Chapter 3 - My Father's Eleven Names
"Move!"
Ethan lunged toward the steel door.
Richard's men reacted.
One grabbed Ethan.
The other reached for Valeria.
She slammed the laptop shut and pulled it against her chest.
Camille kicked the man holding her.
Noah ducked.
Chaos exploded inside Vault 17.
Ethan drove his shoulder into Richard's security man.
Valeria ran toward the closing door.
Six feet.
Four.
Two.
She shoved the laptop through the opening.
Then Ethan forced his body between the doors.
The safety sensor triggered.
The vault reopened.
They escaped into the corridor.
Richard didn't follow.
That bothered Valeria.
He wanted them to run.
Why?
Because perhaps he wasn't the enemy.
Or because he knew where they were going.
Daniel Mercer.
They reached Daniel's office shortly after midnight.
The front door had been forced.
Files covered the floor.
Daniel wasn't there.
Valeria called.
Voicemail.
Ethan searched his desk.
Camille took Noah into the conference room.
Valeria opened Daniel's computer.
Password protected.
Then she remembered her father's handwritten number.
11-17-35.
It worked.
A folder appeared.
HARRISON.
Inside were copies of her divorce documents.
The filing history revealed something important.
Daniel's credentials had been used to submit them.
Valeria felt sick.
"He filed it."
Ethan shook his head.
"Or someone used his account."
"That's convenient."
"So was my signature on Noah's paternity form."
She looked at him.
He was right.
Every piece of evidence could be manufactured.
That was the point.
Someone wanted them doubting everyone.
Valeria opened another file.
ELEVEN.
There were eleven names.
Daniel Mercer.
Richard Vale.
Camille Rowan.
Ethan Vance.
Martin Cole, CFO.
Rebecca Sloan, board chair.
Dr. Samuel Pierce.
Henry Dalton, Harrison's accountant.
Miriam Vale, Richard's wife.
Owen Blake, head of security.
And—
Valeria Vance.
She stared at her own name.
"My father suspected me?"
Ethan looked over.
"Maybe the list isn't suspects."
"What else would it be?"
They opened Harrison's notes.
ELEVEN PEOPLE HAD PIECES.
NO ONE HAD THE WHOLE.
Valeria understood.
The eleven weren't suspects.
They were safeguards.
Each knew one part.
The betrayer had spent months collecting those parts.
Her divorce was one.
Noah's key another.
The inheritance another.
Vault 17 another.
"Someone needed all of us," Valeria said.
Ethan nodded.
"And now they're forcing us together."
A sound came from Daniel's private office.
They froze.
Ethan approached.
He opened the door.
Daniel sat on the floor.
Blood stained his shirt.
Alive.
Barely.
Valeria rushed to him.
"Daniel!"
"Don't call an ambulance."
"You're bleeding."
"Listen."
His hand caught hers.
"I didn't file your divorce."
"I know."
Daniel looked relieved.
"Harrison discovered my credentials had been compromised. We were trying to identify who used them."
"Who?"
Daniel swallowed.
"Someone with access to every board member."
"Richard?"
"No."
"Who?"
Daniel's eyes moved toward the doorway.
Camille stood there.
Daniel whispered, "The company security office."
Owen Blake.
Harrison's head of security for fifteen years.
Valeria knew him.
Everyone trusted Owen.
That was his job.
Ethan called emergency services anyway.
Daniel was transported under a false name.
Before leaving, he gave Valeria a flash drive.
"Your father told me to give this to you if the vault was breached."
"What is it?"
"The reason he left you thirty-five million."
At a safe apartment, Valeria opened it.
Financial records filled the screen.
Hundreds of transfers.
Millions diverted from Vale Urban Holdings into shell companies.
The theft totaled $34,870,000.
Almost exactly her inheritance.
"The thirty-five million replaces what was stolen," Valeria said.
Camille nodded.
"Harrison was restoring the company before exposing the thief."
Ethan pointed to a transaction.
Recipient:
NORTH STAR DEVELOPMENT LLC.
Owner hidden.
Another:
LAKEVIEW CHILDREN'S TRUST.
Valeria stopped.
"Children's trust?"
Camille leaned closer.
Her face changed.
"No."
"What?"
"That's Noah's trust."
Valeria looked at her.
"Why does Noah have a trust receiving company money?"
Camille sat down.
"Harrison created it after the accident."
"Why?"
"I thought because he felt responsible."
Valeria remembered Noah calling him Grandpa.
There was more.
"Who is Noah's father?"
Camille looked at Ethan.
Then Valeria.
"He died."
"Who?"
Camille's voice broke.
"Your brother."
Valeria went still.
"I don't have a brother."
"Yes, you did."
Harrison had another son.
Before Valeria was born.
A son named Lucas.
He and Camille had been together secretly.
Lucas died five years earlier in what police called a boating accident.
Camille was pregnant.
Harrison hid Noah's identity to protect him from inheritance disputes.
"That's why he called Harrison Grandpa."
Camille nodded.
"And that's why someone forged Ethan's name onto Noah's paternity record."
To make Ethan look like he'd betrayed Valeria.
To destroy trust between them.
Valeria felt anger replacing confusion.
Someone had engineered every emotional reaction.
Her divorce.
Noah.
Camille.
Ethan.
All designed to isolate her.
"Why didn't my father tell me about Lucas?"
"He was ashamed."
"Of having a son?"
"Of what happened to him."
Camille opened another file.
Lucas had worked for Vale Urban Holdings.
Before his death, he had discovered the first fraudulent transfers.
Valeria's breath caught.
"Lucas knew."
"Yes."
"And then he died."
Camille nodded.
The boating accident suddenly looked different.
Valeria closed the laptop.
"We find Owen Blake."
Ethan agreed.
Owen's apartment was empty.
His office wasn't.
At 3:20 a.m., they entered Vale headquarters using Valeria's inherited board credentials.
Owen's security office contained dozens of monitors.
One displayed Harrison's mansion.
Another showed Daniel's office.
Another showed Vault 17.
He had been watching everything.
Valeria searched the desk.
She found a photograph.
Harrison.
Lucas.
Owen.
Richard.
Taken twenty years earlier.
On the back:
THE FOUR OF US BUILT IT.
Ethan opened a locked drawer.
Inside were passports.
Cash.
And a burner phone.
Valeria powered it on.
One conversation remained.
UNKNOWN:
IS THE DIVORCE COMPLETE?
OWEN:
YES.
UNKNOWN:
DOES SHE KNOW?
OWEN:
NO.
UNKNOWN:
GOOD. ONCE HARRISON IS DEAD, SHE'LL RUN TO ETHAN.
OWEN:
AND WHEN SHE LEARNS ABOUT NOAH?
UNKNOWN:
SHE'LL STOP TRUSTING HIM.
Valeria's skin went cold.
The plan had predicted her perfectly.
There was one final message.
UNKNOWN:
THEN BRING HER TO ME.
Valeria whispered, "Who?"
The phone rang.
UNKNOWN CALLER.
She answered.
"Valeria."
A woman's voice.
Familiar.
"Who is this?"
"You've spent all night looking at men."
Valeria stopped breathing.
The woman laughed softly.
"That was Harrison's mistake too."
Valeria looked at the list.
There were women on it.
Rebecca Sloan.
Miriam Vale.
Camille.
Herself.
"Who are you?"
"Come to the old Lake Geneva house tomorrow at noon."
"Why?"
"Because that's where Lucas died."
The line went silent.
Then a final text arrived.
A photograph.
Her father standing beside a woman.
The woman had her back to the camera.
But Valeria recognized the champagne-colored coat.
She had seen it at Harrison's funeral.
Rebecca Sloan.
Chairwoman of Vale Urban Holdings.
Beneath the photograph:
SHE WAS WITH YOUR FATHER THE NIGHT HE DIED.
Before Valeria could speak, the security office door opened.
May you like
Rebecca Sloan walked in.
And she was holding Harrison's missing phone.
