Chapter 2 - FOUR SLEEPS
The paramedics wanted Lucas taken to the hospital immediately.
Lucas refused to release Maya.
Every time someone tried to separate them, panic flashed across his face.
“No.”
Arthur crouched beside him.
“Buddy, they’re going to make sure you’re okay.”
Lucas shook his head.
“Maya comes.”
The paramedic looked at Arthur.
Arthur looked at Maya.
Until an hour earlier, she had been carrying champagne glasses for eighteen dollars an hour.
Now one of the richest men in the state was looking at her as if she were the only person in the room who could keep his son from falling apart.
“Would you come with us?” Arthur asked.
Maya didn’t hesitate.
“Of course.”
Isabella was being questioned in the library when they left.
She kept insisting there had been a misunderstanding.
Nobody believed her anymore.
At the hospital, doctors treated Lucas for dehydration, exhaustion, and mild hypothermia.
Arthur stood outside the room with his hands shoved into his pockets.
Maya joined him.
For several seconds, neither spoke.
Finally Arthur said, “Thank you.”
“You already said that.”
“I’m going to say it a lot.”
Maya looked through the glass.
Lucas was asleep.
“He kept calling for you.”
Arthur closed his eyes.
“I was in that house.”
Maya said nothing.
“I was twenty rooms away.”
His voice cracked.
“My son was behind a wall in my own house, and I was twenty rooms away.”
“You were searching for him.”
“I should have found him.”
“That’s not how this works.”
Arthur looked at her.
“You don’t know that.”
“I know he didn’t blame you.”
Arthur glanced away.
Maya continued.
“He was scared you had stopped looking because someone kept telling him that.”
Arthur’s expression changed.
“Isabella.”
“Probably.”
Arthur leaned against the wall.
“When Lucas disappeared, she told me he’d been upset because I canceled a weekend trip.”
“Did you believe her?”
“I believed he might have wandered somewhere on the property.”
He laughed bitterly.
“We searched the woods. The lake. Every road for ten miles.”
“Not the walls.”
“No.”
His phone rang.
David.
Arthur answered.
“Tell me you found Peter.”
“Not yet.”
“What about the records manager?”
“Her name is Denise Crowley. She’s been with us seven years.”
Arthur rubbed his forehead.
“What did she have access to?”
“Trust documents. Insurance records. Board authorizations.”
Maya watched Arthur’s face harden.
David continued.
“There’s more.”
“Of course there is.”
“I checked the electronic access logs.”
“And?”
“Peter entered the old service corridor eleven times over the last four days.”
Arthur looked through the glass at Lucas.
“Eleven?”
“Isabella entered seven times.”
Maya felt sick.
“So both of them knew exactly where he was.”
David hesitated.
“Yes.”
Arthur’s voice became cold.
“Send everything to the police.”
“I already did.”
“Good.”
Then David added, “Arthur, you need to know something else.”
Arthur closed his eyes.
“What now?”
“Peter scheduled a board meeting for tomorrow morning.”
Arthur frowned.
“I never approved that.”
“You didn’t have to.”
“Why?”
David took a breath.
“Because according to documents filed this afternoon, you’ve temporarily stepped down as CEO.”
Arthur stared at the wall.
“I did what?”
“There’s a resignation letter.”
“I never signed one.”
“It has your signature.”
Arthur’s voice lowered.
“Then it’s forged.”
“I think so.”
Maya watched him absorb the second attack.
His son had been hidden.
The trust had been targeted.
Now his company was being taken.
Arthur asked the only question that mattered.
“Who becomes acting CEO?”
David’s answer came quietly.
“Peter Sloan.”
Arthur ended the call.
Maya looked at him.
“What are you going to do?”
Arthur stared through the glass at his sleeping son.
Then he said:
“First, I’m going to make sure Lucas never wakes up alone again.”
He turned toward the elevator.
“And then I’m taking my company back.”
But before the doors opened, Lucas began screaming from inside the hospital room.
Arthur ran back.
Lucas was sitting upright, terrified.
Maya reached him first.
“What happened?”
Lucas grabbed her wrist.
“He found us.”
“Who?”
Lucas pointed toward the window.
On the glass, someone had written three words from outside.
May you like
KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT.
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