Chapter 7 - THE BOARD VOTE THAT COULDN’T WAIT
The Korean investors postponed the signing for forty-eight hours.
No longer.
If Desmond failed to appear by Friday afternoon, Kincaid Quantum would lose the deal, Victor would move for emergency leadership transfer, and Celeste’s side would argue that the company needed “stability” rather than secrecy.
Desmond hated how often corporate language repackaged violence.
Victor called him directly that evening.
“For God’s sake, boy, stop hiding,” his uncle said. “You’re humiliating the company over a domestic quarrel.”
“A domestic quarrel?”
“I’ve seen the filings. Celeste says you’re being manipulated by outside counsel and a troubled child. Return home. We’ll sort the rest privately.”
That phrase — the rest — told Desmond exactly how little Victor cared about Linda Shelton’s disappearance or the brake line.
“You knew Paul Gomez was back around the house?”
A pause.
“I know no such thing.”
“Did Celeste talk to you about Toby?”
Another pause, smaller.
Then Victor answered too quickly.
“No.”
Prescott, listening on speaker, wrote one word on a legal pad and turned it toward Desmond.
Lying.
After the call ended, they faced the immediate problem.
Desmond could not safely attend the signing in person without exposing Toby’s location or walking into whatever further trap Celeste and Paul had prepared. Yet failing to attend meant losing the very leverage that kept Victor from consolidating everything before the truth surfaced.
Then Toby solved part of it accidentally.
He wandered into Prescott’s study carrying a file box he had taken from Linda’s house, one Desmond had overlooked because it sat under old blankets in the closet.
“My mom kept papers in this.”
Inside were tax returns, school forms, rent receipts, and one certified letter postmarked fourteen months earlier from Arthur Prescott’s office acknowledging receipt of confidential documents on behalf of Linda Shelton.
Those documents included Toby’s birth certificate.
The father line was blank.
Attached to it was an unopened envelope in Prescott’s handwriting:
For court use if immediate child protection becomes necessary.
Prescott looked genuinely ashamed.
“I prepared it after Celeste contacted Linda.”
“What is it?” Desmond asked.
“A petition template. Emergency custodial protections, paternity testing authority, and a trust preservation notice.”
Desmond understood at once.
If they moved quickly, he could obtain a judge’s protection over Toby’s immediate safety before Celeste had a chance to weaponize the boy’s identity.
“File it,” he said.
May you like
Prescott nodded.
And just like that, the battle stopped being only corporate and started becoming public family law — the one arena where even billionaires cannot hide from paper.
