Chapter 4 - The Man Who Wanted Her Dead
Renee finally told Daniel the story she had buried for four years.
Arthur Sterling had been investigating financial irregularities inside his own company.
He had discovered that billions of dollars were moving through subsidiaries that did not appear on Sterling Global's public financial statements.
Arthur had planned to confront the board.
He never got the chance.
The night before his death, he told Renee something strange.
“If anything happens to me, never trust the people who tell you they loved me most.”
At the time, Renee thought he was paranoid.
The next morning, he was dead.
The official cause was cardiac arrest.
But Renee had always suspected something was wrong.
Daniel asked why she had waited so long.
“Because I was twenty-eight,” she said. “And I was terrified.”
Now the same people who had surrounded her father's company were surrounding her.
Then Marcus returned.
He appeared outside Renee's estate.
Daniel immediately confronted him.
Marcus looked exhausted.
“You need to listen to me.”
“You disappeared.”
“I was trying to keep her alive.”
Daniel almost punched him.
Marcus explained that he had discovered Victor Hale was secretly working with a group of investors attempting to take control of Sterling Global.
But there was more.
Marcus had discovered that Renee's illness might not have been entirely natural.
He didn't know whether she had been deliberately poisoned.
Daniel refused to believe it.
Until Marcus showed him the evidence.
A laboratory report.
One of Renee's medications had been contaminated.
Not enough to kill her immediately.
Enough to weaken her immune system.
Enough to make her treatments fail.
Renee was stunned.
She had spent months believing her body was betraying her.
Now they realized someone might have been helping it fail.
But Marcus had one final revelation.
“The board doesn't just want the company.”
“What do they want?”
“Arthur's private satellite network.”
Renee stared at him.
Her father had built a classified communications system years earlier.
A network powerful enough to handle sensitive government communications.
If someone gained control of it, Sterling Global would become more than a corporation.
It would become a weapon.
That night, someone broke into the estate.
Daniel fought the intruder.
The man escaped, leaving behind a small black drive.
Daniel handed it to Renee.
Inside was a video recorded by Arthur Sterling.
Arthur looked directly into the camera.
“If you're watching this, I'm probably dead.”
Renee began crying.
Her father continued.
“Renee, there is only one person inside Sterling Global who knows everything.”
The video distorted.
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Then the final words appeared:
Do not trust Victor Hale.
