Chapter 5 - Shadows of Hartford Industries
The name Chen hit Catherine like a physical blow. She staggered backward, her hand flying to her mouth, the piece of paper fluttering from her hand. Richard caught her before her knees gave out, his sharp eyes narrowing as he locked onto the name.
"Chen?" Richard repeated, his voice dropping into a dangerous, icy tone. "As in Julian Chen? The CEO of Chen Global Logistics?"
"He was my father's senior partner..." Catherine whispered, her eyes wide with sudden, sickening realization. "He was the one who orchestrated the hostile takeover eight years ago. He was the one who claimed my family's assets were liquidated after the accident. He told the media my family perished..."
"And he’s currently in Connecticut," Richard said, his mind instantly racing through corporate intelligence profiles, acquisition files, and local political networks. "Chen Global signed a port lease in New Haven three weeks ago. He’s here, Catherine. He’s been in the state for a month."
The gravity of the situation descended upon the Hartford mansion like an iron curtain. This was no longer a sad story of an abandoned baby. This was an ongoing, violent assassination attempt unfolding right on their doorstep.
"Sir," Chief Officer Vance, Richard’s private head of security, stepped out of the study, holding a secure satellite tablet. "We just pulled the perimeter thermal footage from thirty minutes ago. You need to see this."
Richard stood up, keeping one arm around Catherine, while Mia was taken upstairs by a gentle female guard to be bathed and put to bed under armed protection.
Richard and Catherine followed Vance into the study. Vance laid the tablet flat on the heavy mahogany desk.
The thermal footage showed the dense woods bordering the eastern edge of the Hartford estate—the area right near the river path where Mia had run. In glowing yellow and orange signatures, the video showed a large, dark SUV idling on an unpaved service road just outside the estate’s boundary fence.
At 4:12 PM, a figure emerged from the vehicle, carrying a heavy, rectangular thermal shape—the duffel bag. The figure jogged to the edge of the river bank, dropped the bag into the roaring water, stood there for five seconds to watch it get swept away by the current toward the deep river bend, and then sprinted back to the SUV, which sped off into the rain.
"They didn't just abandon him," Richard said, his jaw clenching so hard the muscles in his face flexed violently. "They threw him into the swollen river knowing the current would drown him or drag him into the sound within twenty minutes. It was meant to look like an accidental drowning if the body was ever found."
"They were tracking Evelyn," Catherine said, her tears turning into a sudden, white-hot rage. "She must have realized they found her location. She put the baby in that bag hoping it would float, or... or she threw it toward our land knowing my name was associated with the Hartford Estate! She knew this was the only safe place left!"
"Where is Evelyn now?" Richard asked Vance sharply. "If Chen’s men were close enough to take her baby and drop him in the river, where is she?"
"We ran a cross-reference on recent police dispatches within a twenty-mile radius," Vance reported, tapping the screen. "Twenty-five minutes ago, a structural fire was reported at an isolated private estate in Old Saybrook—about fifteen miles river-upstream from here. The property is registered to a shell company affiliated with Chen Global."
Catherine gasped. "She's there! They captured her!"
"Or they're trying to eliminate her," Richard corrected coldly.
He turned to Vance. "Assemble the private security tactical team. All eight men. Get the armored Range Rovers ready."
"Richard!" Catherine grabbed his arm, looking at him with desperate eyes. "What are you going to do? We have to call the state police!"
"The state police will take forty minutes to coordinate a tactical response for an active fire and hostage situation across county lines," Richard said, turning to look his wife dead in the eye. His usual corporate, calculated demeanor was gone, replaced by an imposing, terrifying resolve. "Chen brought his dirty corporate war to my land. He put a hit on an infant that my daughter risked her life to pull out of a freezing river. He threatened my family."
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Richard pulled an encrypted communications earpiece from the desk drawer and slotted it into his ear.
"We aren't waiting forty minutes," Richard said grimly. "We are going right now."
