Snatched a Billionaire to Be My Husband – Episode 42
Samuel Reed refused to reveal his location or the name of Miriam’s remaining ally. His image showed only a plain wall and the edge of an oxygen tube beneath his nose. He told Cora to bring the access seal to Union Station at six the following evening, then disconnected before her security team could trace the call.
Byron questioned why Reed demanded solitude after warning that an accomplice remained free. Cora shared his suspicion. A genuine protector would understand that isolation made her vulnerable; an impostor would use Charles’s recording to draw her into a controlled location.
They authenticated Reed through an old phrase Evelyn remembered from the notarized letter. Cora sent a message asking what Charles had written beneath his signature. Reed answered: A promise witnessed is still a promise when no court is watching. Evelyn confirmed the wording, but identity did not guarantee honorable intent.
Cora proposed carrying a replica seal while the original remained in a bank vault. Carter arranged discreet surveillance around Union Station. Byron would wait in a nearby service corridor, close enough to respond but outside Reed’s requested line of sight. No one informed the Vale family of the meeting.
At six, commuters flowed beneath the station’s arched ceiling. Cora sat at the designated bench, aware that every stranger might be Reed or his watcher. Pregnancy made the hard seat uncomfortable, but she resisted the urge to search constantly for Byron. Knowing he was near had to be enough.
An elderly man settled beside her without greeting. The oxygen tube matched the video, and age had bent him, but his gaze remained precise. He asked for the seal. Cora asked for the truth first. Reed smiled faintly, saying Charles had warned that she negotiated before obeying.
Reed explained that he entered witness protection after Marcus tried to kill him for preserving Evelyn’s letter. Miriam helped him disappear, then later demanded he transfer the contingency assets to her guardian trust. He refused and remained hidden while Charles held the seal.
He had watched Cora’s fraud hearing from a borrowed television, uncertain whether emerging would help or place her in greater danger. Charles’s death convinced him that everyone holding a piece of the truth had become a target. His secrecy had preserved the account, but it had also allowed innocent people to face accusations he might have weakened.
Cora did not reassure him. Survival explained his choice without making its consequences disappear. Reed accepted that judgment, saying age had taught him that fear and wisdom often wore the same coat. The only honest test was what a person did once hiding stopped protecting anyone.
The surviving accomplice, he said, was not a Vale. It was someone inside federal oversight who altered evidence after Miriam’s arrest. That person had certified Roland’s innocence and approved the independent board arrangement, ensuring access to every recovered file.
Cora asked for a name. Reed produced a photograph taken outside the chapel after Miriam surrendered. It showed Special Agent Joey Mercer accepting a small envelope from Adrian. Mercer had participated in Cora’s arrest, the removal of her ankle monitor, and every later evidence transfer.
The image established contact, not corruption. Adrian might have handed over legitimate evidence. Reed claimed the envelope contained Marcus’s original trust key, but he could not prove it. His source disappeared after sending the photograph.
A station announcement interrupted them. Reed glanced toward the departures board and stiffened. Cora followed his gaze to a maintenance worker approaching through the crowd. The man’s uniform was correct, but he carried no tools and watched Reed rather than the floor ahead.
Cora used the emergency phrase. Byron and Carter moved before the man reached the bench, but he drew a compact pistol from beneath his jacket. Commuters screamed and scattered. Byron pulled Cora behind a stone column while Carter tackled the gunman against a luggage cart.
Reed collapsed during the chaos. No bullet struck him; terror and exertion overwhelmed his heart. Paramedics stabilized him, but he lost consciousness before signing the account authorization or identifying who sent the attacker.
The gunman’s phone contained a single payment from a Vale hospital vendor. Adrian denied involvement and said Mercer had requested the envelope as part of the official inventory. Mercer produced a receipt showing that he logged the trust key into federal evidence within an hour.
Cora noticed the receipt used an outdated evidence code. Mercer explained that the new system was offline that night. Carter checked the outage report and found it lasted only eleven minutes—long enough for Mercer to handle the key without digital tracking.
Byron urged the federal supervisor to remove Mercer from the case. Instead, Mercer accused Carter of obstructing an active investigation and ordered him detained for assaulting the station gunman before officers identified the threat. The charge was absurd, but it separated Carter from the evidence team.
At the hospital, Reed regained consciousness for less than a minute. He pressed a folded transit ticket into Cora’s hand. On the back he had written a storage locker number and three words: Ask Easton why.
Easton answered Cora’s call from the Hansen estate. When she mentioned Mercer, his silence gave him away. He admitted Agent Mercer had approached him before Helena’s arrest and offered immunity in exchange for planting evidence against Byron. Easton had refused—but he had never told anyone because Mercer threatened to reopen Malcolm’s case against Margaret.