Chapter 8 - The Shadow Investor
I didn't waste time guessing. I called Colonel Harris from a secure satellite phone inside my truck while we sped down the coastal highway.
"Harris, Ricardo's watch was delivered to my front porch an hour ago," I said, my knuckles white against the steering wheel.
"Did he break out?"
"No," Harris replied, his tone heavy with frustration.
"Ricardo is still in maximum security in Texas. But three days ago, your mother was released from the prison infirmary into a private medical facility in Boston."
"How?" I spat.
"I stripped every cent from her accounts to pay for Elena’s medical care and legal fees!"
"Someone paid her legal retainers through a shell corporation called E.M. Holdings," Harris revealed.
"They poured two million dollars into her defense, claiming advanced cognitive decline. And Lucas... E.M. Holdings just purchased a private estate three miles from your cottage in Maine."
The realization hit me like a physical blow.
E.M. Holdings.
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Before I met Elena, her estranged, wealthy biological father had established a non-revocable trust fund meant to unlock on her thirtieth birthday—a date barely two months away.
My mother hadn't just used Ricardo to steal my military pension. She had discovered the existence of Elena's multi-million-dollar inheritance years ago. She was trying to break Elena's mind so she could have her declared legally incompetent and take control of the trust.
