Chapter 9
The answer began with a draft email.
Not sent.
Not addressed to Cassian.
Adrian had written it to an attorney in Halifax.
The subject line:
Emergency resolution if audit proceeds.
The body was cautious.
It referred to “family leverage,” “temporary protection,” and “an asset transfer sufficient to resolve the dispute.”
Rebecca read it slowly.
“This looks like extortion planning.”
Cassian said nothing.
The Halifax attorney immediately obtained independent counsel when contacted.
He insisted Adrian had never fully explained what he meant by family leverage.
What Adrian had asked about was more revealing.
How quickly could ownership of a Canadian logistics subsidiary be transferred?
Could a transfer be completed remotely?
Could a U.S. parent company stop it after signatures were notarized?
What contractual releases could prevent later civil claims?
Rinaldo Marine owned a small but valuable Canadian port-services company.
Claire had been reviewing it during the Halifax trip.
Vale Strategic Transport depended heavily on access to its facilities.
If Cassian transferred control to Adrian, Vale could survive the audit financially.
Rebecca found a second file.
A proposed settlement agreement.
No names yet.
No signatures.
But the structure was clear.
Rinaldo would waive claims against Vale.
Vale would receive control of the Canadian port-services company.
All historical vendor disputes would be confidentially resolved.
“Price?” Cassian asked.
Rebecca looked at him.
“Approximately forty million in enterprise value.”
Cassian almost laughed.
“They wanted forty million for returning my daughter?”
“We still don’t know what exact demand they planned.”
“But we know why she mattered.”
“Yes.”
Then another detail emerged.
Sabine had booked a second aircraft in Halifax.
Destination: Lisbon.
They had intended to leave North America shortly after landing.
Cassian felt his stomach turn.
Rebecca said:
“They may have expected to negotiate from Halifax, get the transfer, and continue to Europe once they had protection or money.”
Cassian looked toward Elodie’s photograph again.
Something still did not fit.
Why had Adrian arranged Sabine’s first meeting with him eighteen months earlier if the kidnapping was only an emergency reaction to the new audit?
The audit did not exist then.
Claire’s fraud file did.
Cassian pulled the original museum-seating email back onto the screen.
Adrian had put Sabine beside him intentionally.
Sabine had then spent eighteen months becoming part of Cassian’s life.
She moved into his house.
Learned his routines.
Earned Elodie’s trust.
Became engaged.
And throughout the relationship, neither sibling ever disclosed that Claire had caught them stealing.
The kidnapping was desperate.
The relationship had required patience.
May you like
Those two facts did not belong to the same plan.
Unless the plan had started much earlier than Cassian thought.
