Chapter 16 - FATHER AND DAUGHTER
Robert Chen finally agreed to cooperate.
His attorney negotiated with prosecutors for hours.
Then Robert told them everything.
Victor Dane had approached him four years earlier.
At first, the requests seemed harmless.
Advance notice about property sales.
Copies of market studies.
Private board calendars.
Victor paid generously.
Then the lithium survey changed the scale.
The mineral deposit could create a fortune.
Robert introduced Victor to Helen privately.
He expected business.
He witnessed something much more dangerous.
Victor revealed he was Helen’s biological father.
From that day forward, Helen changed.
She stopped asking how to expand Carter Green.
She began asking how to take it.
Robert helped build the legal structure.
Martin Shaw created documents.
Victor supplied shell companies.
Helen controlled internal finances.
But Evelyn discovered discrepancies before the final transfer.
The plan had to accelerate.
Helen initially intended to keep Evelyn drugged in her bedroom.
Then a housekeeper almost discovered her.
They moved Evelyn underground.
Tom listened to Robert’s recorded confession with disgust.
“Who chained her?”
“Helen.”
Robert looked down.
“Victor told her not to.”
That surprised everyone.
“Victor wanted Evelyn alive and cooperative.”
“He said a visible injury could destroy everything.”
“Helen was angry.”
Robert swallowed.
“She said her mother had controlled her entire life.”
Tom stopped the recording.
He could not listen anymore.
Lily sat beside him.
“You’re angry.”
“Yes.”
“At Aunt Helen?”
“Yes.”
“At Grandma?”
Tom looked at her.
“A little.”
Lily nodded.
“For keeping the father secret?”
“Yes.”
“Would you hide something like that from me?”
Tom thought carefully.
“No.”
“Even if it hurt?”
“I hope not.”
Lily leaned against him.
“Grandma probably hoped it wouldn’t matter.”
Tom looked toward Evelyn’s hospital room.
“That doesn’t mean it didn’t.”
Later, he confronted his mother.
Evelyn did not defend herself.
“I should have told her earlier.”
“Would it have changed anything?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did Dad want her to know?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“After college.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“Because I was afraid.”
That answer surprised him.
Evelyn Carter was rarely afraid.
“Of what?”
“That she would go looking for Victor.”
“And she did anyway.”
“Yes.”
Tom sat beside her.
Evelyn looked older than she had a week earlier.
“I made choices because I thought I could control the consequences.”
She stared at her hands.
“That may be the greatest arrogance of my life.”
Tom understood.
Helen was responsible for her crimes.
Nothing excused them.
But families could create cracks long before outsiders learned how to widen them.
Their secret had become Victor Dane’s weapon.
Pierce entered.
“We found Victor.”
Tom stood.
“Where?”
“Not where.”
Pierce held up a satellite phone record.
“When.”
He explained that Victor had arranged a helicopter pickup for dawn.
The coordinates were twenty miles east.
An abandoned mining property.
Evelyn looked at the map.
Her expression became grim.
“That property borders the lithium land.”
Pierce nodded.
“We think Helen is meeting him there.”
May you like
Tom looked toward the window.
Dawn was less than six hours away.
