Page 68 of Silos and Sabotage

“You can tell me how you really feel about it later.” His father clacked his gold napkin ring against the dining room table for emphasis. “Just hear me out first, because I have a new theory. For the longest time, I feared someone in our family might be trying to elbow Mick out of my will. I had all of you investigated. Your mother, Billy Bob…”

“And me.” Raleigh looked like he was tasting something bitter.

“Not because I believed you were guilty, son,” his father assured, “but I wanted proof that you were innocent, in the event I ever had to defend any of us in court.”

Raleigh gestured for him to continue.

“Someone out there is doing everything they can to prevent a merger between Radcliffe Industries and Bolander & Sons.” Creston spread his hands grandly, waiting for his son’s reaction.

Raleigh frowned. “How so?”

“Think about it.” Creston warmed to the topic. “It’s the one thing that sabotaging Mick and Avery’s marriage ultimately accomplished. That, and the fact that she went to a lot of effort to make it look like she’d miscarried. No merger. Problem solved. Things got quiet for the next twenty-four years. Until…” He held up a finger. Then he slowly pointed it at Avery.

“Until the organ transplant,” she interjected softly, “which revealed that I had not, in fact, miscarried.”

“It also proved your many sacrifices over the years had not been in vain,” Raleigh pointed out with a tender smile. “You kept the demons at bay for over twenty years, my dear.”

She gave him a wobbly smile. “If you’re trying to make me feel better about my sordid past, it’s working.”

“I’m not finished.” Creston tapped his napkin ring on the table to regain their attention. “Once Ella’s true identity was uncovered, she provided that same link to the Radcliffes and Bolanders.”

Mercy!Fear chilled Avery’s insides, making her tremble. “Because I’ve never had another child, which makes her my direct heir.”

“And neither Billy Bob nor I have born any children.” Raleigh’s voice grew hushed as the truth hit home with him. “Leaving her alone in the line of succession on our end, as well.”

“My precious baby,” Avery moaned, leaning her elbows on the table and covering her face with her hands.Where are you, God?“I don’t know what else I can do to help her.” Bodyguards could only do so much. If someone truly wanted to kill another person, they would find a way. Like flipping rapidly through a deck of cards, her mind conjured up one gruesome news headline after another — death by poisoning, death by letter bomb through the mail, death by lethal inhalation of toxic fumes… Oh, and death by unknown causes. It was heart-wrenchingly unfair how some people were allowed to lead such normal lives, oblivious to the predators hiding in the shadows, while there was no safe place on earth for others.

Like Ella, who’d already born more than her share of misfortune and misery.

“We’ll think of something,” Creston declared firmly. “Now that we’re working together, three heads are better than one.”

“I wouldn’t be able to bear it if anything bad happened to her.” Avery spoke between her fingers. “Honestly? I’d rather die.” It was a morbid thing to say, but it was true. “If only there was a way for me to take her place.” But she was fresh out of ideas. Unless God intervened, this was the end of the road for her daughter.

“There may be a way,” Raleigh declared suddenly.

“I’m not looking for false hope.” She spoke through her fingers, flailing through waves of utter despair.Whatever is coming, Lord, please let it happen quickly. Don’t let her suffer.

“You could marry me.” His words were low and quiet, falling like handfuls of rain in the midst of her burning chaos.

Her fingers parted spasmodically. “Did you just?—?”

“I did.” His color was heightened beneath his tan, and his eyes were burning into hers. The man who had the world by its horns was gone, along with his leisurely movements and bored demeanor. Though he remained seated, she could sense a new level of energy surging through him. And the kind of passion she hadn’t known he was capable of.

“Son,” Creston warned. “What are you doing?”

“The right thing.” Raleigh’s gaze begged her to hear him out. “What I’m proposing will put the company merger back at our level, mine and yours, Avery.”

Her overwrought brain cautiously explored the one option that would’ve never entered her mind. Was he right? Was there even a sliver of a chance of finding their way through the current darkness? She lowered her hands from her face, but they were trembling so badly that she hid them in her lap under the table.

“We would replace Ella in the crosshairs of whoever is working so hard to prevent the merger of our two companies.” He angled his head expressively at her. “As long as your father doesn’t immediately disinherit you for allying yourself with a hated Bolander.”

“He didn’t do it the first time,” she reminded in a thready voice, “and he can’t do it now. Not even if he wanted to.” It was a relief to finally unburden herself of the final secret that she’d been keeping to herself. “He’s terminally ill.” Needing to do something, she reached up unsteadily to tuck a non-existent loose strand of hair behind her left ear. “He has an advanced form of heart disease. He’s already started the process of transferring the corporation to me.” She swallowed hard. “Quietly, so I can maintain my psychiatry practice for as long as possible.” Since she was an only child, there would be no one else to bear the burden of running Radcliffe Industries after her father was gone.

Correction.She would have her father’s trusted administrative assistant, Blain, helping her navigate the waters of transition into leadership. It wasn’t the same as having a sibling to serve alongside her as a co-executive, but having Blain in her court was better than having no one at all. He was six or seven years her senior. And since he’d started out as an hourly worker in the granary, he held the rare distinction of having been with the firm his entire career. Her father had made it clear that Blain was a permanent fixture there, one who’d be bequeathed to her when she was crowned president and CEO.

“We had no idea your father was ill.” Raleigh’s firm and steadying voice strummed across the strings of her uncertainty, striking just the right chord. “Words feel cheap at times like these, but we are truly sorry for what you’re going through.”

His father nodded sorrowfully. “If there’s anything we can do to help. Anything at all, Avery, just let us know.” The kindness in his voice and the worry lining his features were everything that was genuine.

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