Chapter 5 - Poison in the Pedigree
"What is that, Marcus?" Daniel demanded, keeping the gun leveled at the old man's chest. Trust was an extinct currency in this house.
Marcus stepped forward slowly, placing the manila envelope onto the edge of the desk, keeping his hands in plain view. "This is the real reason your wife was in that wheelchair to begin with, sir."
Daniel’s blood turned to ice. "What are you talking about? Emily was in that wheelchair because she developed sudden peripheral neuropathy four months ago. The specialists said—"
"The specialists were on your mother's payroll, Master Daniel," Marcus interrupted, his eyes welling with tears. "Every doctor who touched Miss Emily was vetted by Lady Eleanor. For the last sixteen weeks, Miss Vanessa instructed the kitchen staff to brew a very specific blend of nightshade extract and thallium into your wife’s morning prenatal tea."
"What?!" Daniel roared, his voice shaking the crystal decanters on the shelf.
"Thallium, sir. A tasteless, odorless heavy metal," Marcus whispered. "In small doses, it mimics Guillain-Barré syndrome and severe peripheral nerve degradation. It crippled her legs. The plan was never just to push her. The plan was to make her so frail, so helpless, that when she inevitably 'fell,' no one would question it. They wanted to induce a natural stillbirth weeks ago, but Miss Emily’s body was too strong. She kept the child alive through sheer willpower."
Daniel tore open the envelope. Inside were printed laboratory purchase orders routed through an offshore shell company in the Cayman Islands—signed under Vanessa’s personal signature—and toxicology reports that had been hidden from Emily’s medical file.
"Why, Marcus?" Daniel asked, his voice shaking with a dangerous, unstable vibration. "Emily never hurt a soul. She came from nothing. She didn't care about the Ashford billions! Why would Vanessa and my mother risk everything to kill her and my child?!"
Marcus lowered his head, unable to look Daniel in the eye.
"Because the child isn't just an heir to your fortune, Daniel," the old man said quietly. "Your father’s will contained a secret trust codicil, sealed until his first biological grandchild was born. Under that codicil, the entirety of the Ashford Corporation—sixty-five percent of the voting shares, the estate, the overseas holdings—bypasses your mother and your sister completely. It transfers directly to your firstborn child upon birth, with you as the sole trustee."
Daniel stared at the documents, his mind racing. "And if the child dies before drawing breath?"
"Then the entire estate defaults to Lady Eleanor and Vanessa," Marcus replied. "They were bankrupt, Daniel. The European investments your sister made three years ago collapsed. They lost half a billion dollars of company funds. If the auditors arrived before the baby was born, they were going to prison. But if your child died... and Emily died... Vanessa would have inherited full control to liquidate the trust and cover the theft."
They hadn't just tried to murder his wife out of hatred.
They had tried to murder his family to cover up their corporate greed.
A sudden vibration buzzed against the desk. It was Daniel's encrypted phone.
Arthur’s voice came through the speaker, breathless and panicked:
May you like
"Boss! Get back to the hospital now! The power just cut out on the fourth-floor ICU. Someone compromised the backup generators, and there’s an unregistered nurse entering Emily’s room!"
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