Chapter 6 - The Uncle at the Table
Uncle Thomas arrived at the hospital at eight fifteen carrying coffee and pretending he did not know about the emergency vote.
He wore a charcoal suit and the concerned expression he had perfected during decades of board meetings.
“Sofia.” He stopped at the foot of my bed. “My God.”
Dad closed the door behind him.
Thomas glanced at the movement.
“What is this?”
“A conversation,” Dad said.
Thomas placed the coffee tray on the counter.
“I heard there was an incident after the wedding.”
“Who told you?”
“Javier called.”
My mother’s hands curled into fists.
Dad remained calm. “Why did you call an emergency trustee vote?”
Thomas looked at Ruth.
She sat beside the window with one of her binders open.
“I had a fiduciary duty,” he said. “The documents raised concerns about Sofia’s capacity.”
“You never called her.”
“The filing arrived after midnight.”
“You called the other trustees.”
“That is the procedure.”
Dad took one step closer.
“You were at the wedding when Sofia was supposedly unstable. Did she appear incompetent to you?”
Thomas’s eyes moved toward me.
I remembered dancing with him at the reception. He had held my hand, kissed my cheek, and told me Granddad would have been proud.
Now he would not meet my gaze.
“She appeared emotional.”
“I was a bride.”
“You were drinking.”
“My blood test showed almost no alcohol.”
Thomas looked at Ruth again.
“This is becoming hostile.”
“It became hostile when your niece arrived beaten,” Mom said.
Thomas straightened.
“No one knows who caused those injuries.”
“I do,” I said.
He finally looked at me.
“Javier’s family.”
“Did you see Javier strike you?”
The wording was precise.
“No.”
“Then be careful, Sofia.”
My father stepped between us.
Thomas lifted both hands. “I’m trying to protect the company. If these allegations become public, lenders will panic. Contracts could be affected.”
That was his motive, or at least the one he wanted us to believe.
Reed Maritime had been losing money on a Gulf expansion project. Thomas had championed it. Dad had opposed it. My trust shares could determine which side controlled the next board vote.
If I were suspended, Thomas would gain the majority he needed.
“You planned to vote on the Bayhaven acquisition today,” I said.
His face tightened.
Ruth looked at me. “How do you know that?”
“Javier asked me about it last week.”
Dad’s attention sharpened.
“What did he ask?”
“He wanted to know whether I trusted Uncle Thomas’s judgment.”
Thomas laughed softly. “That proves nothing.”
“He also asked how long my voting proxy lasted if I was hospitalized.”
Silence.
I had thought it was curiosity.
Now the question felt like a blade.
Ruth closed the binder.
“The trustee vote is postponed.”
Thomas turned to her. “You don’t have that authority.”
“No. But Sofia does.”
He looked at me.
Ruth placed a one-page document on the bedside table.
“As long as she is competent, she may demand an independent review before any suspension.”
My right hand was swollen, but I could still hold a pen.
Thomas watched me sign.
The line came out crooked.
It was still mine.
Ruth scanned and transmitted it to every trustee.
For the first time since the wedding suite, I saw someone else’s plan stop.
Only briefly.
Thomas picked up his coat.
“You’re making a mistake.”
Dad blocked the door.
“Sit down.”
Thomas’s eyes narrowed. “You cannot detain me.”
“No. But the police can question you.”
“About what?”
The door opened before Dad answered.
A uniformed officer entered carrying an evidence envelope.
“We recovered Mrs. Morales’s phone from the property inventory.”
The cracked cellphone had been sealed inside.
The officer placed it in Ruth’s hands.
“There may be recoverable data.”
Thomas went pale.
It was slight, but I saw it.
Ruth saw it too.
“Why does that phone frighten you?” she asked.
“It doesn’t.”
The screen was shattered, yet when Ruth connected it to a charger, a faint light appeared beneath the cracks.
A notification flashed for less than a second.
Voice recording saved.
My breath caught.
I remembered pressing the side button while Marisol dragged me toward the desk.
I had not known whether it worked.
Ruth connected the phone to her laptop.
An audio file appeared.
Duration: eleven minutes, forty-three seconds.
May you like
Before she could open it, Thomas lunged across the bed and ripped the cable free.
📖 My uncle tried to silence the first real evidence we had, but Chapter 7 reveals what survived his desperate mistake. 👇
