Chapter 2 - The House of Cards
Aunt Susan stepped into the study holding a porcelain teacup. The moment her eyes fell on the torn portrait, the open metal shaft, and the old man strapped inside, the teacup slipped from her fingers and shattered onto the hardwood floor.
Her face drained of every ounce of color.
"Susan," Arthur rasped from the elevator, his voice laced with burning hatred despite his physical weakness. "You... absolute monster."
Before Susan could speak or run, Marcus Carrow rushed into the room, alerted by the sound of breaking china.
"What is going on in—" Marcus stopped dead in his tracks. His jaw dropped, his briefcase slipping from his hand, spilling legal documents across the rug. "Dad?!"
Marcus lunged past his sister, dropping to his knees inside the tight elevator shaft. His trembling hands pulled a pocketknife from his jacket, slicing through the heavy ropes binding his father's wrists and ankles.
"Eli, go get water! Now!" Marcus yelled, his voice cracking with shock and horror.
Eli sprinted to the adjoining kitchen, returning within seconds with a tall glass of ice water. Marcus held the glass to his father's cracked lips, watching in heartbroken fury as the patriarch of Carrow Enterprises drank like a man rescued from a desert.
"Marcus..." Susan stammered, stepping backward toward the hallway. "Marcus, let me explain... it isn't what it looks like—"
"Shut your mouth!" Marcus roared, turning a glare toward his sister that could have cut through steel. He pulled his phone from his pocket, his thumbs flying across the screen. "I am calling the state police and an ambulance."
Suddenly, Uncle Vincent stepped into the study door, blocking the exit. He was a broad, heavy-set man with cold eyes, carrying a leather briefcase.
"Put the phone down, Marcus," Vincent said softly. His tone wasn't frantic; it was terrifyingly calculated.
"Vincent, he was locked behind a wall for eleven days!" Marcus shouted, standing up and placing himself protectively between Vincent and the frail old man on the floor. "You told the board he was in a private hospital! You forged his signature on the medical power of attorney, didn't you?!"
Vincent sighed, adjusting his cufflinks without a hint of remorse. "Your father was stubborn, Marcus. He was about to restructure Carrow Enterprises and leave eighty percent of the voting shares to a charitable trust, leaving Susan and me with peanuts. He refused to listen to reason."
"So you starved him behind a painting?!" Eli yelled, his small fists clenched at his sides.
Vincent looked down at the boy with cold indifference. "We didn't intend to kill him, kid. We gave him water once every two days. He just needed to sign the transfer documents. One signature. That was all we needed."
Arthur coughed, leaning against his son Marcus for support. "A signature... you never got... you bastards..."
"We have eleven days of forged board minutes, Marcus," Susan blurted out, her composure cracking into desperate panic. "The bank has already approved the liquidation of the Carrow offshore accounts! If you call the police now, the company goes under, the stock plunges to zero, and the family name is ruined!"
"I don't give a damn about the company!" Marcus snapped. "You kidnapped my father!"
May you like
Vincent reached into his coat jacket. For a terrifying second, Eli thought he was reaching for a gun. Instead, Vincent pulled out a thick envelope of legal papers.
"In twenty-four hours, the final merger with Sterling Global goes through," Vincent said, setting the papers on the desk. "If Arthur’s signature is on those pages by midnight, forty million dollars hits our accounts. We split it three ways. Marcus... you take your share, take your son, and walk away. Or you call the police, and we all go down together."
