Chapter 5 - THE TEMPLATE
Baxter Ridge’s general counsel, Meredith Sloan, answered through attorneys.
Yes.
Her office prepared the emergency voting template.
Why?
Daniel asked.
He represented himself as my husband and estate planning liaison.
That phrase made me furious.
Estate planning liaison.
No such role existed.
He told Meredith my chronic kidney disease might prevent me from attending the upcoming board vote.
He asked:
“What documentation would Reed need if Nora becomes temporarily unavailable?”
Meredith should have sent him to Reed counsel.
Instead, she sent a generic shareholder incapacity checklist.
Why?
Baxter wanted certainty around voting.
Conflict.
Bad judgment.
Not poisoning.
Then Daniel requested a sample proxy.
Meredith’s junior attorney supplied one marked:
DRAFT FOR REVIEW ONLY. INDEPENDENT COUNSEL REQUIRED.
Daniel removed the warning banner.
Inserted my trust information.
Added signature page.
Submitted it.
Baxter counsel did not know he had done that until after my hospitalization.
Could they have called me directly?
Yes.
They did not.
Another person treating husband as access.
Then Meredith revealed something more troubling.
Daniel was not the first Hale to contact Baxter.
Celeste had.
Six months earlier.
Before my health worsened.
She asked about the proposed Reed acquisition.
Why?
Her brother Thomas Vale was invested in Larkin.
She wanted to know whether Reed’s distribution contracts would move.
Meredith refused specifics.
Celeste later introduced Daniel to Mark Ellison, Baxter’s deal lead.
That was how Daniel became involved.
He was not supposed to be negotiating for Reed.
Yet he attended two informal dinners.
At one, Mark asked:
“Would Nora ever sell part of her stake?”
Daniel answered:
“She is emotional about her father’s company.”
I was not present.
That sentence became their model of me.
Emotional.
Difficult.
Protective.
A person to route around.
The deal team began treating Daniel as interpreter.
That was dangerous.
Then Reed’s CEO, Vanessa Cole, provided her own emails.
Vanessa repeatedly told Baxter:
Nora speaks for her own shares.
Daniel has no authority.
Good.
But Baxter still communicated with him socially because of Larkin integration planning.
Then one message from Mark Ellison to Daniel:
If Nora’s health prevents vote, board may have to postpone again.
Daniel:
That cannot happen.
Mark:
Why?
Daniel:
Larkin pricing expires.
There.
Daniel’s bonus and employer deal had deadline.
Mark did not respond.
Then Daniel:
What if I have temporary voting authority?
Mark:
Reed counsel would need to confirm.
No invitation to forge.
But enough information to motivate.
Did Mark know Daniel was poisoning me?
No evidence.
The investigation kept shrinking the conspiracy.
That was healthy.
The worst people were Daniel and Celeste.
Others enabled through greed, laziness, conflict, or deference.
Not every bad decision belonged to a murder plot.
Then Thomas Vale met with prosecutors voluntarily.
He admitted Celeste called him after my first hospitalization.
She asked whether severe kidney failure could delay the Baxter vote.
Thomas said:
“Why are you asking me?”
Celeste:
“Daniel is worried.”
Thomas:
“Then he should worry about his wife.”
She hung up.
Thomas said he became suspicious when he later visited our home and heard Daniel discussing my trust.
That was the nursery clip.
He warned them:
Nobody needs to get hurt.
Why not tell me?
“I thought hurt meant financial pressure.”
He looked ashamed.
“I should have called you.”
Yes.
Then Thomas revealed another Larkin document.
Daniel’s one point eight million bonus was not the biggest reward.
If Baxter acquisition closed and Larkin secured Reed’s national distribution contract, Daniel was scheduled for promotion to executive vice president.
Stock options estimated future value:
Four to six million.
Status.
Money.
Career.
He had spent years being “Nora Reed’s husband” in business circles.
I knew he hated it.
At conferences, people asked him:
“How is Nora’s company?”
Never:
“How is Daniel’s career?”
He smiled.
Then complained privately.
“You do not know what it is like to be invisible beside you.”
I used to apologize.
Maybe that was another mistake.
His insecurity was real.
It was not my responsibility to become smaller.
Then Grace brought me the second file extraction.
The wooden moon recorded a conversation five days before the poisoning.
Daniel sat alone in Sophie’s nursery.
He held her.
Rocked her.
Cried.
That complicated me.
He loved our daughter.
I could see it.
Then Celeste entered.
Daniel whispered:
“I can’t keep doing this.”
Celeste:
“Then stop being weak.”
Daniel:
“What if Nora finds out?”
Celeste:
“She won’t.”
Daniel:
“She analyzes evidence for a living.”
Celeste laughed.
“Then give her a story she already believes.”
“What story?”
“That her kidneys are failing.”
Daniel looked at Sophie.
“I just need the vote.”
Celeste:
“You need a life where your wife doesn’t control whether you matter.”
He closed his eyes.
There.
Not only money.
Identity.
Celeste had spent years feeding his resentment.
But he made his own choices.
Then Daniel said:
“After Baxter closes, no more.”
Celeste:
“Of course.”
We both knew now that people who say one last time usually already crossed the line too many times.
Then the nursery door opened.
Someone else entered.
A woman.
Blonde.
Mid forties.
I recognized her.
Dr. Melissa Carter.
The ICU physician who begged me not to leave for court.
May you like
My doctor had been inside my nursery with Daniel and Celeste five days before I was poisoned.
Continue to the next part: Nora’s trusted ICU doctor appears on the hidden footage with Daniel and Celeste before the poisoning.
