Chapter 21 - The Ghost on the Line
The voice through the earpiece did not belong to a dead man, yet Marcus Vance felt a chill rake across his spine as if the grave itself had opened beneath his work boots.
"Arthur?" Marcus choked out the single syllable, the air in the suffocating attic suddenly turning to liquid lead. His fingers tightened around his phone so hard the glass screen groaned under the pressure. "You died in the facility fire seven years ago. I buried an empty casket, Dad. What kind of sick, twisted game is this?"
"Listen to me, Marcus, and listen with every shred of sanity you have left," Arthur Vance’s gravelly voice rasped, accompanied by the distinct, rhythmic mechanical beep of an automated prison telephone system warning that the call was monitored. "Eleanor doesn't believe in leaving survivors, only liabilities. The fire was her design, but the Department of Justice pulled me out of the burn ward before her cleanup crew could finish the job. I traded my identity, my fortune, and my fatherhood to stay breathing in protective custody upstate."
Below in the gravel driveway, headlights swept across the wet birch trees, casting long, spider-like shadows against the attic's slanted ceiling. Marcus backed away from the circular window, his heart hammering against his ribs like a caged animal.
"She went after Chloe tonight," Marcus hissed, his voice trembling with a terrifying blend of rage and despair. "She tried to smother her in a pediatric bed at Boston Medical Center! Harrison found succinylcholine residue on the sheets. Why, Dad? Why would she want to murder a six-year-old child?"
"Because Chloe isn’t just your daughter, Marcus," Arthur whispered, the audio breaking up under heavy static as the correctional facility's countdown timer began its sixty-second warning chime. "She is the sole beneficiary of the 1998 blind trust my father established before Eleanor married into this family. If Chloe turns seven years old tomorrow at midnight, the ownership of Vance Bio-Pharma legally bypasses Eleanor and transfers into an irrevocable guardianship controlled by Chloe's blood mother's estate. Eleanor isn't just broke—she’s facing federal bankruptcy and an indictment for corporate embezzlement. If Chloe dies before her seventh birthday, the assets revert back to Eleanor as surviving matriarch."
Marcus felt the blood drain completely from his face. "Tomorrow at midnight... that’s why she rushed the dose tonight."
"She’s not done, Marcus!" Arthur's voice rose with an urgency that pierced through the crackling speaker. "Eleanor has half the hospital's administrative board on her private payroll. The arrest warrant you think the DA signed? It won't hold her for more than two hours. Look inside the bottom lining of Chloe's favorite stuffed bear. I hid the original offshore account keys there before they locked me away. Don't let her get that bear. And whatever you do, Marcus... do not trust Detective—"
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The line went dead. A cold dial tone droned in Marcus's ear, followed by the distant wail of emergency sirens tearing through the wet Boston night.
***
