OWNED AT 18, CLAIMED BY 28 のすべてのチャプター: チャプター 61 - チャプター 70

POV: LaurabethThe grass was long and wet against my legs as I moved along the east side of the house. Every step had to be deliberate. The ground was uneven, littered with broken bricks and the remains of what had once been a formal garden. The single lit window upstairs threw a weak yellow rectangle across the overgrown lawn, but it did not reach this far. Here, on the service side, the darkness was almost complete.Vinicio had vanished toward the front without a sound. We had not needed to discuss the split. Ten years apart and our bodies still remembered how to move as a single unit when the stakes were this high. He would create the pressure from the main approach. I would find the quiet way in.The old staff entrance sat half-hidden behind a collapsed trellis and a thick growth of ivy. The door was lower than modern standards, the wood swollen from years of rain and neglect. I tested the handle carefully. It gave with a soft, protesting scrape. The lock had either failed long ag

POV: VinicioThe front door gave under the second heavy impact, wood splitting inward as I stepped through the gap with my weapon raised. Dust drifted in the air from the forced entry, and the old house carried the mixed smells of long neglect and recent occupation. I moved through the lower hall without slowing, listening hard for the voices above me. One belonged to Vanessa. The other, sharper and younger, belonged to Thomas. The fact that he was still speaking, still pushing back, kept my focus tight as I took the stairs two at a time.When I reached the landing, Teresa’s voice came through clearly from the open doorway ahead. She was speaking with the calm precision of someone who believed the outcome had already been decided. The words stopped me for half a second because they rearranged the entire shape of the night. She was talking about signed documents, emergency filings, and a company transfer that would lock into place by morning. I stood in the hallway long enough to a

POV: LaurabethThe sound of Vinicio’s car fading into the night left a heavy quiet in the room. I stood a few paces from Thomas, keeping my body between Vanessa and the open doorway as much as the angle allowed. The air felt thicker without him here. Every creak of the old house seemed louder. I could still catch the faint scent of dust and cigarette smoke that clung to the walls.One of the hired men had not fully committed to leaving. He remained near the far wall, uncertain, watching both of us while Vanessa paced with the phone still in her hand. His presence was a complication, but also a possible pressure point. People who worked for money usually recalculated when the risk rose higher than the pay.I forced my breathing to stay even. Every instinct I had sharpened in medical school and in the years of living under a false name came forward at once. I catalogued the space without moving my head. One clear exit behind me led back to the service stairs. The window offered no pr

POV: VinicioI did not wait for the security desk to clear me. The moment the elevator doors opened on the executive floor of Rossini Holdings I walked straight through the glass corridor toward the emergency boardroom. Two night-shift guards started to step forward, then recognized my face and the expression on it and moved aside without a word. Alex’s voice was still in my ear, confirming that Laurabeth and Thomas were clear of the industrial district and moving toward the hospital. That knowledge kept my hands steady as I hit the boardroom doors with both palms and pushed them open hard.The room was already in session. Six of the seven voting members sat around the long table under the low lights. Screens along the far wall displayed transfer summaries and subsidiary charts. Teresa stood at the head of the table in a dark tailored suit, mid-sentence, a slim folder open in her hands. She did not look surprised to see me. If anything, she looked as if she had timed her remarks to th

POV: VinicioThe lead officer repeated the request in a calm, formal tone, but Teresa did not move. She remained at the head of the table with her hands still resting on the back of the chair, as if the authority of the room still belonged to her. The digital display at the end of the boardroom continued to show the updated count. Five to three. The freeze was active. The external audit had been authorized. The preliminary transfer lock was dead.“Teresa Rossini,” the officer said again. “You need to come with us now.”She turned her head slowly and looked at him as though he had interrupted a private conversation. “You are making a mistake that will not survive the first call to counsel.”I stayed where I was. The board members remained seated, some staring at the table, others watching the officers with the careful blankness of people who did not want to become part of the next paragraph in a police report. Harlan closed the counter-folder I had brought and rested both hands on top