Chapter 7 - THE TRUE THEFT
The room was still as I prepared to reveal the final secret.
Grant was leaning against the table,
looking like he might collapse.
Sienna was huddled by the elevator,
shaking with silent sobs.
I looked at Arthur Bell.
“Show him the patent application,”
I said.
Arthur pulled a single sheet of paper from a blue folder.
He laid it in the center of the table.
Grant looked at it,
and his eyes nearly bulged out of his head.
“This is it,”
I said.
“The revolutionary desalination technology my father was working on before he died.”
“The one you said was lost.”
“The one you said was a failure.”
Grant tried to reach for it,
but Madeleine moved the paper away.
“You didn't just steal money,
Grant.”
“You stole my father’s life’s work.”
“You tried to file it under your own name through a shell company in Singapore.”
“You were going to sell it to the highest bidder once the divorce was final.”
“That technology belongs to the Bellamy Foundation,”
Arthur said,
his voice booming.
“And your attempt to steal it is a federal crime.”
Grant looked at me,
his eyes full of a desperate,
pathetic hate.
“He was a fool,”
Grant spat.
“He would have given it away for free to the third world.”
“It’s worth billions!”
“It was his gift to the world,”
I said.
“Not your golden ticket.”
“I found the digital footprint in the Singapore registry.”
“I found the correspondence with the buyers.”
“You were going to betray the legacy for a villa and a mistress.”
Grant laughed,
a high-pitched,
broken sound.
“Legacy?
What legacy?”
“A dead man’s dreams?”
“I was the one who made this company grow!”
“You were the one who harvested the fruit,”
I said.
“But I am the one who owns the soil.”
I turned to the forensic accountant.
“Mr. Henderson,
are the authorities ready?”
He checked his watch.
May you like
“They are in the lobby,
Ms. Bellamy.”
