Chapter 5 - The Lines Are Drawn
The extortion attempt changed the nature of the game entirely. We were no longer dealing with a greedy young woman trying to secure a lavish lifestyle; we were dealing with a corporate syndicate that was holding my wife’s life hostage.
We gathered in the conference room of our legal team downtown. Arthur Pendelton, our senior counsel, sat at the head of the long mahogany table, surrounded by binders of corporate law and criminal statutes. Caleb sat beside him, his expression hollow, the reality of the betrayal having completely drained the youth from his face.
“Can she actually stop the clinical trials, Arthur?” I demanded, slamming my hand on the table. “Can she release that data?”
“Legally, the data she holds is unverified and stolen,” Arthur said, adjusting his glasses. “But practically? Yes. If she releases unblinded patient data to the public or to the FDA out of context, it can trigger an automatic administrative freeze. The regulatory bodies have to investigate any potential breach of protocol to ensure patient safety. An investigation like that can take six to twelve months. Months that Evelyn doesn't have.”
Evelyn reached over, placing her hand gently over mine to calm my rising anger. “Martin, we cannot give in to her. If we drop the lawsuit, Aethelgard will simply proceed with the hostile takeover anyway. We’ll lose the company, we’ll lose the patents, and they’ll shut down the production line regardless.”
“She’s right,” Caleb said, his voice quiet but steady. He looked up, his eyes meeting mine with a fierce determination I hadn't seen in him since he was a boy. “I let her into this family. I brought her into our lives because I was too stupid to see past her smile. I’m going to help you fix this, Dad. Whatever it takes.”
“What do you suggest, Caleb?” I asked.
“Vanessa is greedy, but she’s also arrogant,” Caleb said, pulling a small notebook from his pocket. “She thinks she’s three steps ahead of us because she’s working with Marcus Vance. But she doesn't know that I still have access to her personal cloud storage drive. She forgot that when we set up her new laptop last month, she synced her backup files to my family share network to save space.”
Sarah, who was sitting at the corner of the table, leaned forward instantly. “Caleb, are you saying you have her backup encryption keys?”
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“I have everything,” Caleb said, tossing a small thumb drive onto the center of the table. “Including her personal diaries, her financial ledgers, and the contracts she signed with Aethelgard detailing exactly how much she was being paid to target our family.”
Arthur Pendelton let out a low, appreciative whistle. “Well, Mr. Sterling, it seems your daughter-in-law just handed us the keys to her own prison cell.”
