Chapter 4 - The Secret Audrey Could Not Bury
Nathaniel moved Audrey to the one place Richard would never expect him to use.
His childhood home.
The Voss estate stood beyond the city in Westchester, hidden behind stone walls, iron gates, and acres of winter trees. Nathaniel had not slept there since his father’s funeral.
The house carried too many memories.
Sebastian’s voice in the library.
His mother’s piano music drifting from the sitting room.
Richard arriving every Sunday morning with newspapers beneath one arm and secrets behind his eyes.
Nathaniel had preserved the property but refused to live inside it.
Now it became a fortress.
Marcus stationed six trusted guards around the grounds. The security system operated independently from Voss Tower. No company executive knew they were there.
Audrey stood in the entrance hall, looking up at a portrait of Sebastian Voss.
“He looks like you,” she said.
“No. I look like him.”
“Is there a difference?”
“There was to him.”
Nathaniel walked past her.
He gave Audrey the room that had once belonged to his mother. She protested until dizziness forced her to grip the bedpost.
“You are injured,” he said.
“I am functional.”
“You were shot at six hours ago.”
“So were you.”
“The bullets missed me.”
“They missed me too.”
“One hit the wall three inches from your head.”
Audrey crossed her arms. “Are you always this unbearable when frightened?”
Nathaniel went still.
“I am not frightened.”
“You carried me down four flights of stairs because you refused to trust the elevator.”
“It was a tactical decision.”
“You threatened the driver because he stopped at a red light.”
“He stopped too long.”
Audrey almost smiled.
Nathaniel noticed.
The expression disappeared quickly, but it altered the room.
For two years, every boundary between them had been clearly marked. Employer and employee. Power and restraint. Questions neither asked. Feelings neither acknowledged.
Now they were hiding together in a house filled with ghosts.
The boundaries had begun to vanish.
Audrey sat on the edge of the bed.
“There is something else in the records,” she said.
Nathaniel remained near the doorway. “What?”
“I didn’t put it in the letter.”
“Why?”
“Because I wasn’t certain.”
“Tell me.”
She looked down at her hands.
“My father may have survived the warehouse fire.”
Nathaniel’s expression changed.
“What makes you believe that?”
“The official report says his body was identified through dental records, but the identification was submitted by a private physician connected to Richard.”
“That proves corruption, not survival.”
“I found financial transfers made after the fire. Small amounts sent every month to a rehabilitation facility in Vermont. The recipient was listed only by a patient number.”
“For how long?”
“Fourteen years.”
Nathaniel stepped farther into the room.
“Why would Richard keep him alive?”
“Information. Insurance. Punishment. I don’t know.”
“And the payments stopped?”
“Six years ago, when the facility closed.”
“Where did the patients go?”
“Records were sealed after a lawsuit.”
Nathaniel took out his phone.
Audrey stood. “You cannot send company investigators.”
“I’m not.”
“Anyone connected to Voss Holdings could alert Richard.”
“I know.”
Nathaniel called Elena Marquez, a retired federal investigator who owed Sebastian Voss a debt she had never explained.
She answered on the fourth ring.
“I wondered how long it would take you,” she said.
Nathaniel looked at Audrey. “You knew something was wrong?”
“I knew Richard Hail was too comfortable.”
“I need sealed patient records from a Vermont rehabilitation center called North Pines. Closed six years ago.”
“That is not a small request.”
“Neither is what I will give you in return.”
“What is that?”
“Everything on Richard.”
Silence followed.
Elena’s voice changed. “Your father would have preferred you never discovered this.”
“My father is dead because he discovered it.”
“I will call you.”
She ended the conversation.
Audrey stared at him. “Who was that?”
“Someone Richard could not buy.”
“Do such people exist?”
“Fewer than I once believed.”
That evening, Marcus arrived with news.
Richard had assumed temporary control of several Voss divisions by presenting the board with evidence that Nathaniel was medically and emotionally unfit to lead.
“He is claiming Audrey manipulated you,” Marcus said.
Nathaniel poured whiskey but did not drink it.
“What evidence?”
“Emails taken from her private account. Messages to a Bellano attorney. Searches related to your family.”
Audrey’s face tightened.
“The emails are real,” she said.
Nathaniel looked at her.
“Before I knew the truth, I contacted Samuel Bellano’s legal team,” she admitted. “I believed they might have information about my father.”
“Did you give them anything?”
“No company documents. Only questions.”
Marcus placed a tablet on the table.
“Richard released selected messages to the board. Enough to make it appear she was passing information.”
Nathaniel read the screen.
The messages had been edited carefully. Context removed. Dates rearranged.
Richard had turned Audrey’s investigation into evidence of espionage.
“The board voted to suspend your authority until an emergency hearing tomorrow,” Marcus said.
Nathaniel gave a quiet laugh.
Audrey watched him. “Why are you smiling?”
“Because Richard thinks the company is my only source of power.”
“Isn’t it?”
“No.”
The Voss name had existed before Voss Holdings. So had the relationships, debts, and loyalties beneath it.
Nathaniel had spent eleven years moving the empire toward legitimacy, but he had never dismantled its older foundation.
He opened a locked cabinet in his father’s library and removed a black notebook.
Audrey recognized it immediately.
“What is that?”
“The names of everyone who owed my father a favor.”
“Are they still useful?”
Nathaniel turned several pages.
“Some favors collect interest.”
He made three calls.
The first went to a union leader at the Port of New York.
The second went to a state senator whose first campaign Sebastian had quietly financed.
The third went to Samuel Bellano.
Audrey stared at him. “You are calling the man Richard accused me of helping?”
“Richard expects Bellano to use the chaos against me.”
“Won’t he?”
“Yes.”
“That does not sound helpful.”
Nathaniel placed the phone on speaker.
Samuel answered with a warm, amused voice.
“Nathaniel. I hear your kingdom has developed a crack.”
“I hear you have been speaking with my secretary.”
Audrey’s face went pale.
Samuel laughed. “Not recently.”
“What did she ask you?”
“Whether Sebastian ordered the Whitmore warehouse fire.”
“And what did you tell her?”
“That Sebastian was many things, but careless was not one of them. Burning an accountant before locating his evidence would have been careless.”
“Do you know who ordered it?”
“I have suspicions.”
“Say the name.”
“Richard Hail.”
Audrey closed her eyes.
Nathaniel continued. “Will you testify to that?”
“Why would I?”
“Because Richard framed your brother for the Sullivan murders in 2012.”
Silence.
Marcus looked sharply at Nathaniel.
Samuel’s amusement vanished. “That is a serious accusation.”
“I have shipping records connecting the weapons to a Mercer subsidiary controlled by Richard.”
Another silence.
“What do you want?” Samuel asked.
“Your testimony. Copies of anything you have on Richard. In return, I give you the evidence clearing your brother’s name.”
“You expect trust?”
“No. I expect mutual interest.”
Samuel exhaled slowly. “Send a meeting location.”
When the call ended, Audrey looked at Nathaniel.
“How long have you had evidence about Samuel’s brother?”
“Twenty minutes. Marcus found it in the Mercer records.”
Marcus nodded.
Audrey shook her head. “You sounded as if you had known for years.”
Nathaniel closed the black notebook. “Certainty is often less useful than presentation.”
Later that night, Audrey found him alone in the kitchen.
The estate was silent. Rain tapped against the dark windows.
Nathaniel stood at the counter with his sleeves rolled up, preparing coffee.
“I didn’t know billionaires could use coffee machines,” Audrey said.
“They require less negotiation than board members.”
She sat across from him.
He placed a cup before her.
“You remembered how I take it.”
“I remember everything relevant to my schedule.”
“I am not part of your schedule.”
“No.”
The answer came too quickly.
Audrey wrapped both hands around the cup.
“Why did you believe me?”
Nathaniel looked at her.
“The letter. The records. Why didn’t you assume I created all of it to manipulate you?”
“I considered it.”
“That is reassuring.”
“But you told me not to sign when you could barely remain conscious.”
“Perhaps I am dedicated to elaborate deception.”
“Perhaps.”
Their eyes held.
Nathaniel’s voice softened.
“You also had two years to destroy me.”
Audrey stopped breathing for a moment.
“You knew?”
“I knew you had access to information that could damage the company. You never used it.”
“I was waiting for proof.”
“You had enough to embarrass me, weaken negotiations, expose private accounts. Instead, you corrected errors before they became public.”
She looked down.
“You protected me before you forgave me,” Nathaniel said. “That is why I believed you.”
Audrey’s eyes glistened.
“I haven’t forgiven you.”
“I know.”
“I don’t blame you for my father. But forgiveness is more complicated than blame.”
“I know that too.”
She stood to leave.
Nathaniel caught her wrist gently.
Audrey looked down at his hand, then up at him.
He released her immediately.
“I’m sorry,” he said.
“For what?”
“For every time you were afraid in my building and I mistook it for exhaustion.”
Something broke behind her expression.
“You were not supposed to be kind,” she whispered.
Nathaniel’s voice became almost inaudible.
“Neither were you.”
For one suspended moment, neither moved.
Then Marcus entered the kitchen.
“Elena found the patient records.”
Audrey turned sharply.
Marcus held out a folder.
“Patient 417 was transferred from North Pines six years ago. He is alive.”
Audrey pressed one hand against the counter.
“Where?”
“A long-term care facility outside Albany.”
Her knees weakened.
Nathaniel caught her before she fell.
Audrey gripped the front of his shirt, tears filling her eyes.
“My father is alive.”
Nathaniel held her upright.
“Yes.”
May you like
For the first time since he had found her on the marble floor, Audrey allowed herself to cry.
And for the first time in Nathaniel’s adult life, he held someone without knowing whether he was protecting her or asking her to save him.
