Chapter 3 - Rebecca’s Will
“Where is the will?”
The stranger’s question snapped me back into motion.
I lifted Sophie from the floor and placed her carefully into the wheelchair.
Her face was wet with tears.
“My legs hurt.”
“I know.”
“They never hurt before.”
The stranger looked at me.
“That’s because the implant is overstimulating dormant pathways.”
“Can you stop it?”
“Not from here.”
“You just said—”
“I said I interrupted it. I didn’t disable it.”
Camille was crying now.
“Adrian, listen to me.”
I turned on her.
“You have thirty seconds to tell me everything.”
“I don’t know everything.”
“Then start with what you do know.”
She swallowed.
“Eleanor contacted me after Rebecca died.”
My blood ran cold.
“You knew my mother was alive?”
“Not at first.”
“When?”
“About eighteen months ago.”
“That’s six months after Sophie’s surgery.”
Camille nodded.
The pieces were coming together too quickly.
“Who implanted the device?”
“I don’t know his real name.”
“Camille.”
“I swear.”
She looked at Sophie.
“I thought it was a temporary neuromodulation implant. Eleanor said it would reduce nerve response long enough to force you into approving the endowment restructuring.”
“You let someone operate on Sophie for money?”
“No!”
Her voice cracked.
“It wasn’t money.”
“Then what?”
She looked ashamed.
“Rebecca.”
That stopped me.
“My wife is dead.”
“I know.”
“Then explain.”
Camille wiped her cheeks.
“Rebecca discovered something before she died. Something about your family. Something about the trust.”
The stranger glanced toward the balcony.
“We don’t have time.”
I looked at him.
“Who are you?”
He hesitated.
“My name is Elias Mercer.”
The name meant nothing to me.
He saw that.
“I worked for Voss Biomedical Systems.”
My family company.
The company I had inherited after my father’s death.
The company whose medical technology division had quietly been dissolved seven years earlier.
The same year my mother supposedly died.
Elias continued.
“I designed neural signal implants.”
I stared at him.
“You built this?”
“No.”
“But the design is based on my research.”
Sophie looked up.
“Can you fix me?”
His face softened.
“I’m going to try.”
I hated those words.
Try.
Doctors had used that word before every disappointment.
I turned to Camille.
“Where is Rebecca’s will?”
She whispered, “You have it.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
“Rebecca’s attorney gave me a standard will after she died.”
“That wasn’t the real one.”
My heart began pounding.
“What?”
“Rebecca made a second document.”
“Where?”
Camille looked at my watch.
“Your house.”
The restaurant noise disappeared.
“What do you mean?”
“She told me once that if anything happened to her, you’d find the truth in Sophie’s first birthday box.”
I stared at her.
“That box is in my study.”
Elias checked the scanner.
“Eight minutes.”
My home was twenty minutes away.
Unless—
I pulled out my phone.
My chief of security, Daniel, answered immediately.
“Sir?”
“Go to my study. Now.”
A pause.
“What am I looking for?”
“Top shelf of the east cabinet. Blue archival box marked Sophie—First Birthday.”
I heard footsteps.
“Got it.”
“Open it.”
Another pause.
“Sir, there’s a smaller wooden box inside.”
My breathing stopped.
“I’ve never seen that.”
“It’s locked.”
“Break it.”
A hard crack came through the phone.
Then silence.
“Daniel?”
“There’s an envelope.”
“What does it say?”
He read slowly.
“For Adrian. Only when Eleanor returns.”
My entire body went cold.
Rebecca had known.
Three years before her death, my wife had known my mother was alive.
“Open it.”
Paper rustled.
“There’s a handwritten document and a flash drive.”
“Read the first line.”
Daniel hesitated.
“Sir…”
“Read it.”
He did.
“I, Rebecca Elise Voss, being of sound mind, revoke all previous testamentary instructions concerning the Voss Medical Trust…”
Camille covered her mouth.
I looked toward the balcony.
“What else?”
Daniel kept reading.
“In the event of my death, full control of my beneficial interest shall transfer not to my husband, Adrian Voss, but temporarily to my daughter, Sophie Voss, under independent trusteeship until she reaches adulthood.”
I stared at Sophie.
Everything clicked.
The hospital endowment.
The pressure.
The implant.
Sophie wasn’t leverage against me.
She was the legal owner of whatever Rebecca had discovered.
“Keep reading.”
Daniel’s voice became uncertain.
“There’s a codicil.”
“What does it say?”
“If Eleanor Voss is confirmed alive, all Voss Biomedical patents held through offshore entities must be transferred into a public medical trust, and evidence stored under protocol Rebecca-17 must be released to federal authorities.”
The restaurant seemed to tilt around me.
Elias looked stunned.
“Rebecca knew.”
“Knew what?”
He looked at the scanner.
“Why Voss Biomedical shut down.”
I stepped toward him.
“Tell me.”
“My implant research was supposed to restore mobility.”
Sophie listened closely.
Elias lowered his voice.
“Eleanor turned it into something else.”
“What?”
“Remote neurological control.”
The words hung in the air.
Camille whispered, “God.”
Elias continued.
“Pain induction. Motor suppression. Temporary paralysis. Eventually—permanent nerve destruction.”
I looked at Sophie.
My stomach twisted.
“You’re saying my mother used my daughter as a test subject?”
Elias nodded once.
Rage hit me so hard I could barely breathe.
“How do we stop it?”
“We need the remote’s encryption key.”
“Where?”
“Usually inside the controller.”
I looked upstairs.
My mother had it.
Six minutes.
I handed my phone to Camille.
“Send the will to every attorney on my legal team.”
Elias grabbed my arm.
“If she thinks you’ve released it, she may trigger full destruction.”
“Then what do you suggest?”
“Give her what she wants.”
I stared at him.
“The will?”
“A copy.”
“And then?”
“We get close enough for me to override the controller.”
Sophie grabbed my sleeve.
“Dad.”
I knelt.
“I’m not leaving you.”
“You have to.”
“No.”
“She wants you.”
Her eyes were frightened.
But clear.
“Go.”
I shook my head.
“I spent two years watching you suffer.”
“And if you don’t go, I might never walk.”
That broke me.
I kissed her forehead.
“I’m coming back.”
She nodded.
“I know.”
Elias handed me his scanner.
“If the number turns red, call me.”
“What number?”
“Signal intensity.”
I looked toward the staircase.
At the top stood one of my mother’s men.
Black suit.
Expressionless face.
He gestured for me to follow.
I started climbing.
Halfway up, my phone vibrated.
A message from Daniel.
He had opened the flash drive.
Only one sentence appeared.
ADRIAN, IF ELEANOR IS ALIVE, DO NOT TRUST CAMILLE.
I stopped on the staircase.
Slowly, I looked back.
Camille stood beside Sophie.
Holding my phone.
May you like
And staring directly at me.
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