Gilded Revenge: The Ex-Wife's Billion-Dollar Empire novel · Chapter 13 of 24
Chapter 13: Ransom
Pierce's call ended with an address and a deadline.
"The lake house," he said. "Noon. Come alone, bring your signature, and the old man walks out alive."
Lucinda looked at Alden, and then at Eleanor.
"No," she said.
"Lucinda," Alden said.
"If I go to that house, nobody sees what he does to us."
She dressed in the clothes Eleanor's security man had brought up from the car.
Then she called the Throckmorton press office from the cabin porch.
"I want every outlet you have in the atrium by eleven," she said. "Live cameras. Tell them the chairwoman is making a statement about her father's lawyer."
The press officer stammered something.
"Do it," Lucinda said.
She texted Pierce a single line: Throckmorton Tower. Eleven. Bring him there, or I read your voicemail to the cameras.
She had no voicemail.
He did not know that.
By eleven the atrium was packed from the marble floor to the second-floor rail.
Eleven cameras, a hundred staff, and the board's independent directors in a row by the elevators.
Alden stood at her shoulder with no cane, and Eleanor stood at the other.
The security man stood by the door with his hands folded.
Pierce walked in at ten past, in a fresh suit, grinning.
He had her father's lawyer by the elbow.
The old man's glasses were cracked, and a bruise had spread across one cheekbone.
Two big men in dark jackets came in behind them.
The two from the bus stop.
The lobby went quiet.
"Cousin," Pierce said, loud, for the cameras. "I thought we agreed on privacy."
"You agreed with yourself."
"Family business, ladies and gentlemen. The poor man's confused. He's been writing nonsense about forged papers."
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