Chapter 5 - TWO DEAD FATHERS
Nathan’s father, Robert Cole, had died from what doctors described as a sudden cardiac event.
He had been fifty-eight.
Healthy.
Disciplined.
Still running five miles every morning.
Nathan had always hated how quickly it happened.
But he had never questioned it.
Until now.
Dr. Price sat across from Nathan in the study.
The older physician looked troubled.
“I treated your father for fourteen years.”
“Did he have heart disease?”
“No.”
Nathan’s jaw tightened.
“Could he have died naturally?”
“Yes.”
“Could something else have caused it?”
Dr. Price hesitated.
“Certain medications.”
“Certain toxins.”
“An undiagnosed arrhythmia.”
Nathan leaned forward.
“Was an autopsy performed?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Your mother declined.”
Nathan stared at him.
“My mother was already dead.”
Dr. Price froze.
Nathan’s mother had died three years before Robert.
Nathan felt cold spread through him.
“Who declined?”
Dr. Price slowly removed his glasses.
“The paperwork came from your father’s legal representative.”
“Who?”
“I do not remember.”
Nathan stood.
“Find out.”
Dr. Price nodded.
“I will.”
Across the room, Grace looked sick.
Nathan turned to her.
“Tell me about the night your father died.”
Grace stared at her hands.
“My father called me around eleven.”
“He sounded frightened.”
“He told me he had made copies of everything.”
“He said Robert Cole had agreed to help him.”
Nathan’s chest tightened.
“My father knew about the fraud.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I didn’t know the details then.”
Grace looked up.
“My father told me to stay inside.”
“He said if anyone came to the apartment, I should not open the door.”
“Forty minutes later, the police called.”
Nathan sat again.
Grace continued.
“They said my father lost control of his car.”
“He hit a barrier on Lake Shore Drive.”
“He died before the ambulance arrived.”
“And my father?”
“I didn’t know Robert was with him until the funeral.”
Nathan frowned.
“Who told you?”
“Robert.”
Nathan stared.
“My father came to the funeral?”
“He stayed outside.”
“He waited until almost everyone had left.”
Grace swallowed.
“He told me he had been following my father in another car.”
“He saw a black sedan force him toward the barrier.”
Nathan’s breathing slowed.
“Did he see the driver?”
“No.”
“But he told me he had something my father gave him.”
“What?”
“A ledger.”
Nathan stood again.
“Where is it?”
“I don’t know.”
“Robert said he had hidden it.”
“He said Charles would never find it.”
Nathan walked toward the window.
Two months later, Robert Cole was dead.
Grace continued quietly.
“After Robert died, Charles contacted me.”
“He knew about the ledger.”
“He asked whether Robert had given it to me.”
“What did you say?”
“I told him I didn’t know what he was talking about.”
Nathan turned.
“And then he threatened your brother.”
“Yes.”
Nathan began connecting the timeline.
Charles did not remove Grace from Nathan’s life because she was inconvenient.
He removed her because he believed she might know where Robert hid evidence.
Then Grace became pregnant.
Lily’s existence created an additional threat involving the Cole Trust.
Charles’s problem multiplied overnight.
Nathan’s phone rang again.
This time it was Daniel.
“I found the attorney on your father’s death paperwork.”
“Who?”
Daniel paused.
“Leonard Voss.”
Nathan knew the name.
Charles Whitmore’s personal attorney.
Nathan shut his eyes.
Grace whispered.
“Oh God.”
Daniel continued.
“There’s more.”
“Voss also witnessed the amendment that supposedly dissolved your family trust.”
Nathan looked at the trust documents.
“He forged both.”
“Likely.”
“Where is he?”
“Retired.”
“Florida?”
“No.”
Daniel’s voice lowered.
“He disappeared three years ago.”
Nathan stared at the phone.
“People don’t disappear.”
“This one did.”
Nathan ended the call.
Grace looked at him.
“What now?”
Nathan turned toward the bookshelf.
His father’s office had been preserved almost exactly as he left it.
Nathan had rarely used it.
Suddenly he remembered something.
Robert had been obsessed with physical books.
He distrusted digital storage.
He used to say anything connected to the internet could be stolen.
Nathan crossed the room.
“What?”
Grace asked.
“My father never trusted computers.”
He began pulling books from the shelves.
Grace joined him.
Nathan searched old legal texts.
Biographies.
Architecture books.
A thick volume about Chicago history.
Nothing.
Then Grace noticed a small brass plaque on the bottom shelf.
R.C.
She touched it.
“This shelf looks newer.”
Nathan crouched.
The wood was slightly different.
He pressed against it.
Nothing happened.
Grace examined the brass letters.
She rotated the C.
A hidden mechanism clicked.
Nathan stared.
The entire lower shelf released forward.
Behind it sat a narrow steel box.
Nathan pulled it free.
The lock required a four-digit code.
He looked at Grace.
She almost smiled despite everything.
“August seventeenth?”
Nathan entered 0817.
The lock opened.
Inside was a black leather ledger.
Grace began crying before Nathan even touched it.
“My father had one exactly like that.”
Nathan lifted the book.
The first page contained Robert Cole’s handwriting.
If you are reading this, Charles knows I helped Michael Bennett.
Nathan looked at Grace.
She pressed one hand over her mouth.
Nathan continued reading.
The next sentence changed everything.
Michael was right.
Charles has been stealing from both families for twenty years.
And Victoria knows more than she claims.
A loose photograph fell from between the pages.
Nathan picked it up.
It showed Charles Whitmore.
Leonard Voss.
Martin Vale.
And Victoria.
The photograph had been taken outside a warehouse.
On the back, Robert had written a date.
Three days before Michael Bennett died.
Grace stared at Victoria’s face in the photograph.
“She told you she was twenty-four.”
Nathan’s expression hardened.
“She also told me she was innocent.”
Grace looked at him.
Nathan closed the ledger.
May you like
“She was never innocent.”
*
