Chapter 155:


    Isolde looked at her broken right hand. Then at the tablet in her left.


    God had taken her hand. But He had given her a partner.


    “Come on,” Isolde said, wiping her eyes. “We’ve got work to do. Mommy has apany to save.”


    Three dayster.


    Isolde stood in the foyer of the Briggs family estate, a grand old house in Westchester where the paint was beginning to peel and the garden had surrendered to weeds.


    Her arm throbbed steadily in its sling.


    Her mother, Ellyn, opened the door. Her face was drawn, her eyes red-rimmed.


    “Isolde!” Ellyn gasped, staring at the cast. “What happened?”


    “I fell,” Isolde said. “Where’s Uncle Saul?”


    ???????? t??е??e??? t??e??d?? o?? g????????????l??.c????


    “Upstairs. He’s… it’s not good.”


    Isolde climbed the creaking staircase. The smell of sickness — old medicine, stale air — hung heavy in the hallway. Saul was lying in bed, a shadow of the man who used to toss her in the air when she was small. He coughed — a wet, rattling sound.


    “Isolde,” he wheezed. “Did you leave him?”


    “Yes,” Isolde said, settling on the edge of the bed. “Tell me the truth, Saul. How bad is thepany?”


    Saul looked away. “Bad.”


    Isolde turned to her mother. “Mom. The books.”


    Ellyn hesitated, then crossed to the desk and retrieved a ledger. Isolde opened it with her left hand and scanned the columns, her eyes narrowing as they moved down the page.


    “This debt,” she said, pointing to a massive red figure. “Who holds the note?”


    “A holdingpany,” Ellyn said, her voice uncertain. “Vantage Corp.”


    “Vantage Corp is a shell for InnoTech,” Isolde said tly. “Cheryl Juarez.”


    Ellyn brought a hand to her mouth. “Cheryl? But—”


    “She bought the debt note,” Isolde said. “It’s a poison pill. There’s a use in the fine print that gives the debt holder a lien on our core patents if we default. She’s going to call it in. She wants to cripple Carson Dynamics before the Orbital acquisition is finalized.”


    “Why?” Ellyn whispered.


    “Because she was Dad’s mistress, and she hates that you got the ring,” Isolde said. “She wants to erase the Carson name.”


    Saul coughed again. “We tried to get refinancing through Henderson Capital. But Henderson won’t meet with us.”


    “Henderson,” Isolde murmured. “The shark.”


    “He’s the only one with enough liquid capital to bridge the gap,” Saul said. “If we don’t secure a fifty-million-dor line of credit by Friday, she can legally seize the patents.”


    Isolde closed the ledger. “I’ll get the meeting.”


    “How?” Ellyn asked, her eyes moving to the cast. “You’re injured. You’re divorcing a Lancaster. No one will touch you.”


    “That’s exactly why I’m going,” Isolde said. “I have nothing left to lose.”


    “Mommy!” Effie’s voice floated up from downstairs. “I found a mistake in the electric bill!”


    Isolde smiled grimly. “Effie is helping.”


    She turned to her mother. “Get the pitch deck — the old one. We’re going to rewrite it tonight.”


    “With one hand?”


    .


    .


    .