Chapter 5 - The Snake's Last StrikeTwo weeks passed.
Clara’s recovery was nothing short of miraculous. The toxicologists cleared her system completely, and her strength returned day by day. But while her body was healing, the war over Vale Pharmaceuticals was turning into a bloodbath in the courtroom.
Even from behind the glass of a federal detention center, Helena Vale was a dangerous creature.
Using her legal team, she filed emergency motions claiming that Clara was mentally incapacitated from the poison and unfit to manage her inherited shares. She tried to invoke a corporate emergency clause to force the sale of the company to a foreign syndicate before her own trial began.
I sat in the high-rise office of Prosecutor Miller alongside Clara, who was now sitting in a wheelchair, wearing a dark blue suit, looking pale but resolute.
"Helena’s lawyers are pushing hard," Miller explained, tossing a stack of legal filings onto his desk. "They've hired three independent psychiatrists who are willing to testify that Clara suffered severe hypoxia during the paralysis, causing permanent cognitive impairment."
Clara’s jaw tightened. "They want to prove I'm crazy so they can take control of the voting board before the trial."
"Exactly," Miller agreed grimly. "If the judge grants temporary conservatorship to the corporate board tomorrow, Helena's allies will liquidate the company's assets and hide the money in off-shore trusts. We need to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that you are completely lucid."
"I don't need a psychiatrist to prove I'm sane," Clara said, her voice dropping into a firm, unyielding tone that reminded me of why I had fallen in love with her in the first place. "I have the original trust charter my father wrote before he died."
She pulled a worn leather folder from her bag and laid it on the prosecutor's desk.
"My father knew what my mother and brother were," Clara revealed quietly. "He knew their greed would eventually destroy the company. Hidden inside Article 9 of the trust is a specific clause: in the event of an attempted hostile takeover by family members involving criminal charges, total voting authority automatically transfers to a designated independent trustee."
Miller skimmed the document quickly, his eyes widening. "Who is the trustee?"
Clara turned her head to look at me, a soft, beautiful smile touching her lips.
"Daniel Vale," she said clearly.
I blinked in complete shock. "Me?"
"You signed it three months ago when we did our estate planning, Daniel," Clara said, taking my hand. "You thought you were just signing healthcare power of attorney. But I made sure you were named as the sole protector of my father's legacy. I knew if anything ever happened to me, you were the only person in this city who couldn't be bought."
May you like
The prosecutor let out a low whistle, a triumphant grin spreading across his face. "This changes everything. If Daniel presents this charter at the emergency board meeting tomorrow, Helena’s legal maneuver dies on the spot."
"Then I'm going to that meeting," I said, leaning forward. "And I'm going to finish this."
Related Stories
