Chapter 4
I was at the Langford Group headquarters at 8:30 a.m. the next day.
I wore a tailored gray suit.
No diamonds.
No makeup that screamed money.
I looked like just another lawyer.
Just another face in the crowd.
Marcus had gotten me a temporary visitor pass under the name “Ms. Hale.”
I walked into the boardroom ten minutes early.
Sat in the back row.
The other board members trickled in.
Old men in expensive suits.
All of them had taken money from Helen at one point or another.
All of them owed her.
At 9 a.m. sharp, Helen walked in.
She looked tired.
Pale.
Her hair wasn’t as perfect as usual.
She carried the small black leather bag I knew so well.
Daniel was right behind her.
Lila wasn’t there.
She never came to board meetings.
She was too busy shopping with Daniel’s credit card.
Helen sat at the head of the table.
Called the meeting to order.
“First item on the agenda,” she said, her voice sharper than usual.
“The proposed sale of 15% of Langford Group to Global Pacific Investments. This will give us the capital we need to expand into Asia. All in favor?”
Six hands went up.
That was enough.
The sale would pass.
Helen smiled.
A tight, relieved smile.
Then I stood up.
“Actually,” I said.
Every head in the room turned to look at me.
Helen’s eyes narrowed.
“Who are you? This meeting is for board members only.”
“I’m Ms. Hale,” I said, walking slowly to the front of the room.
“Legal counsel for Blackwood Capital. As a 10% shareholder, we have a right to speak on any proposed share sale. And we object.”
Helen laughed.
It was a cold, sharp sound.
“Object? You don’t have enough shares to object. The vote already passed. Sit down.”
I stopped at the head of the table.
Right in front of her.
“Actually, Mrs. Langford. We do.”
I pulled a thick stack of papers from my bag.
Slid them across the table to her.
“Blackwood Capital doesn’t just own 10% of Langford Group. Through our subsidiary holdings, we own an additional 32%. For a total of 42%. Which makes us the single largest shareholder in this company. And we are blocking this sale.”
The room erupted.
Board members shouted.
Grabbed for the papers.
Helen stared at the stack.
Her face went from white to red to a sickly shade of purple.
“That’s impossible,” she whispered.
“Those shares are split between a dozen different companies. There’s no way—”
“There’s every way,” I said.
I leaned down.
Looked her dead in the eye.
“Maybe you should have paid more attention to who was buying your stock the last four years, Mrs. Langford. Instead of spending all your time lying to the world about how your first daughter-in-law died.”
Her mouth fell open.
She knew.
She knew exactly who I was.
Before she could say a word, I turned and walked out.
I didn’t need to say anything else.
The seed was planted.
By noon, the news was everywhere.
Langford Group’s largest shareholder was a mystery woman.
The Asia sale was dead.
Stock dropped 18% in two hours.
By three p.m., Helen was on every news channel she could get on.
She didn’t mention me by name.
But she didn’t have to.
“Langford Group has been targeted by a hostile, unethical investor,” she said, her voice trembling for the cameras.
“A woman who has been harassing my family for months. Who has a history of mental instability and fraud. We will not be bullied. We will fight this with every resource we have.”
The comments blew up.
People called me a gold digger.
A monster.
A homewrecker.
Helen’s fans sent me thousands of hate messages.
I didn’t care.
Let her lie.
Every lie she told was just more rope to hang herself with.
That night, I was making Lily mac and cheese for dinner when my phone rang.
It was Mia.
Daniel’s younger sister.
The only member of the Langford family who’d ever been nice to me.
Who’d snuck me chocolate when Helen was yelling at me at family dinners.
Who’d cried at my “funeral.”
“Elena?” she said, her voice shaking.
“Is that really you? Helen’s been on TV all day saying terrible things about some mystery investor… and then I saw a photo of you leaving the Langford building. I’d know those eyes anywhere.”
I leaned against the kitchen counter.
Tears burned my eyes.
I’d missed her.
“It’s me, Mia. I’m alive.”
She sobbed.
“Oh my god. Oh my god. I knew it. I knew that car crash story was bullshit. Helen was too happy the day they told us. Where are you? Are you safe? Do you need anything?”
“I’m safe. I have a daughter, Mia. Lily. She’s four.”
Mia cried harder.
“I want to meet her. Elena… Helen’s up to something. She’s been meeting with lawyers all week. She’s got Lila going through all your old things in the storage unit. Looking for something. She said if she finds it, she can make you disappear for good this time.”
My blood ran cold.
“Did she say what it was?”
“No. But she was carrying your old medical files. From before you married Daniel. I think she’s trying to prove you’re crazy. That you faked your death to steal the company.”
Before I could answer, Marcus burst through the front door.
His face was white.
“Lily’s school,” he said, breathless.
“Someone tried to take her ten minutes ago. A woman. Security stopped her. She got away, but she dropped her wallet.”
He threw a driver’s license on the counter.
Lila Bennett.
Daniel’s wife.
Taped to the back of the license was a small sticky note.
Written in Helen’s perfect, elegant handwriting.
Bring me the Voss girl.
May you like
Alive.
No mistakes this time.
