Chapter 3 - The Secret Inside Bunny
Victor did not go to the vault immediately.
That was what whoever had opened Box 317 would expect.
Instead, he moved Clare and Maisie to a secured apartment on the penthouse’s upper residential floor.
Then he took the memory card into his private office.
Vincent stood beside him as Victor inserted it into an isolated laptop.
Three folders appeared.
CALDER.
NOLAN.
IF I’M DEAD.
Victor opened the last one.
A video appeared.
Elias filled the screen.
Older.
Thinner.
Alive.
Victor forgot the room around him.
“Vic,” Elias said.
Victor’s throat tightened.
“If you’re watching this, I ran out of time.”
Vincent quietly stepped backward.
Elias continued.
“I owe you twenty years of truth.”
Victor stared at the face he had once known better than his own.
“The night I disappeared, I wasn’t running from you. I was trying to protect you.”
Victor clenched his jaw.
“Someone inside your father’s company was moving money through accounts under both our names. I found it. I was stupid enough to confront him.”
Victor leaned closer.
Elias looked directly into the camera.
“Graham Calder.”
Victor stopped breathing.
His uncle.
The man who had taken Victor in after his father’s death.
The man who had helped him build Calder Holdings.
Elias continued.
“Graham told me if I went to you, you’d die before sunrise.”
Victor stood abruptly.
The chair rolled backward.
Vincent said nothing.
“I didn’t believe him until he showed me photographs of you leaving your apartment.”
Victor’s hands curled.
“He knew everywhere you went.”
Elias swallowed on screen.
“So I disappeared.”
Victor whispered, “You idiot.”
“I know what you’re thinking. You’re calling me an idiot.”
Victor closed his eyes.
Elias smiled sadly.
“For once, you’re right.”
The video continued.
Elias described the staged accident.
A corrupt records clerk.
A false identification.
A new name.
Daniel Nolan.
Years later, he met Clare.
Then Maisie was born.
“I thought it was over.”
Elias’s expression changed.
“Then Graham found me.”
Victor looked at Vincent.
“Where is Graham?”
“Monaco, supposedly.”
“Verify it.”
Vincent immediately began typing.
On screen, Elias leaned forward.
“If Graham comes back into your life, don’t confront him until you have the ledger.”
“What ledger?” Victor demanded uselessly.
Elias answered as if he heard him.
“The original transaction ledger is in Box 317.”
Victor looked toward the brass key.
“But the key has two pieces. I kept one. The other…”
Elias stopped.
His expression became strange.
“The other belongs to someone you trust.”
The video ended.
Victor stared at the black screen.
Vincent broke the silence.
“Box 317 was accessed yesterday.”
“Meaning the ledger may be gone.”
“Or someone checked whether it was still there.”
Victor removed the memory card.
“What are the other folders?”
The CALDER folder contained scanned records.
Old transactions.
Shell companies.
Transfers.
Victor recognized signatures.
Some were his father’s.
Others belonged to Graham.
Then he saw another name.
Vincent Hale.
Victor slowly turned.
Vincent saw the screen.
His face changed.
“Victor.”
“Explain.”
“I can’t.”
Victor stood.
“That is not the answer you want to give me.”
“I was nineteen.”
Victor stared at him.
Vincent stepped closer.
“My father worked security for your family. Graham used employee names to move funds.”
“You knew?”
“Not then.”
“When did you find out?”
“Years later.”
“And you never told me?”
Vincent looked ashamed.
“I didn’t know Elias was involved.”
Victor laughed bitterly.
“Apparently everyone knew pieces of my life except me.”
A soft knock interrupted them.
Clare entered.
“Maisie fell asleep.”
Victor looked at her.
“Did Elias ever mention Graham Calder?”
Clare’s face answered first.
“Yes.”
Victor walked toward her.
“You knew.”
“Only near the end.”
“How much?”
“He said Graham was dangerous.”
“He’s seventy-one.”
“So?”
Victor stopped.
Fair point.
“What else?”
“He said Graham had spent years making sure you never discovered how your father’s company was built.”
Victor’s voice lowered.
“My father?”
Clare nodded.
“Daniel believed your father discovered the fraud before he died.”
Victor stared.
His father had died from a heart attack when Victor was twenty-three.
Six months after Elias disappeared.
Two losses in half a year.
Both had shaped everything Victor became.
“What are you saying?”
“I’m telling you what Daniel suspected. Nothing more.”
Victor looked toward the laptop.
The NOLAN folder remained unopened.
He clicked it.
Documents appeared.
Marriage certificate.
Maisie’s birth certificate.
Insurance papers.
Then photographs.
Dozens.
Clare pregnant.
Elias painting a nursery.
Elias holding newborn Maisie.
Elias asleep on a couch with Bunny balanced on his head.
Victor’s anger weakened.
He saw something he had never imagined.
Elias had lived.
Not merely survived.
Lived.
He had loved someone.
Built a home.
Become a father.
Victor clicked the final image.
His blood went cold.
It showed Elias standing outside Victor’s office building.
The timestamp was fourteen months earlier.
Someone had photographed him from across the street.
On the back of the digital file was a note.
HE’S WATCHING VICTOR AGAIN.
Victor looked at Clare.
“Elias came here?”
“He wanted to.”
“Did he?”
“I don’t know.”
Victor studied the photograph.
A figure stood reflected in a shop window behind Elias.
Victor enlarged it.
The image pixelated.
But the face remained recognizable.
Graham Calder.
Victor grabbed his phone.
Vincent returned.
“He isn’t in Monaco.”
“Where is he?”
“His plane left three days ago.”
“For where?”
“Washington.”
Clare whispered, “He’s here.”
Victor’s phone rang.
Unknown number.
He answered.
“Victor.”
An elderly male voice replied.
“Hello, nephew.”
Victor went completely still.
Graham.
“You’ve caused quite a commotion this morning.”
Victor looked at Vincent.
Trace it.
Vincent moved.
“What do you want?”
“The same thing Elias wanted twenty years ago.”
“What?”
“To correct a mistake.”
Victor’s jaw tightened.
“You killed him?”
A pause.
Then Graham laughed softly.
“No, Victor. But you should ask the person standing beside you who really knew where Elias was.”
Victor slowly turned.
Vincent had stopped typing.
His face was pale.
Graham continued.
“Ask Vincent what happened on Route 9 eleven months ago.”
The call ended.
Victor lowered the phone.
Clare stared at Vincent.
Victor did too.
“What happened on Route 9?”
Vincent said nothing.
“Answer me.”
Vincent swallowed.
“I was there.”
Clare made a sound behind him.
Victor stepped forward.
“You were where?”
“At the crash.”
“You knew Daniel?”
Vincent’s eyes filled with something Victor had never seen there before.
Guilt.
“I knew Elias was alive.”
Victor stared at the man who had protected him for eighteen years.
“How long?”
Vincent whispered, “Eleven years.”
Victor felt something inside him break.
Then a child’s voice came from the doorway.
“Mr. Victor?”
They all turned.
Maisie stood there holding Bunny.
Sleepy.
May you like
Confused.
And behind her, the private elevator doors were opening.
