Chapter 1 - The Confession
I stared at him, completely speechless.
Then, he uttered a sentence that sent absolute ice rushing through my veins.
"My family tampered with my brakes, Maya."
His voice was steady, void of any fear, yet heavy with a dark reality.
"The accident that supposedly paralyzed me was a coordinated assassination attempt."
I gripped the edge of his wheelchair, my mind struggling to process his horrifying words.
"Your mother and your brother?" I whispered, terrified of the answer.
Richard nodded slowly, his dark eyes never leaving mine.
He explained that his company, Vitalis Health, was on the verge of a billion-dollar breakthrough.
His brother, Ethan, had racked up massive gambling debts and needed to sell the company to a rival firm to save his own life.
Richard had refused the buyout offer, signing his own death warrant in the process.
"They couldn't kill me in the crash, so now they are keeping me heavily medicated and isolated," he said softly.
"They are just waiting for me to naturally deteriorate so Ethan can take full legal control of my estate."
I felt sick to my stomach as I recalled how dismissive his family had been downstairs.
"Why are you telling me this?" I asked, my hands trembling.
"Because I need someone on the inside who isn't on their payroll," he replied.
He looked at me with a desperate, calculating intensity.
"I have been secretly doing physical therapy in this room every night, waiting for the right moment to strike back."
I took a deep breath, realizing that walking out that door meant leaving a man to die.
"What do you need me to do?" I asked firmly.
Richard instructed me to search the underside of his bed frame.
I dropped to my knees, running my hands along the cold metal railing.
My fingers brushed against a small, hard plastic square attached by a magnet.
I pulled it loose and held it up to the dim light of the bedroom.
May you like
It was a highly sophisticated audio transmitter, blinking with a faint red light.
Someone had been listening to every single word we just said.
