richard fled.
Grace ran toward Nathan's car.
“Lily!”
Nathan kicked open the damaged door.
Grace grabbed her daughter.
Lily sobbed against her.
Nathan watched them.
Something inside him hardened permanently.
He had spent his life believing money made people safe.
His father had believed the same thing.
Charles built walls.
Security teams.
Companies.
Political relationships.
None of it had protected the people he loved.
Nathan pulled out his phone.
He called the board of Cole Industries.
“I want an emergency meeting.”
Grace stared at him.
“What are you doing?”
“Ending the reason they're chasing her.”
Three hours later, Nathan entered the Cole Industries boardroom.
Twelve directors waited.
Nathan placed Daniel's ledger on the table.
“I'm releasing everything.”
The room exploded.
One director stood.
“You'll destroy this company!”
Nathan stared at him.
“My father used this company to destroy people.”
“We have sixty thousand employees!”
“Then we'll protect them through restructuring.”
“You'll lose control!”
Nathan looked toward Grace standing behind the glass doors with Lily.
“Good.”
Everyone went silent.
Nathan continued.
“My daughter will not spend her childhood being hunted because grown men want voting shares.”
“So effective immediately, I am surrendering control of Cole Industries to an independent restructuring board.”
Michael stared at him.
Nathan hadn't told him this part.
The chairman whispered, “You'll lose billions.”
Nathan smiled.
“Then Richard Sterling is about to discover he picked the wrong thing to threaten me with.”
Nathan signed.
At 4:17 p.m., the announcement went public.
Cole Industries shares crashed.
News networks exploded.
The Sterling family's financial leverage collapsed.
Nathan lost nearly seventy percent of his personal wealth in a single afternoon.
That night, Grace found him sitting alone.
“Do you regret it?”
Nathan looked at Lily sleeping nearby.
“No.”
Grace sat beside him.
“You spent your whole life building that company.”
“My father built it.”
“I inherited it.”
He looked at her.
“There's a difference.”
Grace smiled slightly.
Then Nathan's phone rang.
Victoria.
Calling from federal detention.
Nathan answered.
“What?”
Victoria was crying.
“You idiot.”
“What do you want?”
“You gave up the company.”
“Yes.”
“You don't understand what you've done.”
“I understand perfectly.”
“No.”
Victoria's breathing became frantic.
“My father doesn't need the company anymore.”
Nathan went still.
“What does he need?”
Victoria whispered.
“Lily.”
Grace heard it.
Nathan's voice turned cold.
“Why?”
“Because Daniel's ledger isn't the only evidence.”
“What else is there?”
Victoria began sobbing.
“Charles put everything in Lily's name.”
Nathan stared at Grace.
“What everything?”
Victoria answered.
“The evidence that can send my father to prison for the rest of his life.”
Then the call disconnected.
Nathan looked toward his sleeping daughter.
Lily wasn't merely an heir anymore.
May you like
She was evidence.
And Richard Sterling had just lost every reason to keep her alive.
