Chapter 9 - Seventeen Percent
The number was seventeen.
Seventeen percent of Callahan Holdings.
Seventeen percent of the voting stock.
Seventeen percent left to Sophie by her mother.
And seventeen percent was enough to decide whether Ethan remained chief executive.
Rachel spread the trust documents across a conference table at her office.
Nothing more.
"Under Lillian's trust," Rachel said, "Sophie's shares remain passive unless there is a contested control vote. If she's a minor, her trustees can cast them."
Ethan nodded. "I'm primary trustee."
"You were."
Rachel turned a page.
"Three months ago, a temporary amendment was filed naming Celeste co-trustee if you became medically or legally unavailable."
"I never signed this."
"The signature is yours."
"No. It looks like mine."
Nora leaned closer.
"Same copier," she said.
Ethan looked at her.
"What?"
Rachel nodded. "That's what our examiner thinks."
Ethan stared at the amendment.
"If they remove me from the board-"
"Celeste and Grant could combine Sophie's voting block with Grant's allies," Rachel said. "Enough to control the company."
Nora's stomach turned.
"So Sophie wasn't sick enough for them."
Nobody spoke.
The sentence was ugly.
But accurate.
Rachel opened another folder.
"There's more. Callahan Family Medical Services billed Sophie's trust for private care over the last eighteen months."
"How much?"
"Two-point-eight million dollars."
Ethan stared at her.
"For what?"
"Specialist retainers. Private assessments. Residential support planning."
"She's six. She lives at home."
"I know."
Nora felt cold.
"Who owns the medical service?"
Rachel slid over the corporate record.
A Delaware company held it.
That company was owned by another company.
And that one led to a trust administered by Malcolm Rourke.
Ethan's voice dropped.
"Rourke."
Rachel nodded.
"But the beneficial-control filing lists one additional party."
She turned the page.
Vivian Callahan.
Ethan stared at his mother's name.
"No."
Nora watched denial rise in his face.
She had seen it before.
At the mansion.
At the gate.
Before the handcuffs.
Ethan looked at her.
"My mother would never use Sophie."
Nora said nothing.
He understood anyway.
Rachel's phone rang.
She listened for less than ten seconds before standing.
"We need to leave."
"Why?"
"Someone just broke into the evidence locker at St. Anne's."
Nora's chair scraped back.
May you like
Rachel grabbed her coat.
"And the backup sample from Sophie's bloodwork is gone."
