Chapter 8 - The Company Behind the MurderThe fifty million dollars had always been distraction.
A vast amount to most people.
A smaller reward compared with Mercer Technologies.
The company controlled medical patents, defense communications, and emergency tracking systems worth billions. Elena held fifty-one percent of the voting shares through a protected family trust.
Victor could not inherit those shares permanently.
Adrian’s original trust prevented spouses from taking direct control.
So Victor and Richard Vale, the trust attorney, created another path.
If Elena disappeared and remained legally unavailable, Victor could become temporary guardian of her estate.
If the baby was also presumed dead, no descendant could challenge the appointment.
Temporary authority would allow him to replace trustees, approve mergers, and sell selected patents before Elena was legally declared dead.
The transactions could move billions within days.
The life-insurance policy existed to give Victor immediate liquidity while the larger transfer unfolded.
Adrian placed the complete structure before Elena.
“Victor was not planning to wait for your body.”
“He was planning to use the uncertainty.”
“Yes.”
The cliff offered both death and delay.
Even if rescuers found nothing, legal proceedings could continue for months. During that gap, Victor intended to control the company.
The emergency petition he signed contained sworn statements.
Elena had shown severe mental instability.
She had endangered the pregnancy.
She had discussed suicide.
Victor had attempted to seek help.
Each lie made the cliff story appear credible.
Elena read the petition slowly.
He had transformed her resistance into illness.
Three weeks earlier, when she questioned the accounts, Victor suggested she was becoming paranoid from pregnancy hormones.
Two weeks earlier, he scheduled a private appointment with a psychiatrist using her name, then canceled it. The record made it appear she sought treatment.
One week earlier, Serena sent messages expressing concern about Elena’s mental state.
Every action prepared the official story.
Elena’s anger became so intense that the monitor beside her bed began sounding.
Dr. Hayes entered.
“You need rest.”
“I need Victor stopped.”
“Your daughter needs you alive.”
The sentence cut through everything.
Elena looked toward Hope’s photograph.
Revenge could become another way Victor controlled her attention.
The goal was not to destroy him dramatically.
It was to preserve evidence, protect the company, and secure her child.
She handed the petition back to Adrian.
“What happens if I appear now?”
“The petition collapses. Some accomplices may still claim they believed Victor.”
“And if the judge grants temporary authority?”
“He will contact every person required to execute the transfers.”
Elena closed her eyes.
The risk was enormous.
If even one transfer succeeded, employees, patents, and national-security contracts could be affected.
Adrian had already frozen the core systems secretly through emergency protocols created before his disappearance.
Victor could receive paper authority without gaining real control.
He would believe the plan was working.
The company would remain protected.
“Let the hearing proceed,” Elena said.
Adrian studied her.
“You understand that he will describe you publicly as unstable.”
“He already tried to kill me.”
“This will be different.”
“How?”
“People will hear his version before they see you alive.”
Elena looked toward the hospital mirror.
Her bruised face.
Pale skin.
Hospital gown.
IV line.
She no longer cared whether strangers first believed Victor.
Truth did not become weaker because lies arrived earlier.
“Let him speak,” she said.
The emergency hearing occurred the next morning.
Victor appeared by video wearing black.
He described Elena as fragile, confused, and deeply troubled.
The judge asked whether he had any financial interest in the petition.
Victor looked directly into the camera.
“None beyond protecting my wife’s legacy.”
At that exact moment, he sent Serena a message:
Once control clears, the Meridian sale happens immediately.
The message was captured.
Meridian was a private defense conglomerate.
It had offered more than two billion dollars for Mercer’s tracking division.
Elena’s bracelet—the device that saved her—came from that division.
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Victor was preparing to sell the technology that had exposed him.
👉 Victor believed the judge had opened the door to Mercer Technologies, but Elena’s hidden protocol had already locked every system against him.
