Chapter 13 - FORTY-EIGHT HOURS
The judge's freeze on Harrington Commercial Group would expire in forty-eight hours unless Harrison produced stronger evidence of fraud.
Khloe was still hospitalized.
Caroline remained in intensive care.
Vanessa had been charged with aggravated assault and related offenses.
Richard had not been charged at all.
Harrison had two days to prove that the financial crimes and courthouse attack belonged to the same conspiracy.
He barely slept.
His team traced payments across six states.
Stonebridge.
Davenport.
Marwick.
Three shell companies.
Twenty-seven accounts.
More than ninety million dollars.
The money moved in circles designed to look like legitimate investment.
But every circle touched one person.
Richard.
Then Harrison found something worse.
A twenty-million-dollar life insurance policy.
Insured person.
Khloe Harrington.
Beneficiary.
Richard Harrington.
Purchased eleven months earlier.
Two months after Khloe became pregnant.
Harrison stared at the document for a long time.
Then he drove to the hospital.
Khloe was sitting beside Caroline's incubator in a wheelchair.
When Harrison showed her the policy, she did not cry.
She simply looked at her daughter.
"I never signed this."
"I know."
"Was the signature forged?"
"Yes."
Khloe's face became empty.
"He planned for me to die."
"We can't prove that yet."
She looked at him.
"Harry."
He stopped.
"He planned for me to die."
Harrison sat beside her.
Khloe reached into the incubator.
Caroline's fingers closed around hers.
"I kept making excuses because admitting the truth would mean admitting my marriage wasn't real."
Harrison said nothing.
"I thought Vanessa stole my husband."
Khloe laughed once without humor.
"But Richard was never stolen."
"He walked."
Harrison lowered his voice.
"You don't have to be strong today."
Khloe looked at her daughter.
"Yes, I do."
Her phone rang.
It was an unknown number.
Harrison answered.
A distorted voice spoke.
"Withdraw the injunction."
Harrison's expression hardened.
"Who is this?"
"Forty-eight hours."
Then the caller said something that made Harrison stand.
"You already almost lost one Cole girl."
"Don't make it two."
The call ended.
Harrison looked through the glass at Caroline.
The threat had changed everything.
May you like
They were no longer protecting money.
They were protecting a child.
