Chapter 13 - The Evidence Nobody Was Supposed to See
The baby was Amber.
The date was wrong.
According to every family record, Amber had been born two years later.
Nadine met Amber and Elena that night.
Elena confessed.
Amber was not Nadine’s biological sister.
She was Carver’s half sister.
Carver’s father had fathered a child shortly before his death.
Elena and Nadine’s father had hidden the baby because Elias would have used her claim to the Reigns assets.
Carver sat completely still.
Amber stared at him.
“So you’re my brother.”
“Apparently.”
“You don’t look happy.”
“I’m trying to calculate how many people knew before I did.”
Nadine almost laughed.
It was exactly something she would say.
Perhaps that was why she had begun trusting him.
The revelation explained the trust account.
Part of the money was intended for Amber.
Nadine had been named trustee.
The account was not simply protection.
It was restitution.
Over the following weeks, the criminal network collapsed.
Elias pleaded guilty.
Gideon faced trial.
Marcus reunited with his son and testified.
Elena testified too.
Amber did something harder.
She apologized without demanding forgiveness.
Nadine eventually invited her to hold Ada.
Amber cried so hard she had to sit down.
“I don’t deserve this.”
“This isn’t forgiveness,” Nadine said.
“I know.”
“It’s a beginning.”
Amber nodded.
That was enough.
Carver struggled with having a sister.
Amber enjoyed making him struggle.
“You know you’re supposed to call me on my birthday now.”
“I have employees for reminders.”
“I hate you.”
“So I’m told.”
For the first time in months, Nadine laughed without immediately remembering why she should be afraid.
Then came the subpoena.
Nadine would testify against Elias and Gideon.
Her evidence was central.
So was her testimony about Dominic’s financial network.
The defense intended to portray her as a bitter wife who stole records after discovering an affair.
Nadine prepared anyway.
On the morning before trial, an envelope arrived.
Inside was a photograph from Christmas Eve.
Nadine standing with the suitcase.
Dominic and Amber behind her.
On the back:
WITHDRAW YOUR TESTIMONY OR ADA GETS THE NEXT PICTURE.
Carver read it.
His face became lethal.
Nadine took it back.
“No.”
“What?”
“You don’t become him now.”
Carver looked at her.
“You promised me.”
His anger slowly settled.
“What do you want?”
Nadine picked up her phone.
“I want to testify.”
That evening, security discovered where the photograph had been printed.
A shop near the courthouse.
Camera footage showed a woman wearing a hood.
She paid cash.
When she looked toward the camera, Nadine recognized her.
Not Elena.
Not Amber.
The nurse from Montana.
The woman who had copied Nadine’s fingerprints.
Agents found her apartment.
Empty.
But one wall was covered in photographs of Nadine.
At the center was a picture of Ada.
Beneath it someone had written:
THE CHILD CHANGES EVERYTHING.
Nadine stared at the words.
Then an agent opened the bedroom closet.
Inside hung an ivory satin dress.
May you like
The same dress Nadine had worn on Christmas Eve.
And pinned to it was a note addressed to Carver.
