Chapter 11 — The Price of Survival
Daniel survived surgery.
Doctors confirmed that he would never walk again.
The news did not bring Olivia satisfaction.
It brought emptiness.
Daniel had saved her at the terminal, but he had also created the danger that nearly killed her.
One act could not erase the others.
Rachel surrendered her weapon and confessed everything.
She provided access codes, banking records and recordings that exposed Daniel, Marcus and Charles Mercer.
Her cooperation would reduce her sentence, but not eliminate it.
Before being transferred to prison, she asked to see Olivia.
They met through reinforced glass.
Rachel looked older without makeup, jewels or the confidence she had worn at the wedding.
“I kept waiting for you to hate me,” she said.
“I do hate what you did.”
Rachel nodded through tears.
“But I don’t hate the girl who sat beside me at my father’s funeral,” Olivia continued. “I just don’t know if she still exists.”
Rachel pressed her hand against the glass.
“She does.”
“Then let prison be where she learns to tell the truth.”
Olivia did not touch the glass.
She walked away.
Meanwhile, Brightwell Biotech’s stock collapsed.
The board removed Olivia as chief executive, claiming her public confession had harmed shareholders.
Employees protested.
Victims’ families demanded criminal charges.
Sophie discovered that the board planned to blame every illegal decision on Thomas Bennett, who was dead and unable to defend himself.
Olivia could have accepted the strategy.
It would preserve part of her fortune.
Instead, she turned over her father’s private journals.
The journals revealed that several current board members had approved the cover-up.
Arrests followed.
Charles Mercer attempted to negotiate immunity by claiming Olivia had known the truth.
Then prosecutors found a hidden recording.
Thomas Bennett had made it shortly before his death.
In it, he addressed Olivia directly.
If you are hearing this, then my lies have finally reached you.
But the final minute of the recording was corrupted.
Only three words remained clear.
Trust Sophie Laurent.
Olivia stared at Sophie.
Sophie’s face went white.
May you like
Her surname had never appeared in any Brightwell record.
Yet Olivia’s father had known her name.
