Chapter 9 - THE BROTHER AND SISTER
Alejandro and Lucia entered Vega Hospitality headquarters together for the first time in years without arguing before reaching the elevator. They had one objective: secure independent copies of governance records before Sebastian’s office could alter or remove them.
The company’s internal counsel resisted. Sebastian had already circulated a memo stating that both siblings were subjects of medical-capacity concerns and that sensitive records should not be released without continuity-committee approval.
Alejandro nearly exploded.
Lucia stopped him.
“Exactly what he wants,” she said.
The reversal between them was small but important. For years Alejandro had been the calmer sibling and Lucia the aggressive one. Now she recognized the trap first.
They sought an emergency court preservation order through independent counsel. While lawyers worked, Sloan used employee witnesses to identify which systems existed outside Sebastian’s administrative reach.
Payroll.
Building access.
Vehicle dispatch.
Insurance.
The strongest evidence came from the least dramatic source.
Company car records.
Thomas Keene drove Sebastian to every event preceding Alejandro’s four major episodes and three of Lucia’s. On two occasions, dispatch logs showed additional stops at Meridian Specialty Pharmacy, a private compounding service used by concierge doctors.
Renner’s name appeared on the pickup authorizations.
The pharmacy refused to disclose patient details without legal process, but the pattern was enough for investigators to obtain a warrant.
Meanwhile Alejandro and Lucia met their father’s former chief operating officer, Charles Vega, their seventy-year-old uncle who had retired four years earlier. Charles admitted he had long disliked Sebastian but believed his brother needed a ruthless lawyer to manage the family.
When Alejandro showed him the continuity documents, Charles recognized something.
Their father had never intended Sebastian to control voting shares.
The original family trust required an independent bank to act during simultaneous incapacity.
Sebastian’s name appeared only in later amendments.
“Who approved those amendments?” Lucia asked.
Charles looked ashamed. “Your father.”
“When?”
“After the stroke.”
Their father suffered a major stroke six years earlier and never fully recovered speech. Sebastian managed most legal matters afterward.
Charles assumed doctors certified their father’s capacity.
Nobody checked.
The corruption predated Isabel’s investigation.
Sebastian had slowly moved himself from adviser to indispensable fiduciary while the family experienced deaths, illness, divorces, and succession fights.
Each crisis created another document.
Each document gave him slightly more power.
The pharmacy warrant produced the next reward. Dr. Renner ordered repeated quantities of a sedating medication under confidential executive-treatment profiles.
The patient names were coded.
A-17.
L-09.
Investigators compared delivery dates against Alejandro and Lucia’s calendars.
A-17 matched Alejandro’s episodes.
L-09 matched Lucia’s.
Renner was no longer simply a doctor who wrote questionable notes.
He was part of the mechanism.
Federal agents located him in the Bahamas and began extradition proceedings.
Sebastian still denied knowing anything about medication.
Then Sloan traced payment for Renner’s confidential services.
Not Vega Hospitality.
Not the family office.
A private trust called HGP Advisory Reserve.
Trustee:
Sebastian Hale.
They finally had money connecting him to the doctor.
Alejandro expected the discovery to end the Monday hearing.
Instead, Sebastian moved first.
He filed an emergency petition Friday afternoon seeking judicial confirmation of the continuity agreement, supported by medical records showing years of unexplained cognitive episodes in both siblings.
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The records were the same false history he helped create.
If a judge accepted them temporarily, Sebastian could control the family shares before investigators finished proving why the records existed.
