Chapter 19 - Account Seventeen
Nathan asked for a lawyer before answering questions about account seventeen.
That told me enough to be afraid.
We met forty-eight hours later in a secured interview room.
His attorney sat beside him.
Evelyn sat beside me.
Nathan looked exhausted.
The arrogance was gone.
The bruising from the airfield had darkened beneath his shirt collar.
I placed one sheet of paper on the table.
“Adrian told me to ask about account seventeen.”
Nathan stared at it.
He said nothing.
I leaned forward.
“If this is another lie, I walk out and let prosecutors discover it without your cooperation.”
His attorney touched his arm.
Nathan shook him off.
“Account seventeen was mine.”
“For what?”
“Emergency reserves.”
“Illegal reserves?”
“Yes.”
“How much?”
“Twenty-one million.”
Evelyn wrote it down.
“Source?”
Nathan swallowed.
“Overbilling.”
“Fake vendors.”
“Kickbacks.”
I felt no surprise anymore.
“Celeste knew?”
“No.”
“Gerald?”
“Yes.”
“Adrian?”
“Eventually.”
“Why would Adrian specifically mention it?”
Nathan looked at me.
“Because I moved the money.”
“When?”
“Six months ago.”
My eyes narrowed.
That was when I started collecting evidence.
“Where?”
He looked at me.
“Into an account under your name.”
Silence.
I stared at him.
“What?”
His attorney closed his eyes.
Nathan continued.
“I knew Gerald was preparing to sacrifice me if regulators ever came.”
“I needed money he could not easily reach.”
“So you framed me.”
“No.”
I laughed.
“You put stolen money in my name.”
“I planned to remove it.”
“When?”
He had no answer.
I stood.
“Claire.”
I turned toward the door.
“I also put something else there.”
I stopped.
Nathan’s voice shook.
“Proof.”
I looked back.
“What proof?”
“Gerald’s instructions.”
“Supplier lists.”
“Recorded meetings.”
“Everything I thought I could use against him if he betrayed me.”
Evelyn leaned forward.
“Where is the account?”
“Luxembourg.”
“Account number?”
Nathan recited it.
Evelyn immediately sent it to the financial team.
I remained standing.
Nathan looked at me.
“I know this does not help what I did.”
“No.”
“It doesn’t.”
“But the evidence might help dismantle the rest.”
“Maybe.”
He swallowed.
“I am pleading guilty.”
I stared at him.
His lawyer looked uncomfortable.
“To what?”
“Fraud.”
“Forgery.”
“Conspiracy.”
Nathan’s eyes dropped.
“And assault.”
My chest tightened.
He looked up again.
“I will not claim you were unstable.”
“I will not say you attacked Celeste.”
“I will not challenge the recording.”
“I will not ask anyone to believe I was manipulated.”
For years, Nathan had built a world where responsibility always belonged to someone else.
The market.
His board.
His childhood.
His wife.
His mistress.
Now he was finally holding it himself.
It did not make me love him.
It did not make me forgive him.
It did not erase a single night.
But it mattered.
“I want the divorce uncontested.”
“Yes.”
“I want no claim against my trust.”
“Yes.”
“No contact unless required through attorneys.”
His face tightened.
“Yes.”
“And if prosecutors ask what happened at Blackthorn Manor?”
Nathan’s eyes filled with shame.
“I tell them the truth.”
I nodded.
Then I left.
Outside, my father waited with Emma.
My sister.
I still had trouble thinking the word.
Emma smiled nervously.
“How did it go?”
“He finally told the truth.”
Dad looked through the glass toward Nathan.
“That must be new for him.”
I looked at my father.
“So is it for us.”
He absorbed the hit.
Then nodded.
“You’re right.”
Evelyn emerged behind me.
“We found account seventeen.”
“How much?”
“Twenty-one point four million.”
“And the evidence?”
Her expression changed.
“There are thousands of files.”
“Gerald?”
“Yes.”
“Adrian?”
“Yes.”
“Sloan?”
“Yes.”
She paused.
“Also Richard.”
My uncle had been helping infiltrate Blackthorn.
But this looked different.
“What about Richard?”
Evelyn turned the tablet toward me.
A payment record showed six million dollars transferred to Richard Bennett over twelve years.
I looked at my father.
His face hardened.
Emma whispered.
“Maybe it was operational money.”
Evelyn shook her head.
“There is a notation.”
I read it.
RETENTION PAYMENT.
My stomach dropped.
“What does that mean?”
Evelyn opened another file.
An audio recording.
Richard’s voice filled the hallway.
“If Charles ever learns what happened before Laura’s crash, he will destroy all of us.”
Dad went completely still.
The recording continued.
A second voice answered.
Gerald Knox.
“Then make sure he never learns.”
My father looked toward the elevator.
Richard was scheduled to arrive at Bennett Tower in ten minutes.
May you like
We had thought the final enemy was in custody.
Instead, the man who had helped rescue us from Adrian was about to walk straight into the building.
