Chapter 9 - THE THREE-DAY TRAP
The story shifted from reaction to action the moment Dominic ended the call with Rebecca. Until then, every step had been an attempt to understand what someone else had already done: reversed brace, altered records, forged approvals, hidden debt. Now Dominic had three days before the expedited medical review and less than a week before Lucas expected enough control to complete the lakefront transaction.
Dominic decided not to cancel the evaluation.
Mercer objected immediately. “You’re asking to walk into the exact event they prepared to manipulate.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because Lucas thinks Brace Two still exists and that he controls access to it.”
The stolen brace complicated the plan, but that could work in their favor. They had the micro-etched pin proving Dominic had worn Brace Two. They also knew someone removed the physical brace once suspicion began. Dominic proposed announcing that a replacement unit had been obtained from North Shore Medical for the evaluation. In reality Mercer would use a standard therapeutic brace inspected and sealed by an independent orthotist.
If anyone tried to alter it before the test, the attempt would become evidence.
Clare did not like the plan because the estate remained compromised. “You still don’t know who used your administrator account to steal the brace.”
Dominic agreed.
That was why he moved the replacement unit not to the rehabilitation room but to a locked cabinet in the great room, visible from multiple cameras. Only Mercer, Dominic and the independent examiner knew the cabinet code. Everyone else, including Lucas, was told the brace would remain in the therapy suite overnight.
The bait was information, not Dominic’s body.
The second part of the trap targeted the medical file. Mercer uploaded a deliberately incomplete evaluation note to the private care platform stating that Dominic’s leg remained “sensitive to high compression” and that hardware should not be altered before testing. The note was clinically true. Its purpose was to identify whether someone still monitored the compromised system.
Within forty minutes, an unauthorized user opened it.
The login used Rebecca’s old coordinator account.
IT traced the session to a Vale Group executive network.
Lucas’s floor.
That was important but still not enough to identify the person behind the keyboard. Dominic wanted evidence that survived lawyers.
Rebecca supplied the stronger piece.
She had retained messages from Lucas’s executive assistant instructing her to classify successful walking sessions as “variable” and to schedule brace changes before major board events. The assistant framed everything as continuity planning and claimed Lucas had medical guidance supporting the adjustments. Rebecca followed instructions for months before realizing no physician had authorized them.
“Why didn’t you ask Mercer directly?” Dominic demanded.
Rebecca’s face crumpled. “Because I liked the salary, and because every time I worried, Lucas’s office sent me something that looked official.”
Dominic heard the confession beneath the explanation.
She had chosen convenience until the choices became too serious to ignore.
That did not make her useless as a witness.
It made her credible in an uncomfortable way.
The mid-chapter reward came from the lakefront debt schedules she copied. Lucas used three special-purpose entities to guarantee loans connected to an ambitious shoreline redevelopment project that had stalled after environmental permitting problems. The guarantees exceeded authority granted by the board. When property values fell, Lucas shifted obligations into companies included in the $920 million sale.
If the sale closed under Dominic’s ordinary control, buyer diligence would likely expose them.
If Lucas became acting controller under the trust’s incapacity clause, he could approve a confidential settlement and indemnity arrangement before the buyer’s final closing review.
Arthur read the documents with visible horror.
“You knew nothing?” Dominic asked.
“Nothing at this scale.”
“Would my father have approved it?”
Arthur did not answer.
That was answer enough.
The trap triggered at 1:12 a.m.
Estate cameras showed a maintenance employee entering the rehabilitation corridor using a master key. The man carried no visible equipment and remained inside for eight minutes. Security stopped him before he left.
He was not a saboteur by profession.
He was a night maintenance worker named Calvin Price.
Inside his pocket was five thousand dollars in cash and a small tool shaped to fit the silver brace clasp.
Calvin broke immediately.
Lucas’s executive assistant paid him through an intermediary and told him to “make the replacement brace match the old setup.” He had no idea the adjustment could cause pain. He thought it was an insurance issue.
The tool carried microscopic residue from black brace polymer.
Dominic finally had a living witness connecting Lucas’s office to physical tampering.
Then the complication arrived.
Calvin’s phone contained no direct messages from Lucas or his assistant.
The intermediary was Arthur’s former personal driver.
Lucas had built the chain so that, on paper, it led back toward Arthur.
Arthur stared at the name.
Dominic understood the move immediately.
If the sabotage became public, Lucas intended to blame the trustee already caught touching the brace.
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Arthur had not merely been blackmailed into silence.
He had been prepared as the fall guy.
