He won’t give it to anyone else.”

Price left with the nurse.

Nathan stayed beside me.

“Do you trust Grant?” he asked.

“I don’t know anymore.”

Twenty minutes later, Grant entered under police supervision.

He looked nothing like the controlled security executive I had known.

His coat was soaked.

There was gray stubble across his jaw.

His right hand was wrapped in gauze.

Detective Price stood near the wall.

“You have five minutes.”

Grant looked at me.

“I’m sorry.”

I felt anger rise through the pain.

“Were you driving the van?”

“No.”

“Were you at the crash?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

He swallowed.

“Because I was following you.”

Nathan stiffened.

Grant quickly added, “Not to hurt you.

Richard ordered me to monitor you after the board meeting.

He wanted to know where you were taking the files.”

“And the van?”

His jaw tightened.

“I recognized it when it hit you.”

“Who was driving?”

“A man named Caleb Ross.

Contract driver.

He did work for me years ago.”

Detective Price stepped forward.

“You hired him?”

Grant looked at the floor.

“Once.

Not for this.”

“Then who did?”

Grant slowly reached inside his coat.

Price’s hand went to his weapon.

“Easy.”

Grant removed a small external hard drive and placed it on the table.

“Everything is there,” he said.

“Invoices.

Payments.

Messages.

Building access logs.

Richard kept a private server because he didn’t trust company IT.

I copied it last night.”

I stared at the drive.

“Why?”

Grant’s eyes finally met mine.

“Because your father asked me to erase the traffic footage from the garage after the crash.”

“What footage?”

“Caleb picking up the van.”

My heart monitor began climbing again.

Grant continued.

“I refused.

Richard reminded me how many things I’d done for this family that could put me in prison.

He wasn’t wrong.

So I pretended to cooperate and copied everything instead.”

Price took the drive.

“Password?”

Grant gave it to him.

Then he looked at me.

“There’s one other thing you need to know.”

I waited.

“Richard didn’t plan this alone.”

I thought of Elise.

“My sister?”

Grant hesitated.

That hesitation frightened me more than an immediate answer would have.

“Elise knew about the financial scheme,” he said.

“But the instruction to stop your audit came from someone else.”

“Who?”

He looked toward the door.

Then back at me.

“Your mother.”

I felt as though the room tilted.

My mother had always been cold, but I had thought her cruelty was passive.

She protected appearances.

She avoided confrontation.

She let my father dominate every room and then pretended she had no power.

Grant opened his phone and showed Detective Price a screenshot of a message thread.

Most of the text was too small for me to read from the bed.

Price read silently.

His face changed.

“This came from Catherine Mercer’s number?”

Grant nodded.

“Two hours before the crash.”

Price read the relevant line aloud.

“If Lena proceeds Monday, Richard loses control.

Make sure she does not reach the board.”

My mother.

Not my father.

My mother had given the order.

Grant claimed he believed she meant intimidation.

Delay me.

Steal the files.

Frighten me into backing down.

But someone had converted that vague command into a collision.

“Caleb called me afterward,” Grant said.

“He was panicking.

Said the impact was