Chapter 5 - Blood on the Marble Floor
Nathaniel reached his mother first.
Margaret was alive.
She had fallen beside the entry table, striking her forehead against the edge.
The blood looked worse than the injury.
Caroline called emergency services.
Rebecca knelt beside Margaret with a towel.
Samuel searched the hall.
Andrew was gone.
So was the flash drive.
Nathaniel checked the security system.
The outage had disabled cameras for exactly ninety seconds.
Not a neighborhood power failure.
A deliberate cut.
Someone knew the house.
The ambulance arrived.
Margaret was taken to the hospital with Caroline.
Nathaniel stayed behind.
Rebecca refused to leave him.
Samuel sat in the library while Nathaniel examined the security logs.
“You trust him?” Rebecca whispered.
“No.”
Samuel heard her.
“You shouldn’t.”
Nathaniel looked at him.
“At least you’re honest about something.”
Samuel nodded.
“I spent twenty years regretting what I didn’t do.”
“What didn’t you do?”
“Protect Thomas.”
Rebecca looked up.
Samuel explained that after the bridge crash, he received a call from Thomas.
“He was injured. Terrified. He said someone had followed him from the warehouse.”
“Who?” Rebecca asked.
“He wouldn’t say.”
“Why?”
“He said the phones weren’t safe.”
Nathaniel leaned forward.
“What happened next?”
“We arranged to meet.”
“Did he come?”
“No.”
Samuel had searched hospitals.
Police stations.
Motels.
Nothing.
Three weeks later, an envelope arrived.
Inside was one sentence.
I HAVE TO DISAPPEAR OR REBECCA DIES NEXT.
Rebecca covered her mouth.
“My father knew they’d threaten me.”
Samuel nodded.
“You were sixteen.”
“What did you do?”
“I stayed away from you.”
Rebecca stared.
Samuel’s shame was obvious.
“He told me to.”
Rebecca stood and walked to the window.
Nathaniel wanted to follow but gave her space.
Samuel continued.
“Years later, Daniel discovered Charles was still paying someone connected to the original fraud.”
“Who?”
“That’s what the ledger could reveal.”
Nathaniel looked at the empty doorway.
“Andrew has it.”
“No. Andrew had a photocopy.”
Nathaniel frowned.
Samuel smiled faintly.
“The real ledger was hidden twenty years ago.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know.”
Rebecca turned.
“My father knew.”
Samuel nodded.
“Probably.”
Nathaniel’s phone rang.
Hospital.
Margaret was stable.
Caroline sounded shaken.
“Andrew called me.”
Nathaniel straightened.
“What did he say?”
“He told me not to look for him.”
“Where is he?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did he take the drive?”
“He said he didn’t.”
Nathaniel looked at Rebecca.
“Do you believe him?”
Caroline started crying.
“I don’t know what to believe anymore.”
Before ending the call, Caroline added one thing.
“Andrew said you should check Dad’s old office.”
Nathaniel drove to Carter Holdings headquarters before dawn.
Rebecca and Samuel came with him.
Charles Carter’s office had been preserved on the twenty-fourth floor.
Margaret had refused to let anyone renovate it.
The room smelled faintly of leather and dust.
Nathaniel switched on the desk lamp.
Everything looked unchanged.
Rebecca walked toward a framed photograph.
Charles with his children.
Nathaniel at twenty-five.
Caroline at twenty-eight.
Andrew barely eighteen.
Rebecca studied Andrew.
“He was close to your father.”
“Closer than I was.”
Nathaniel opened drawers.
Nothing.
Samuel examined the bookshelves.
Rebecca looked beneath the desk.
Then she noticed scratches near one leg.
“Nathaniel.”
He knelt.
A narrow brass plate had been screwed into the underside.
Nathaniel removed it.
Inside was a tiny compartment.
Empty.
Except for a key.
Stamped into the metal:
Samuel stared.
“A bank box.”
Nathaniel’s phone buzzed.
Unknown number.
A text.
IF YOU FOUND THE KEY, YOU’RE ALREADY TOO LATE.
Then another message arrived.
A photograph.
Rebecca gasped.
It showed Andrew tied to a chair.
Blood ran down his face.
Behind him, someone held up the missing flash drive.
The third message contained only an address.
An abandoned warehouse outside the city.
The same warehouse visible in the photograph from twenty years ago.
Nathaniel grabbed his coat.
Samuel blocked him.
“That’s exactly what they want.”
“My brother is there.”
“It could be a trap.”
“It is a trap.”
Rebecca stepped between them.
“And he’s still going.”
Nathaniel looked at her.
She picked up her coat.
“So am I.”
“No.”
“Nathaniel—”
“No.”
Rebecca’s expression hardened.
“My father disappeared because people kept deciding what I was allowed to know. Your family spent months deciding what table I was allowed to sit at. You don’t get to decide for me too.”
Nathaniel stared at her.
She was right.
He hated that she was right.
They went together.
Police were contacted but told to remain several minutes behind.
At the warehouse, the doors stood open.
Nathaniel entered first.
“Andrew!”
No response.
Rebecca followed.
Samuel stayed outside to guide police.
In the center of the warehouse stood a chair.
Empty.
Rope lay on the ground.
Blood stained the concrete.
Nathaniel examined it.
Fresh.
Then Rebecca pointed toward a wall.
Someone had painted an arrow.
It pointed to an old office.
Nathaniel opened the door.
A laptop sat on a desk.
The screen was already playing.
Charles Carter appeared.
Older.
Sick.
Looking directly into the camera.
Nathaniel stopped breathing.
His father spoke.
“If you’re watching this, Andrew failed to destroy the truth.”
Nathaniel moved closer.
Charles continued.
“I need you to understand that Thomas Miller did not steal from Hale Manufacturing.”
Rebecca began crying silently.
“He discovered what I did.”
Charles lowered his eyes.
“I moved money. Daniel found out. Thomas copied the proof.”
Nathaniel whispered, “Dad…”
Charles looked back into the camera.
“But I did not try to kill Thomas.”
The video flickered.
“I know who did.”
Rebecca gripped Nathaniel’s sleeve.
Charles leaned closer.
“It was someone Nathaniel trusts more than anyone.”
The screen went black.
A sound came from behind them.
A slow clap.
Nathaniel turned.
A figure stood in the doorway.
May you like
And Rebecca whispered the name before Nathaniel could.
“Andrew.”
