Chapter 7 - My Father’s Second Set of Books
I called 911.
Whatever strategy I had been running ended the moment a weapon appeared.
Police reached the house before we did.
Eleanor was gone.
Richard was alive.
The gun had not been fired.
He sat in my office with two officers while Victoria cried downstairs.
When he saw Leo, relief crossed his face.
That surprised me.
Maybe some part of him still loved his grandson.
Or maybe I wanted to believe it.
“Where’s Mom?”
Richard looked at the officers.
Then at me.
“She took the ledger.”
“What ledger?”
He laughed bitterly.
“The one thing Adrian didn’t have.”
My father finally began talking.
Not because he had developed a conscience.
Because Eleanor had betrayed him.
Twenty years of hidden transactions had been recorded in a second set of books.
Richard and Adrian started the scheme.
But Eleanor expanded it.
When my cybersecurity company became successful, she saw an opportunity.
Family ownership.
My name.
My reputation.
My access.
She wanted Vance Cybersecurity turned into a private intelligence machine.
I stared at him.
“You let her terrorize Clara.”
His eyes lowered.
“Yes.”
“You let Leo sleep on a floor.”
“Yes.”
“You watched her hurt my wife.”
Richard’s voice broke.
“Yes.”
I wanted to hit him.
Instead, I asked the question that mattered.
“Why?”
“Because she had evidence that could send me to prison.”
Cowardice.
Not complexity.
Not love.
Cowardice.
Richard opened a drawer.
Empty.
“The ledger was here.”
“What’s in it?”
“Names.”
“Whose?”
“Clients. Payments. Politicians. Executives. Everyone Eleanor collected leverage on.”
Daniel arrived with Evelyn.
My father saw his former wife.
Something inside him collapsed.
Evelyn said quietly, “You had thirty-seven years to become a better man.”
Richard looked away.
The police separated everyone.
Clara sat with Leo.
I crouched in front of them.
“We’re leaving tonight.”
This time she agreed.
Maya arranged a secure corporate residence.
Before we left, Victoria approached me.
“Marcus.”
I kept walking.
“Please.”
I stopped.
She had removed the expensive jewelry.
Without it, without the phone, without the performance, she looked younger.
Scared.
“Did you know?” I asked.
“About the company, yes.”
“Clara?”
Her eyes filled.
“I thought Mom was just trying to make her leave.”
“You laughed while my wife ate scraps.”
“I know.”
“My son was hungry.”
“I know.”
“No. You know now.”
She cried.
I felt nothing.
Then she said, “I have something.”
She handed me her phone.
A cloud folder.
Hundreds of videos.
Victoria had filmed everything.
Her obsession with documenting her life had accidentally created evidence.
Arguments.
Meetings.
Documents visible on tables.
Eleanor giving instructions.
Richard discussing transfers.
Even Adrian entering the house.
“Why give me this?”
“Because Mom called me.”
“When?”
“Ten minutes ago.”
“What did she say?”
Victoria looked terrified.
“She said I had to choose.”
“Choose what?”
“Family or you.”
I almost laughed.
“What did you say?”
“I asked where she was.”
“And?”
Victoria unlocked a location-sharing screen.
A blue dot blinked.
Vance Cybersecurity headquarters.
My mother was inside my company.
At 1:13 in the morning.
Maya called security.
No response.
Then my phone received an internal alert.
SERVER VAULT OPEN.
Only three people had authority to open that vault.
I was one.
Maya was another.
The third credential belonged to an employee who had died eight months earlier.
Maya looked at me.
“Someone resurrected another dead identity.”
I thought of Adrian.
Then the building cameras came online.
Eleanor stood inside the server vault.
Beside her was a man wearing a Vance Cybersecurity badge.
Maya enlarged the image.
I knew him.
Everyone at the company did.
Our former chief financial officer.
Thomas Bell.
The man whose funeral I had attended eight months ago.
May you like
He looked into the camera.
Then smiled...
