Chapter 10 - The Account With Nadine’s Name
Carver examined the image.
“That isn’t me.”
Nadine zoomed in.
Same build.
Same coat.
Same ring.
But the hand was wrong.
Carver had a scar across his knuckle.
The man did not.
“Someone dressed like you.”
“Yes.”
“Who has your ring?”
Carver’s face hardened.
“My brother.”
Nadine stared.
“You have a brother?”
“Had.”
Apparently not.
Gideon Reigns had disappeared twelve years earlier.
Carver believed him dead.
Elias knew otherwise.
The sixty-three million dollars had always been bigger than Dominic.
Bigger than the Castellanos.
Gideon had spent years helping Elias hide assets.
Now Elias was captured.
Gideon had the money.
And Nadine’s biometric signature.
“How?”
Carver asked.
Nadine remembered the clinic.
The nurse who had taken her fingerprints for paperwork.
A biometric medical pad.
“Someone copied them.”
The clinic records showed the nurse had disappeared.
Nadine’s exhaustion transformed into anger.
She was finished running.
She called a meeting with investigators.
Then Dominic.
Then Amber.
Then Elena.
And finally Carver.
“I’m ending this.”
Carver looked at her wedding ring.
“Our marriage?”
“The chase.”
She placed the ledger on the table.
“Gideon wants the money. So we make him believe I can still release the rest.”
“You’re baiting him.”
“I’m inviting him.”
Dominic objected.
“No.”
Nadine looked at him.
“You don’t get a vote.”
He stopped.
That sentence summarized the end of their marriage better than any divorce decree could.
The trap was arranged at a private bank.
Nadine entered alone.
Gideon called.
“Transfer authorization.”
“You first.”
“What do you want?”
“The truth about my father.”
“You already know Elias killed him.”
“Who ordered it?”
Silence.
Then Gideon laughed.
“That’s the wrong question.”
Nadine’s blood chilled.
“Why?”
“Because your father wasn’t the target.”
“Who was?”
“You.”
Nadine stopped breathing.
Gideon continued.
“Your father died because he got into the car meant for you.”
The call ended.
Nadine stood frozen.
She had been fourteen.
Why would anyone kill a fourteen-year-old girl?
Then she remembered the date.
Her mother’s supposed death.
Her father’s accident.
The account.
She opened the original trust document.
There was a clause she had overlooked.
If Nadine died before thirty, the beneficiary changed.
Not Amber.
Not Elena.
Not Dominic.
The name had been redacted.
Nadine recovered the underlying layer.
One name appeared.
GIDEON REIGNS.
Then the bank elevator opened.
May you like
Carver stepped out.
Except the scar was missing.
