Chapter 16 - The Shadow of the Harringtons
By 2:00 AM, our home was swarming with federal tactical teams, private corporate investigators, and emergency medical personnel. Ethan refused to be transported to the hospital, sitting on the edge of the leather sofa in his torn suit while a paramedic bandaged his cracked ribs and shoulder.
Sophie was upstairs in her room, crying herself to sleep under the care of two female security agents.
I sat at the dining table, staring at the empty plate of pasta Noah had served hours ago. My hands were stained with dried mud and Ethan’s blood.
"We traced the armored van," Marcus reported, stepping into the living room with a tablet. "It was abandoned three miles south in a industrial park near the river. They transferred Noah to a medical transport helicopter heading east."
"East?" Ethan asked, wincing in pain as he stood up, leaning against the marble mantelpiece. "Toward New York?"
"Toward the Harrington estate in Long Island," Marcus corrected grimly. "Julian didn't act alone, boss. Victoria Harrington—your ex-fiancée—funded the entire operation. Her family’s hedge fund was shorting Vance Global stock all week."
I stood up, the sorrow inside my heart instantly turning into a scorching, blinding rage. Victoria Harrington—the woman who had mocked me ten years ago when I was broke and pregnant, the woman who had helped Ethan’s father push me out into the snow.
May you like
"They think they can use my son as a bargaining chip for corporate stock?" I said, my voice dropping into a deadly calm that made even Marcus step back. "They took the wrong child from the wrong mother."
Ethan walked over to me, grabbing my face gently with both hands, his eyes burning with fierce determination. "We aren't calling the board members. We aren't making a press statement. We are burning their empire to the ground tonight."
