Chapter 5
The 70th-floor boardroom of Moretti Bio-Tech was a wall-to-wall glass sanctuary overlooking Lake Michigan.
At the head of a thirty-foot mahogany table sat Victor Moretti—a stern, grey-haired man in his late sixties with cold blue eyes and a face lined with arrogant authority. Seated around the table were twelve board members, all discussing the emergency motion to liquidate Arthur Hayes's research division.
BOOM.
The heavy double doors of the boardroom were thrown open with such force that several board members jumped out of their seats.
Luka walked in first, his long coat sweeping behind him like a cape of shadows. Behind him came three armed security guards, followed by me, holding baby Maya firmly against my chest.
Victor Moretti slowly stood up, his jaw clenching as he glared at his nephew.
"Luka," Victor sneered, his voice dripping with condescension. "You have no seat on this board. Security, escort these intruders out immediately!"
None of the security guards moved. In fact, two of them stepped inside and closed the boardroom doors, locking them from the interior.
"The security team works for me now, Uncle," Luka said calmly, dragging a leather armchair to the head of the table and gesturing for me to sit down. I sat down gracefully, laying Maya’s blanket across my lap.
"This is an official board meeting!" Victor slammed his palm on the table. "You cannot interrupt our proceedings with your street thugs and Arthur’s illegitimate spawn!"
Luka’s eyes flashed like ignited magnesium. Before anyone could react, he crossed the room in two strides, grabbed Victor by the silk necktie, and slammed him back down into his leather chair with terrifying force.
"Speak about Clara or Maya like that again," Luka whispered, leaning down until his nose was inches from Victor’s pale face, "and I will throw you through that glass window."
The room went dead silent. Several board members gasped, leaning back in terror.
Luka released Victor’s tie, smoothing down his own jacket as if nothing had happened. He pulled the gold thumb drive from his pocket and tossed it onto the glass conference table.
"That thumb drive contains file M-17," Luka announced, his voice carrying effortlessly across the room. "Decrypted four hours ago using the genetic signature of Arthur Hayes's legitimate granddaughter, Maya Evelyn Hayes."
Victor’s eyes widened in genuine horror. "Nonsense! The genetic key was lost when Arthur died!"
"Arthur locked it to his daughter's bloodline, Victor," I spoke up, standing up from my chair and looking down the long table at the men who had tried to steal my life. "My father knew you were corrupt. He knew you were stealing from the company to fund illegal offshore accounts. And he made sure that the four-billion-dollar patent for the pediatric heart cure would belong exclusively to me."
Luka pressed a button on the boardroom wall. The massive projection screen lowered from the ceiling, instantly displaying thousands of banking ledgers, wire transfers, and encrypted emails between Victor Moretti, foreign syndicates, and... Mark Vance.
"Eighteen years ago, you tried to poison my father," Luka said, looking down at Victor like a judge delivering a death sentence. "Two years ago, you paid Mark Vance half a million dollars to orchestrate Arthur’s fatal car crash. And yesterday, you instructed Mark to abandon Clara at the hospital so you could declare her unfit and claim the patent."
The board members began whispering frantically, turning to glare at Victor in disgust and alarm.
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"This... this is a fabrication!" Victor stuttered, sweat breaking out across his forehead. "You have no proof!"
"The Federal Bureau of Investigation is standing in the lobby downstairs, Victor," Luka replied with a cruel smile. "And they brought federal warrants for wire fraud, corporate embezzlement, and conspiracy to commit murder."
