Chapter 4 - WHAT ELEANOR HID
Nathan did not sleep.
Neither did Margaret.
By dawn, the estate had become a secured command center.
Aaron’s team checked every wall, access panel, vehicle, camera, and employee entrance.
The intruder was gone.
That meant whoever had entered knew the estate well enough to escape before the lockdown.
Nathan returned to the library.
Margaret sat with the hospital record in front of her.
“You said my mother told you Samuel died.”
“She did.”
“But she admitted him alive.”
“Yes.”
Margaret’s voice broke.
“I don’t understand.”
Nathan opened his mother’s old safe.
He had not touched it since her death six years earlier.
Most of the contents were familiar.
Legal documents.
Photographs.
Letters.
Then Nathan found a sealed envelope wedged beneath the bottom drawer.
MARGARET.
He handed it to her.
Her hands shook.
Inside was a letter written in Eleanor’s unmistakable handwriting.
Margaret read silently.
Then she began crying.
Nathan had never seen her cry.
“What does it say?”
Margaret handed him the letter.
Eleanor had written it three weeks before her death.
Margaret, if the Crown ever returns, then I failed to bury what Samuel began.
He survived the fire.
I lied to protect you.
Samuel was burned badly and believed Victor Rainer had ordered his death.
I hid him in a private medical facility.
But Samuel disappeared before he recovered.
Years later, I learned he had approached Victor.
I never discovered why.
Do not assume betrayal.
Your father always had three reasons for every move.
If Nathan is reading this, tell him the truth about the ring.
Tell him what Samuel created beneath the legitimate companies.
And tell him there is one person he must never trust merely because that person shares his blood.
Nathan reread the final sentence.
His blood.
Margaret stared at him.
“Do you have family we haven’t discussed?”
Nathan thought of his father.
Dead.
His mother.
Dead.
His younger brother, Daniel, lived in London and rarely returned home.
Then there was his uncle, Richard Whitmore.
His father’s younger brother.
Chairman emeritus of Whitmore Logistics.
The man who had taught Nathan how to negotiate.
The man who had stood beside him at his mother’s funeral.
Nathan immediately called Aaron.
“Find Richard.”
Aaron replied thirty seconds later.
“He landed in Charlotte two hours ago.”
Nathan’s stomach tightened.
“Where is he?”
“According to his driver, he’s coming here.”
Margaret looked at Nathan.
A vehicle appeared on the front security cameras.
Black Bentley.
Richard stepped out.
Seventy years old.
Silver hair.
Perfect suit.
A cane he did not truly need.
He entered the estate smiling.
Then he saw Margaret standing beside Nathan.
The smile disappeared.
For half a second.
Only half.
But Nathan saw it.
Richard recovered.
“My God.”
He looked at Margaret.
“You’re alive.”
Margaret stared at him.
“You knew me?”
Richard slowly closed the library door behind him.
“Of course I knew you.”
Nathan stood.
“Then perhaps you can explain why my mother warned me not to trust someone who shares my blood.”
Richard looked at the letter.
Something cold entered his eyes.
“Eleanor always loved drama.”
Nathan’s jaw tightened.
Richard glanced at the black ring.
Then his face became serious.
“You shouldn’t be wearing that.”
Nathan leaned forward.
“Why?”
“Because Samuel Ellis didn’t create that ring to represent the Whitmores.”
May you like
Richard looked directly at Margaret.
“He created it to replace us.”
