Chapter 4 - The Enemy Inside the House
The emergency custody hearing was scheduled for ten o’clock the next morning.
By seven, reporters were already gathered outside the courthouse.
The story had leaked overnight.
HOUSEKEEPER’S BABY MAY CONTROL BILLION-DOLLAR HALE FORTUNE.
SECRET HEIR FOUND INSIDE ADRIAN HALE’S MANSION.
MOTHER ACCUSED OF HIDING CHILD FROM PATERNAL FAMILY.
Maria read only three headlines before Rebecca took the phone from her.
“None of this matters inside the courtroom.”
“It matters if the judge believes it.”
“The judge is supposed to believe evidence.”
“Supposed to?”
Rebecca did not answer.
Maria sat at the breakfast table in a secure apartment connected to Rebecca’s law firm. She had refused to remain in the mansion after Owen’s betrayal.
Alina sat in a portable high chair, refusing oatmeal and looking toward the door every few seconds.
“She’s searching for him,” Maria said.
Rebecca knew whom she meant.
Adrian had spent the night meeting federal agents and Hale International’s board. He arrived twenty minutes later wearing the same suit from the previous day.
There was a cut near his eyebrow.
Alina squealed when she saw him.
She lifted both arms.
Maria could not stop the strange mixture of relief and pain that entered her chest.
Adrian picked up the baby.
“You should sleep,” Maria said.
“So should you.”
“I’m not the billionaire running a collapsing company.”
“I am no longer running it.”
Rebecca looked up.
“What did you do?”
“I resigned as chief executive at four this morning.”
Maria stared at him.
“Why?”
“Crane’s attorneys planned to argue I was using Alina to keep control of Hale International. Resigning removes that claim.”
“You gave up your company?”
“I gave up a title.”
“You spent your whole life protecting that title.”
Adrian looked at Alina.
“That was before I understood the price.”
Rebecca placed a cup of coffee in front of him.
“The board appointed Crane interim CEO.”
“I expected that.”
“That gives him access to every corporate attorney and security contractor.”
“It also puts him where federal investigators can watch him.”
Maria searched Adrian’s face.
“You planned this.”
“I gave him what he wanted most.”
“Power?”
“Visibility.”
The hearing began inside a closed courtroom.
Philip Crane sat at the opposing table.
He looked dignified, patient, almost grandfatherly.
Victor Shaw remained missing.
Owen Price’s location was also unknown.
Crane’s attorney argued that Maria had concealed Alina’s identity, moved repeatedly, lived under unstable conditions, and exposed the baby to danger by working inside Adrian’s mansion.
Rebecca answered with Daniel’s marriage certificate, hospital records, employment history, and evidence of Victor’s intimidation.
The judge, Eleanor Reeves, listened without expression.
Then Crane’s attorney produced a letter.
It was supposedly written by Daniel two months before his death.
In it, Daniel claimed Maria had threatened him, lied about the pregnancy, and become emotionally unstable.
Maria stared at the handwriting.
“That isn’t his.”
Crane’s attorney continued.
“Mr. Daniel Hale expressed serious doubts that the child was biologically his.”
Adrian’s hands closed into fists.
Rebecca stood.
“We have already requested an immediate DNA comparison using samples from Daniel’s preserved medical records and Mr. Adrian Hale.”
Crane’s attorney smiled.
“We welcome it.”
That confidence frightened Maria.
The judge ordered a two-hour recess while the expedited DNA analysis was completed.
In a private room behind the courtroom, Maria paced with Alina.
“They changed something,” she said. “He wouldn’t welcome the test unless he believed he could control it.”
Adrian called Rebecca’s laboratory.
No answer.
He called again.
A technician finally responded.
The sample courier had been involved in a minor traffic accident.
The evidence kit was missing.
Rebecca closed her eyes.
“Crane is delaying the result.”
“Then use my blood now,” Adrian said. “Have a second laboratory collect it in this building.”
“An uncle-niece test is less definitive than a direct paternal comparison.”
“But it is enough to exclude fraud.”
A court-approved technician arrived.
Adrian rolled up his sleeve.
Alina was swabbed while Maria held her.
The baby cried for less than ten seconds, then reached for Adrian’s hand.
The result arrived forty minutes after the hearing resumed.
Probability of biological relationship: 99.4 percent.
A murmur moved through the courtroom.
Crane’s pleasant expression finally cracked.
Rebecca placed the report before the judge.
“Alina is a member of the Hale family. Maria’s legal marriage is documented. There is no evidence she concealed the child for financial gain. She did not even know Daniel’s true surname.”
Crane’s attorney changed direction.
“Biology does not establish parental fitness.”
He called Owen Price as a witness.
Maria gasped.
Owen entered under police protection, claiming he had voluntarily surrendered.
He testified that Maria had behaved erratically in the mansion, shouted at staff, and left Alina unsupervised.
“That’s a lie,” Maria whispered.
Owen also claimed Adrian had ordered security staff to destroy records and threaten Victor Shaw.
Rebecca stood for cross-examination.
“Mr. Price, are you currently under investigation for unauthorized surveillance?”
“I made mistakes under pressure.”
“Did Philip Crane pay your mortgage last year?”
“No.”
Rebecca displayed a bank transfer from one of Daniel’s files.
Owen’s face tightened.
“Did Mr. Crane threaten your children?”
Owen looked toward Crane.
For the first time, fear appeared in his eyes.
“I don’t remember.”
“You told Adrian Hale that Crane gave you a choice because he knew where your children attended school.”
“I was confused.”
“You entered a secure room with armed men.”
“I was trying to protect everyone.”
“By stealing evidence?”
Owen remained silent.
Rebecca approached the witness stand.
“Who opened the mansion gate for Victor Shaw?”
Owen looked at Crane again.
The judge noticed.
“Answer the question,” she ordered.
Owen’s breathing changed.
Then a fire alarm sounded.
The courtroom lights flashed.
Court officers began moving people toward the exits.
Rebecca grabbed Maria’s arm.
“Stay with me.”
Adrian took Alina.
They entered a crowded corridor filled with attorneys, reporters, clerks, and security personnel.
Smoke appeared near the elevators.
People began pushing toward the stairwell.
Maria kept one hand on Adrian’s jacket.
Then someone shouted that a child had fallen.
Adrian turned instinctively.
A woman in a court officer’s uniform crashed into Maria.
Maria lost her grip.
The crowd surged between her and Adrian.
“Alina!”
She forced her way forward.
She saw Adrian near the stairwell.
His arms were empty.
“Where is she?” Maria screamed.
Adrian looked down as though he could not understand what had happened.
“She was here.”
The woman in uniform had taken the baby.
Security doors closed.
The fire alarm continued.
Adrian grabbed the nearest officer.
“Seal the building.”
The officer called into his radio.
Maria searched faces, coats, arms.
No Alina.
Rebecca found a discarded court officer’s jacket near a service corridor.
A woman wearing plain clothes appeared on a security monitor, carrying Alina beneath a gray blanket.
She entered a maintenance elevator with Owen Price.
The elevator descended to the courthouse garage.
Adrian and Maria ran down three flights of stairs.
They reached the garage in time to hear tires screaming.
A black van broke through the exit barrier.
Adrian’s security vehicle followed.
Police cars joined the pursuit.
Maria stood shaking beside an empty parking space.
Something white rested on the ground.
Alina’s sock.
Maria picked it up.
A folded note had been tucked inside.
Adrian opened it.
There were only six words.
BLACKWOOD LAKE. BRING DANIEL’S ORIGINAL FILES.
Maria looked at him.
“That is where Daniel died.”
“Yes.”
“Then that is where Crane plans to finish this.”
May you like
Adrian folded the note and placed it inside his coat.
“No,” he said. “It is where we finish him.”
