Chapter 4

After leaving the hospital, I called Dana Kessler, my attorney.

"When does the transfer agreement take effect?"

"Tomorrow at nine in the morning. The escrow agent will release the trust assets into the accounts you designated."

After ending the call, I booked a flight out of Crestland.

My phone vibrated with a message from Vanessa.

[Adrian, please stop being angry. I'll spend whatever it takes and use every connection I have to settle the hospital issue.]

[You'll remain the attending surgeon, and no one will be able to remove you, as long as you don't hurt Damian.]

I didn't answer. I deleted every way she had of reaching me.

Early the next morning, I left for the airport with my suitcase.

Vanessa appeared without warning and clamped a hand around my wrist.

"Was this your doing?"

Before I could answer, two of her security men forced me into the back seat of a vehicle.

They drove me to Hawkridge Gorge Adventure Park and dragged me from the car like a dead body.

"You released the security footage, didn't you? Adrian, when did you become so disobedient? I told you I would handle your problem. Why did you still smear Damian publicly?

"Since you refuse to stop acting on your own, you'll spend some time on the bungee platform and learn to calm down."

I stared at her.

I hadn't released the footage.

She refused to hear any explanation and ordered the men to restrain me.

The harness tightened, and they suspended me beyond a platform hundreds of feet above Mirrorfall Reservoir.

Terror came over me in a wave.

Vanessa knew I was terrified of heights.

When I was a child, someone resentful of my father's promotion kidnapped me and threw me from a building.

An airbag broke my fall, but the weightlessness and the certainty that I was about to die haunted me for years afterward.

She knew every detail.

"No. Vanessa, I'm afraid. Please."

I struggled desperately.

She walked to the edge and looked down at me with a cold face.

"Adrian, when you do something wrong, you accept punishment.

"Do you know Damian nearly jumped from a hospital roof because of what you did? If I hadn't found him, he would be dead.

"I told you how important he was to me. Why did you insist on hurting him?"

She raised one hand.

A second later, the crew released me.

The cord around my ankles snapped tight after the plunge and brutally arrested my fall.

Then it wrenched me upward again.

I barely finished coughing after striking the reservoir's surface before the next violent drop began.

They ran it again and again until I lost count.

At the edge of consciousness, my phone received a final automated message.

[Mr. Pierce, the agreement became irrevocable at 9:00 a.m. today. The trust interests and property identified in the agreement have been transferred to your designated accounts.]

A bitter smile pulled at my mouth.

Vanessa appeared satisfied when she finally turned away.

"Leave him there overnight. Lower him after he's had time to think."

She departed with the others.

The moment her vehicle disappeared, one of the remaining men began sawing through the suspension line with a knife.

The rope grew thinner.

Then it broke.

My body plunged toward the reservoir.

Water forced its way into my ears, nose, and lungs.

Was I finally going to die?

The next morning, at Ridgewater University Hospital, Vanessa was still at Damian's bedside after sitting with him all night.

After he fell asleep, she rubbed her forehead.

"Bring Adrian down. One night should have been enough to make him understand."

At that moment, Grant Mercer, her assistant, rushed in with panic across his face.

"Ms. Langley, Mr. Pierce is missing. We found only a severed line at the platform. There is no sign of him.

"And the bank's legal department sent an emergency notice. At nine yesterday morning, every account, ownership interest, and asset covered by your trust agreement was transferred out. The affected accounts are empty."

The bowl slipped out of Vanessa's hand, and every trace of color drained from her face.