Chapter 7 - THE NEGOTIATION
The cold steel of the gun barrel pressed against my forehead, sending a jolt of pure, paralyzing terror through my veins.
I looked down at Nathan, lying unconscious in the frost, a thin trail of blood trickling from his temple. Then I looked at Richard. The polished, aristocratic facade of the Whitmore empire was completely stripped away, leaving only a ruthless, calculating killer.
"The documents, Maya," Richard repeated, his finger tightening on the trigger. "Or I blow your brains out right here, take them from your corpse, and leave you for the wolves."
I was terrified, but two years of serving Evelyn Whitmore had taught me how to mask fear. I took a slow, deliberate breath, forcing my heart rate to steady.
"If you shoot me," I said, my voice shockingly calm, "you lose the company."
Richard laughed, a harsh, abrasive sound. "I already control the company, little girl."
"Temporarily," I countered, locking eyes with him. "You control the board because Nathan is deemed too young and inexperienced. But Nathan turns thirty-five next week. The trust dissolves. He takes majority control. Unless..."
I paused, letting the implication hang in the freezing air.
Richard’s eyes narrowed. "Unless what?"
"Unless you have my shares to back you up," I said.
I slowly reached into my jacket and pulled out the waterproof dry-bag. I held it up, making sure he could see the thick stack of papers inside.
"I have the birth certificate," I said, projecting a confidence I didn't truly feel. "It proves I am Nolan Whitmore's legitimate daughter. I am entitled to twenty-five point five percent of the voting shares. If you kill me, those shares default to Nathan. He gets fifty-one percent, and he fires you the morning of his birthday."
Richard didn't shoot. He lowered the gun by an inch, his mind racing, calculating the corporate logistics.
"But," I continued smoothly, "if I am alive... and I legally grant you my proxy voting rights... you retain control of the board. Indefinitely. Nathan can't touch you."
Marcus, the security chief, shifted uneasily behind Richard. "Boss, she's playing you. Just kill her."
"Shut up, Marcus," Richard snapped, his eyes never leaving my face. He stepped closer. "Why would you give me your proxy rights? I just tried to kill you."
"Because I don't care about Whitmore Industries," I lied flawlessly. "I grew up in foster care. I spent two years scrubbing your sister-in-law's toilets. I don't want to run a Fortune 500 company. I want to be rich. I want a hundred million dollars deposited into a Swiss bank account by noon tomorrow, and I want a private jet waiting to take me to Europe. In exchange, I sign the proxy papers, hand over the evidence of your embezzlement, and disappear forever."
It was a bold, insane bluff. But I knew men like Richard. They didn't understand morality or family loyalty. They only understood greed and leverage.
Richard stared at me, searching my face for a tell. He saw a desperate maid willing to sell her soul for a payday. He smiled.
"You truly are Nolan's daughter," Richard chuckled, lowering the gun completely. "Ruthless and entirely self-interested. A hundred million is steep."
"It's a bargain for a company worth billions," I replied, not breaking eye contact.
Richard pondered for a moment, then nodded slowly. "Deal. We fly back to the city. My lawyers will draft the proxy agreement. Once you sign, the money transfers, and you get on a plane."
He gestured for the man holding me to let me go.
"What about him?" Marcus asked, pointing his rifle at the unconscious Nathan.
Richard looked down at his nephew with absolute disgust. "Nathan is a liability. Put a bullet in his head and leave him in the woods."
"No!" I screamed, lunging forward, completely dropping the cold facade.
I threw myself over Nathan’s body, shielding him. "If you kill him, the deal is off! I'll tear up the birth certificate right now!"
Richard sighed, clearly annoyed by the emotional display. "Fine. Bring the boy. We'll deal with him in the city. Tie them both up and load them into the chopper."
Marcus and another guard grabbed me roughly, binding my wrists with heavy plastic zip-ties. They hauled Nathan up and threw us both into the back seats of the luxurious corporate helicopter.
Richard climbed into the front passenger seat, putting on a headset. "To the private airstrip in Westchester," he ordered the pilot.
The rotors whined, building speed until the massive machine lifted off the frozen ground, banking sharply over the churning gray ocean of Carmel Cove.
I sat in the back, my hands bound tightly behind me, watching the rugged coastline shrink away. Nathan groaned beside me, his eyes fluttering open. He looked confused, then terrified as he realized we were trapped in the helicopter with his uncle.
"Maya," Nathan whispered weakly, leaning his head toward mine. "What happened?"
"I made a deal," I whispered back, making sure Richard couldn't hear over the roar of the rotors. "I traded my shares for our lives."
Nathan’s face fell. "He’s going to kill us anyway, Maya. The moment you sign those papers, he doesn't need you anymore."
"I know," I said softly, my eyes locking onto the waterproof dry-bag resting on the seat next to Richard up front.
"Then why did you do it?"
"Because I needed to get us off that island," I said, a dangerous, reckless plan forming in my mind. "And because Richard made a mistake."
"What mistake?"
I looked down at my lap. My hands were bound behind my back, out of sight from the men up front. And tucked securely inside my sleeve, pressed against my wrist, was the small, heavy silver pendant.
When Marcus had zip-tied me, he had been sloppy. The plastic tie was tight against my skin, but the sharp, engraved edge of the silver pendant was wedged directly against the plastic band.
May you like
"He thinks I'm just a maid," I whispered to Nathan, slowly beginning to saw the sharp edge of the pendant back and forth against the heavy plastic binding.
Answer one, open two. Richard thought he had bought my loyalty. He didn't realize he had just brought a bomb aboard his own helicopter.
