“Who knows what to think now? Why did you just let us leave without interrogating Mrs. Renee a bit more?” I put my hand out. “Give me back my papers. What do they say?”
“First, Mrs. Renee was close to a breakdown. I don’t even think she knows what side she’s on right now. Trust me, I’m not done with her, but we need to give her some time. And we need to find something on her to make sure she gives us the information we need. Secondly, these are papers saying you own a thirty-five percent share in Bradley Inc.” He looked at the papers and handed them back. “Why do you have papers giving you a thirty-five percent share in my family’s company?”
“So I can stop the merger.” I repeated what Larry had asked me to do. “Larry told me to use these papers so that I can stop the merger from going through.”
“You can’t stop the merger, Bianca.” Jakob shook his head. “Don’t you find it suspicious that out of the blue Larry has now provided you with papers giving you a major stake in the company?”
“I don’t know. Maybe he’s realized the error of his ways. Maybe he’s trying to make amends? Why shouldn’t I use the shares and stop the merger?”
“What if these shares are a setup?”
“What if they aren’t? If the merger goes through, I might not get anything.” I thought back to what I’d read in the newspaper.
“You have a claim to Bradley Inc. in your hand now, Bianca.” Jakob’s voice was intense. “You can share in any profits that the company receives from the merger.”
“I didn’t think of that.” I gasped.
“And I think that Larry was hoping that wouldn’t cross your mind as well. He made a mistake giving you the shares. For some reason he wants you to stop the merger because it’s in his best interests, not yours.”
“I don’t know what to do.”
“What is it that you want?”
“I want what my father worked hard for.”
“Do you think Larry would just hand you your shares out of the kindness of his heart?” Jakob asked me grimly. “Do you think that after all this it would be this simple?”
“I don’t know.” I sighed deeply. Why did Larry care about me getting the shares? How would this help him? “I don’t think he would hand me the shares after all these years out of the kindness of his heart, not really.”
“Think, Bianca. Please. This could be a setup.”
“How? What sort of setup is giving me my rightful shares? Maybe he knew that he was about to go down and wanted me to get a claim to what was mine before he went to jail?”
“I sincerely doubt that those were his intentions.” Jakob shook his head. “And at this point, we don’t really know what your rightful shares are or were.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Let me see those papers again.” He grabbed them from my hand and read them more carefully this time. “These were signed off by David.”
“So?” I was upset at the snark in his voice when he had said rightful.
“So why would David sign off on papers giving you a major interest in the company?”
“Maybe he felt guilty as well?” My stomach churned as I spoke. I knew David didn’t even have the capacity to feel guilt. And if he did, he didn’t go along with a kidnapping to prevent me from getting access to any shares to signing over shares in less than a few weeks.
“Think, Bianca, think. Larry has a daughter, a long-lost daughter, called Roma. Roma came into his life a few years ago. Roma came into my brother’s life a few years ago. Roma is dating my brother.”
“Do you think David knows who Roma is?”
“No.” Jakob shook his head. “I don’t think he knows there’s a connection, but I could be wrong. I mean, this is all larger than I thought it was in the beginning.”
“So we need to find Roma now?”
“Hold on.” A light went off in his eyes as he stared at me. “Do you have your phone on you?”
“Yes, why?”
“What did Mrs. Renee just say?”
“What? That Larry had a daughter?”
“No, no. I think she gave us a clue.” He snapped his fingers. “She made it a point to tell me Larry was the one who chose Mattias’s name.”
“Yeah, so?”
“She also made a point of saying ‘that’s my name’ right before she left.”
“And?” I was confused.
“Give me your phone.” He grabbed it from me and typed something in. “?‘Reborn’!” he exclaimed.
“What?” I was even more confused than I’d been before.
“Renee means ‘reborn.’?”
“Okay, so?”
“So what if Larry’s last name wasn’t really Renee?” Jakob grabbed my hand and dragged me to the car with him. “What if he changed his name?”
“To Renee?” I frowned.
“He likes symbolism, so maybe he thought Renee was smart.”
“I guess so.” I nodded. “I guess it could make sense. He was reborn as a new person.” Then it hit me. I suddenly understood what Jakob was saying. “Are you saying what I think you’re saying?”
He nodded. “What if Larry was Maxwell?”