Chapter 7 - Nadine’s Secret Ledger
“Amber.”
Nadine rushed forward.
“It isn’t mine,” Amber said.
The blood belonged to Elias.
He was alive.
Barely.
A gun lay several feet away.
Amber’s hands shook.
“He came after me.”
Carver checked Elias’s pulse.
“Call emergency services.”
Amber stared at him.
“You’re saving him?”
“He answers questions better alive.”
Nadine looked around the vault.
Boxes.
Ledgers.
Hard drives.
Twenty years of secrets.
Her father had built an archive capable of destroying multiple criminal organizations.
Including parts of Carver’s.
Nadine looked at him.
“You knew your name would be in here.”
“Yes.”
“And you still came.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I told you the information stays yours.”
She searched his face.
“Even if it destroys you?”
Carver answered without hesitation.
“Yes.”
That was the moment something shifted.
Not love.
Not yet.
Trust.
The smallest beginning of it.
Amber sat against the wall.
“I’m sorry, Nadine.”
Nadine looked at her sister.
“For which part?”
“All of it.”
“That isn’t enough.”
“I know.”
Nadine knelt.
“But you’re my sister.”
Amber started crying.
Nadine took her hand.
Forgiveness would take longer.
But she would not leave her there.
They found the master ledger in a fireproof cabinet.
Nadine opened it.
Page after page.
Judges.
Police.
Businesses.
Politicians.
Dominic’s father.
Elias.
Then Dominic.
Nadine kept reading.
A series of payments began two years earlier.
Medical Foundation 711.
She recognized the number.
The hospital where her prenatal care had been managed.
Her stomach turned.
“Carver.”
He came closer.
The payments were tied to private medical records.
Nadine’s records.
Dominic had paid for access to every appointment, test, and doctor’s note.
“He monitored my pregnancy.”
Amber looked sick.
“There’s more.”
A contract followed.
Custodial contingency.
If Nadine attempted separation, a physician was prepared to declare her psychologically unstable after delivery.
Carver went very still.
“He planned to take Ada.”
Nadine could not speak.
This was why Dominic had been so certain she could not leave.
The affair had only opened the cage door enough for her to see the bars.
Nadine photographed everything.
Then she found another account.
Money transferred monthly.
Beneficiary:
NADINE CASTELLANO.
“I’ve never seen this.”
Carver examined it.
Millions.
Hidden in her name.
If authorities found it without context, Nadine could appear to be Dominic’s financial partner.
“He framed me.”
“No,” Amber whispered.
Nadine looked at her.
Amber’s face had gone pale.
“Dad created that account.”
“What?”
“He put the money there.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
Nadine followed the transfers backward.
They predated her marriage.
Predated her relationship with Dominic.
Predated even her career.
The first deposit occurred when she was twelve years old.
Carver stared at the amount.
$4.8 million.
Nadine whispered, “Where did my father get this?”
A sound came from behind them.
Slow applause.
Dominic stood in the vault entrance.
Alone.
Or apparently alone.
He looked at Nadine.
“Finally.”
Carver moved toward his weapon.
Dominic raised an empty hand.
“I wouldn’t.”
Nadine stood.
“What is that account?”
Dominic smiled.
“That is the reason our fathers died.”
Nadine felt the room tilt.
“Tell me.”
Dominic looked at Carver.
Then Amber.
Then Nadine.
“That money never belonged to the Castellanos.”
“Whose was it?”
Dominic’s smile disappeared.
“Ask your mother.”
Nadine stared at him.
“My mother is dead.”
Dominic slowly shook his head.
“No, Nadine.”
Footsteps sounded behind him.
A woman entered the vault.
May you like
Nadine recognized her immediately from a photograph buried with her father.
And the dead woman looked directly at her and said, “Hello, sweetheart.”
