Chapter 2 - AIR FIRSTI did not collapse dramatically onto Grandfather’s coffin.
I sat on the marble floor.
Because one of the mourners, Dr. Nina Graves, told me to.
She was a cardiologist.
Not my physician.
Still sufficiently qualified to recognize respiratory distress.
“Mara, sit.”
I obeyed.
Someone called 911.
Damian began shouting about phones.
Not me.
Phones.
“What did she trigger?”
No one answered him.
Our chief legal officer, Rebecca Sloane, stepped between Damian and the cluster of executives now reading urgent notifications.
“Do not touch anything.”
Damian stared at her.
“Excuse me?”
“Your phone. Your laptop. Any estate terminal. Any company device.”
“You work for me.”
Rebecca’s expression did not change.
“I work for Mercer Systems Group.”
That distinction had apparently arrived sooner than Damian expected.
My breathing worsened.
Dr. Graves loosened nothing because my dress was not restrictive and she was not performing television medicine.
She asked:
“Any backup inhaler?”
I shook my head.
“Nebulizer?”
“At home.”
An estate security officer brought an oxygen kit, but oxygen alone would not reverse bronchospasm.
The ambulance arrived in nine minutes.
Long enough.
Paramedics administered inhaled bronchodilator treatment.
My chest gradually opened.
Not instantly.
But enough that the room stopped disappearing around the edges.
They wanted me transported.
I agreed.
Damian tried to leave at the same time.
Rebecca said:
“No.”
He looked at her.
“You cannot detain me.”
“Correct.”
“Then move.”
“I am advising you that the transfer agent has suspended multiple instructions submitted from your office, the family trust administrator has initiated a duress review, and two lenders have requested immediate certification from you personally. If you leave without counsel, you may make your position worse.”
Damian’s face tightened.
“What did she do?”
Rebecca looked toward me.
I was being placed on the stretcher.
“She pressed a button Elias authorized her to press.”
That was all.
No inheritance reveal.
May you like
No dramatic reading of a will.
The wake continued around a dead man while the living family began to understand he had left precautions.
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