Chapter 15 - The Man in the High Tower
Twenty-four hours later, Marcus’s private investigation office downtown looked like a war room.
The walls were covered in digital prints, financial flowcharts, and satellite surveillance maps. Marcus had pulled three of his most trusted former colleagues from the Major Crimes Division, and our defense attorney, Sarah Sterling—the woman who had helped me bury Lauren in court the previous year—was pacing the hardwood floor with a coffee cup in her hand.
"Julian Vance doesn't care about custody," Sarah said, tapping the whiteboard where Vance's corporate empire was mapped out. "Look at his financials. Apex Therapeutics is bleeding liquidity. They poured over two hundred million dollars into an unapproved genetic sequencing patent that requires continuous bio-samples from a specific genetic line to maintain patent viability."
"What genetic line?" I asked, sitting at the table, running on three hours of fitful sleep.
"Ours," Marcus answered, pulling up a medical file on the main projector. "Yours and Lauren's. Our maternal grandmother wasn't just an eccentric heiress, Clara. Her family carried an ultra-rare blood antigen mutation—the Rh-null variant, combined with an immune-system cellular resilience that Apex Therapeutics has been trying to monetize for a decade."
The pieces fell into place with brutal clarity.
"Lauren didn't just want my money," I whispered, the realization chilling me to the bone. "She didn't just want to take my baby to play the grieving mother and claim the family trust. She promised Vance she would deliver the baby as the ultimate proprietary asset for his biomedical monopoly."
"Exactly," Marcus said. "When Lauren was arrested, Vance's entire four-hundred-million-dollar valuation threatened to collapse. To satisfy his international investors, he needs to prove he has legal claim to the child’s biometric and genetic rights. The moment Noah's DNA is entered into the court registry under this fraudulent contract, Vance's patent gets international clearance."
"So the hearing on Thursday isn't about raising my child," I said, a furious fire igniting in my chest. "It’s about turning my baby into a corporate patent."
May you like
"Which means," Sarah Sterling said, slamming her coffee down, "we don't just defend in court on Thursday. We take the offensive. We prove Vance knowingly conspired with Lauren to forge legal documents while you were in a coma."
"To do that," Marcus added, pulling his jacket off the back of his chair, "we need the notary. And my street contacts just found where Vance tucked him away."