I Have Five Kick-Ass Brothers – Episode 36
Raina carried the sealed agenda into Noah’s office and placed it between them. Project Star appeared beneath his verified digital signature, yet he stared at the name without recognition. He had approved no acquisition under that title.
Noah requested the authorization log while Raina watched his reaction. She wanted to trust him, but recent weeks had taught her that affection could not replace verification. He seemed to understand and offered complete access without taking offense.
The signature had been issued from Noah’s executive terminal during the hotel banquet. At that exact time, he had been in the ballroom protecting guests from Walter’s chandelier trap. Someone had entered his office while the family’s attention was elsewhere.
Security footage from that night contained a seven-minute interruption. Luke recovered fragments showing a person in hotel staff clothing using Noah’s access card. The face remained hidden, but the intruder moved without Carlisle’s limp.
Project Star proposed purchasing a failing medical-data company. Its assets included archived pediatric records from several Brookfield hospitals, including the facility where Raina and Coco were born. The acquisition would give Lincoln Group control of evidence connected to the switch.
Raina asked who had introduced the target. The proposal listed Renee Stewart as an outside consultant, even though she was already in custody. Her signature had been scanned from an old employment agreement.
Theo joined the review at Raina’s invitation. He observed that the acquisition would look reasonable to outsiders: the company owned valuable data, and Lincoln Group had healthcare investments. Only the family understood why those particular records mattered.
Mathew traced the seller to a chain of shell companies ending at a private trust with no named beneficiary. Payment was scheduled automatically upon board approval. Someone intended to convert stolen or compromised records into hundreds of millions of legitimate dollars.
Raina chose not to cancel the meeting. If the unknown organizer believed Project Star remained hidden, they might reveal themselves to ensure approval. The board would review a controlled version while investigators watched every contact.
At the meeting, Raina took the observer chair beside Noah. Carlisle’s allies expected uncertainty from a woman new to corporate governance. Instead, she asked precise questions about patient consent, data ownership, and the company’s unexplained liabilities.
The presenting executive, Owen Price, grew defensive. He claimed confidentiality prevented disclosure of the full seller structure. Raina replied that confidentiality could protect patients but not anonymous beneficiaries seeking company money.
Noah moved to postpone the acquisition. Owen warned that the seller would withdraw unless approval came that day. His urgency confirmed Project Star depended on speed, just as the altered inheritance trust had.
During the recess, Owen attempted to leave with his laptop. Joshua stopped him at the elevator under authority of the active fraud investigation. The device contained instructions from an encrypted account signed only with a star symbol.
Luke decrypted one recent message: “Place the sister inside, then make her vote.” Carlisle had told the truth about the purpose, even if he did not control the operation.
Owen admitted receiving money to introduce the deal but claimed never to have met the sender. Instructions arrived through dead drops at the Grand Brookfield Hotel, always inside an envelope marked with a silver star.
The symbol turned attention toward Raina’s necklace. Someone was borrowing the most recognizable proof of her connection to Theo, ensuring suspicion would eventually point toward her or him.
Theo requested the original charm for forensic testing. Raina removed the necklace reluctantly. The metal had survived childhood, fire, and years in separate hands; surrendering it felt strangely personal.
Laboratory analysis found microscopic residue from a modern tracking compound inside the repaired clasp. The charm had been altered recently, after Theo returned it to Raina.
Only a few people had handled the necklace during its repair. Theo had used a jeweler recommended by Mr. Jones, a craftsman trusted by the family for decades. Security went to question him and found the workshop abandoned.
On the empty workbench lay a photograph of Raina wearing the necklace at the food stand. Across her face someone had written, “The star always leads us home.”