Chapter 3 - Thomas Makes One Fatal Mistake
Thomas recovered quickly.
Too quickly.
“What’s that?”
Alexander watched him.
“An envelope.”
“I can see that.”
“Then why ask?”
Thomas forced a laugh.
“You seem tense.”
Vanessa looked toward the floor.
Emma remained silent.
Alexander kept one hand beneath the blanket, gripping the wheelchair arm.
Thomas approached.
“Did something happen?”
Alexander pointed toward the papers.
“Someone forged my signature.”
Thomas stopped.
Only for half a second.
But Alexander saw it.
“On what?”
Alexander smiled faintly.
Another mistake.
He had not yet said there was a document.
Thomas realized it too.
His expression changed.
Alexander lifted the guardianship petition.
“You already knew.”
“No.”
“You asked what it was on.”
“Vanessa may have mentioned paperwork.”
Vanessa looked at him sharply.
Thomas gave her a warning glance.
Alexander saw that too.
“So now you’re both protecting each other?”
Thomas sighed.
“Alex, you’ve been through trauma.”
“Don’t.”
“I’m your brother.”
“Then answer the question.”
Thomas’s voice lowered.
“I knew Vanessa was exploring legal options.”
“Why?”
“To protect the company.”
Alexander stared.
“There it is.”
Thomas frowned.
“What?”
“The company.”
For seven months, every conversation had eventually returned to Vale Holdings.
Alexander had founded the logistics and infrastructure firm eighteen years earlier.
Thomas joined five years later.
Alexander held fifty-one percent voting control.
Thomas held eighteen.
Their late father’s trust held the rest.
If Alexander were declared permanently incapacitated, his voting shares would transfer temporarily to a family management committee.
Thomas chaired it.
Vanessa would control Alexander’s personal assets.
Together, they could control almost everything.
Alexander looked at Vanessa.
“How long?”
She shook her head.
Thomas answered.
“Nothing has happened.”
“Not what I asked.”
“We were preparing for possibilities.”
“While I was still recovering.”
“You weren’t recovering.”
Alexander almost stood.
He forced himself to remain seated.
“What do you mean?”
Thomas stepped closer.
“You couldn’t move your legs.”
Alexander watched him carefully.
“According to who?”
“Every doctor.”
“No. According to Hale.”
Thomas’s face tightened.
Alexander continued.
“The hospital neurologist said nerve function might return.”
“That was optimism.”
“You sound disappointed.”
Thomas’s patience cracked.
“You think I wanted this?”
“I don’t know what you wanted.”
Thomas looked at Vanessa.
Alexander followed his gaze.
Vanessa’s hands were trembling.
Then Emma dropped a glass.
It shattered deliberately.
Everyone turned.
“Sorry,” she whispered.
Alexander understood.
She had created a distraction.
While Thomas looked away, Emma slipped her phone beneath the side table and started recording.
Alexander continued.
“What happened the night of my accident?”
Thomas froze.
Vanessa looked at him.
“The police report explains it,” Thomas said.
“My brakes failed.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Manufacturing defect.”
Alexander shook his head.
“The manufacturer inspected the wreck.”
Thomas’s face changed again.
Alexander had lied.
He had not yet seen the inspection.
He wanted the reaction.
Thomas gave it to him.
“How did you get that report?”
Alexander’s pulse quickened.
“So there is one.”
Thomas realized the trap.
Vanessa whispered, “Thomas.”
He snapped, “Shut up.”
Alexander looked at her.
That was the first time Thomas had spoken to Vanessa with open hostility.
Interesting.
Thomas stepped toward Alexander.
“You need to stop playing detective.”
“Why?”
“Because you don’t understand what happened.”
“Then explain it.”
Thomas stared at him.
For one moment, Alexander saw something he had never seen in his brother before.
Not greed.
Resentment.
Deep, old resentment.
“You were supposed to be gone that night.”
The sentence landed like a blow.
Vanessa gasped.
Thomas closed his eyes.
He had said too much.
Alexander’s voice became very quiet.
“Gone where?”
Thomas backed away.
“I meant out of town.”
“No.”
Alexander stood.
This time there was no blanket.
No performance.
Thomas staggered backward.
“What the hell?”
Alexander took one step.
Then another.
“You said I was supposed to be gone.”
Thomas stared at his legs.
Vanessa whispered, “He’s been faking.”
Alexander turned.
“No. I’ve been recovering.”
Then he looked at his brother.
“And apparently somebody has been trying very hard to keep me from noticing.”
Thomas reached inside his jacket.
Emma screamed.
Alexander moved.
But Thomas did not pull a weapon.
He pulled a phone.
He tapped one number.
“Now.”
Alexander stared.
“Who are you calling?”
Thomas looked toward the front windows.
Headlights swept across the marble floor.
A black SUV stopped outside.
Then a second.
Emma’s face went white.
Thomas smiled without warmth.
“The people who are going to prove you’re not mentally competent enough to know what you’re saying.”
The front door opened.
May you like
Dr. Marcus Hale walked in with two men carrying medical bags.
And behind them was a county probate officer holding an emergency evaluation order.
