Chapter 8 - The Sister Who Lied Twice
Nadine could not move.
The woman was older.
Thinner.
Gray threaded through her dark hair.
But the eyes were Nadine’s.
Her mother, Elena Vale, had supposedly died when Nadine was fourteen.
Nadine had attended the funeral.
She had watched the coffin lowered.
“You’re dead.”
Elena’s face crumpled.
“I know.”
Nadine backed away.
“Don’t.”
Elena stopped.
Dominic remained near the doorway.
Carver watched him.
Amber began crying silently.
“You knew?” Nadine asked her.
Amber nodded.
A second betrayal.
Different from the first.
Somehow deeper.
“For how long?”
“Four months.”
Nadine laughed shakily.
“Of course.”
“Nadine—”
“No.”
She looked at her mother.
“Explain.”
Elena had worked with federal investigators twenty years earlier.
The money belonged to a secret fund assembled from assets stolen by Dominic’s father.
Nadine’s father had helped trace it.
Carver’s father planned to return portions to legitimate owners and expose the network.
Elias betrayed them.
When Elena became a target, her death was staged.
“Why didn’t you come back?”
“Because Elias threatened you and Amber.”
“You let me believe you were dead for sixteen years.”
“I watched from a distance.”
“That is not being my mother.”
Elena accepted the words.
“No. It isn’t.”
Dominic spoke.
“She contacted me two years ago.”
Nadine turned.
“Why?”
“To keep you safe.”
Nadine almost screamed.
Instead she laughed.
Every person in the room had apparently harmed her for her own protection.
“You monitored my doctors.”
Dominic’s face changed.
“That wasn’t me.”
“The payments carry your authorization.”
“They carry my credentials.”
“Who had them?”
Dominic looked toward the floor.
Elias.
Carver understood first.
“Elias wanted Nadine trapped inside Dominic’s organization.”
“Why?”
Elena answered.
“Because Nadine controls the account.”
Nadine stared.
“I didn’t even know it existed.”
“But legally, you became sole beneficiary at thirty.”
Nadine was thirty.
The money had grown.
Not four million anymore.
More than sixty million.
Money capable of exposing bribery networks.
Money Elias believed could buy his escape.
Dominic looked at Nadine.
“I was trying to find whoever was accessing my credentials.”
“So you locked me in a bedroom?”
“Yes.”
“That is your defense?”
“No.”
For once, Dominic looked ashamed.
“I thought control was protection.”
Nadine looked at Carver.
He did not interrupt.
Dominic continued.
“I was wrong.”
Amber wiped her face.
“And me?”
Dominic looked at her.
“The first time was a mistake.”
Amber closed her eyes.
“The second?”
“I knew someone was watching.”
Nadine understood.
The Christmas Eve kiss.
It had been theater for Elias.
That did not erase the earlier affair.
Nothing could.
But the story was no longer simple.
Sirens approached outside.
Elias had disappeared from the floor.
Carver swore.
A trail of blood led to another exit.
Then Nadine’s phone rang.
Unknown number.
She answered.
Elias.
“You found the ledger.”
“Yes.”
“You think that saves you?”
“No. Evidence does.”
“You sound like your father.”
“Good.”
Elias laughed.
Then a baby cried through the phone.
Nadine stopped breathing.
Not any baby.
Ada.
Carver’s face went white.
Elias whispered, “You should have left the past buried.”
Nadine gripped the phone.
“Where is my daughter?”
A door slammed somewhere on Elias’s end.
May you like
Then he gave Nadine an address.
And said, “Come alone.”
