Chapter 9 - Viability
Lena Foster did not leak my records.
Her clinic did.
A senior administrator named Paul Kent accessed my chart outside treatment hours.
He had no clinical reason.
Paul previously worked for Northstar Ventures.
Richard’s old firm.
That connection looked enormous.
Until we checked dates.
He left Northstar twelve years earlier.
Before Richard joined.
Not enough.
Paul admitted opening the chart.
Why?
A legal verification request arrived from Hayes Family Office.
It asked for confirmation of pregnancy viability for estate planning.
Document signed:
Amelia Hayes.
Forged.
Paul processed it because wealthy clients often requested medical confirmations for trusts.
He sent a one line letter:
Pregnancy consistent with fetal viability under current clinical assessment.
No detailed medical data.
The family office request originated from Maya’s workstation.
Richard.
He learned exactly when the descendant preservation clause activated.
What did he do after receiving the confirmation?
His search history:
Continuity trust fetal descendant rights.
Spousal trustee displacement.
Pregnant shareholder death succession.
He knew the baby reduced his control.
Then why attempt murder after learning that?
Because another document appeared one day later.
Emergency succession opinion.
Prepared by attorney:
Julian Ross.
Richard’s personal lawyer.
Opinion:
Unborn descendant clause likely unenforceable until live birth.
If Amelia died before delivery, Richard could challenge trust and obtain interim control.
Likely.
Not certain.
Richard bet on litigation.
He did not need permanent victory.
Only temporary access to Avalon before courts resolved anything.
A few days of trustee authority could be enough.
Naomi stared at the memo.
“He planned to exploit the gap.”
Exactly.
Kill me.
Seek emergency trustee recognition.
Use forged majority amendment.
Present Beta transfer.
Access Avalon.
Alter provenance.
Then even if my child eventually inherited everything, Richard’s Meridian Defense theft could be erased.
The financial motive returned in full.
How much was his Meridian stake worth?
Investigators traced layers.
Approximately one point four billion dollars.
Richard did not need my fortune.
He needed to save his own secret fortune.
The public narrative that he married a wealthier woman masked how much he had quietly accumulated from stolen technology.
Then we identified the unknown phone voice.
Julian Ross.
Richard’s attorney.
He claimed attorney client privilege.
Crime fraud exceptions became a legal battle.
Some communications remained protected.
Others tied to potential future criminal conduct could be reviewed.
Julian denied knowing Richard intended violence.
He said he provided legal interpretation about hypothetical death.
“What did he tell you the helicopter trip was for?” investigators asked.
“Avalon succession meeting.”
“Did you know Amelia had not agreed?”
“He said she would.”
“Did you know documents carried signatures she disputed?”
“No.”
“Did you ask?”
Julian hesitated.
No.
Again.
Richard surrounded himself with people willing not to ask.
Then Paul Kent’s clinic access revealed something else.
Another chart opened that same day.
Patient:
Evelyn Shaw.
I stared.
“Evelyn was treated at Lena’s clinic?”
Lena shook her head.
“Not by me.”
The clinic offered internal medicine.
Evelyn registered under an alias two years earlier.
Legal name attached privately for insurance.
Last visit:
Three months ago.
She was alive then.
Diagnosis private under seal.
Investigators needed appropriate authority.
Evelyn had been physically in California while everyone assumed she was overseas.
Clinic camera archive showed her leaving.
Older.
Thin.
But unmistakable.
Beta was alive.
Why hide?
Her medical records, voluntarily released through her attorney days later, answered.
Metastatic ovarian cancer.
Advanced.
She had limited time.
Evelyn contacted authorities herself after hearing Richard had been detained.
She had been living in a protected rented house under a private security arrangement.
Not government witness protection.
Her own.
She feared Simon.
Richard.
Meridian Defense.
And Hayes internal politics.
Why not contact me?
Her answer arrived in a handwritten letter.
Because Charles made me promise Gamma would not activate until Amelia discovered Avalon without being led to it.
I crumpled the page.
My father was still controlling my information from the grave.
Evelyn continued:
He believed if I told you directly, you would preserve Avalon out of loyalty to him.
If you discovered it through a threat, you would judge it independently.
A test.
I hated it.
Even if intellectually clever.
People I loved turned my life into a governance exercise.
Then Evelyn wrote:
I broke the promise four months ago when Richard began preparing your death.
The warning email.
She created it.
Why only one cryptic sentence?
Because she believed Richard monitored my communications.
She was right.
Still, she could have done more.
She admitted that.
I wanted to meet her.
She agreed.
One condition.
No Richard.
No Simon.
No Hayes devices.
We met inside a hospice affiliated residence north of Santa Barbara.
Evelyn looked at my stomach first.
Then at me.
“I am sorry.”
“For what part?”
“All the parts where I decided secrecy was wisdom.”
That answer bought her one minute.
Then I asked:
“Who is Gamma?”
She looked at me.
May you like
“Not you.”
Continue to the next part: Amelia has spent years assuming she was Avalon’s final root holder, but Evelyn says Gamma belongs to someone else.
