Chapter 3 - THE VOTE WAS ALREADY STOLEN
The recording continued.
Margaret sat at the island.
Crying.
Vanessa stood beside her.
Cold.
Calm.
Holding three documents.
Ethan watched from the floor.
Unable to believe what he was seeing.
Vanessa’s recorded voice said,
“Sign it.”
Margaret whispered,
“I can’t.”
Vanessa replied,
“You already did once.”
The room froze.
That was the first crack.
Ethan looked at his mother.
“Once?”
Margaret said nothing.
The recording answered.
Vanessa placed a second page in front of her.
Emergency Voting Proxy.
Margaret’s signature.
Already there.
Ethan stared at it.
“You signed away my board vote.”
Margaret began crying.
“I thought it was temporary.”
There it was.
Temporary.
The favorite word of people planning permanent control.
Vanessa laughed.
“You always think everything is temporary.”
Margaret flinched.
Ethan saw it.
The alliance was not equal.
That was the second crack.
The footage continued.
Vanessa placed Ethan’s signature stamp on another page.
Not his real signature.
A copied authorization.
Emily entered the kitchen.
Saw the papers.
Vanessa turned.
The recording had sound.
Emily asked,
“What are you doing?”
Vanessa replied,
“Nothing you understand.”
Emily walked closer.
Then saw Ethan’s name.
Her expression changed.
“I’m calling my father.”
That was when Vanessa moved toward her.
The camera angle shifted.
No graphic act.
Only Emily stumbling backward.
Then touching her forehead.
The red mark appeared.
Ethan’s face became cold.
“You lied.”
Vanessa said nothing.
Emily looked at him.
“She took my phone.”
Ethan stared at Vanessa.
“Where is it?”
No answer.
Margaret whispered,
“In the freezer.”
Everyone turned.
Vanessa closed her eyes.
Too late.
The wall monitor showed another camera.
Vanessa entering the kitchen.
Opening the freezer.
Placing Emily’s phone behind a box.
Ethan looked at his daughter.
“You tried to call me.”
Emily nodded.
“Seven times.”
The room went silent.
Seven calls.
None reached him.
Ethan looked at Margaret.
“You knew?”
She began crying.
“I knew after the third.”
That was the third crack.
Emily’s face collapsed.
“You knew I was trying to reach him.”
Margaret said nothing.
No apology could move quickly enough.
The recording continued.
Vanessa walked back to the island.
Then opened her robe pocket.
The same weapon.
Already there.
Already hidden.
Already waiting.
Ethan stared at the screen.
“This was before I came home.”
Emily nodded.
“She had it before you walked in.”
The room changed.
The weapon had not appeared because Ethan surprised her.
She had prepared for him.
Then the recording caught one final line.
Margaret whispered,
“What if Ethan refuses?”
Vanessa answered,
“Then Emily cries.”
A pause.
“Margaret panics.”
Another pause.
“And by the time he understands anything, the vote is over.”
Ethan stopped breathing.
The scene was the plan.
The crying.
The injury.
The frightened grandmother.
The furious fiancée.
Even his own reaction had been predicted.
Then the recording showed Vanessa opening the locked drawer.
Inside were not three documents.
There were twelve.
Each bearing a different signature.
Ethan’s.
Margaret’s.
May you like
And one belonging to a man who had been dead for six years.
Ethan’s father.
