Chapter 6 - The Truth Behind the Red Folder
Police remained out of sight.
Reyes had men positioned around the property.
Gerald knew it.
He entered anyway.
Nathan met him in the formal sitting room.
Elena stayed upstairs with the twins and Lucia.
Gerald placed the red folder on the table.
Nathan did not touch it.
“Talk.”
Gerald looked older than he had a week earlier.
“I stole money.”
“I know.”
“I manipulated vendor accounts.”
“I know.”
“I drafted trust structures designed to benefit companies I controlled.”
“I know.”
Gerald looked toward the folder.
“Then you know almost everything.”
“Almost?”
Gerald sat.
“I did not hurt Caroline.”
Nathan’s face hardened.
“I didn’t accuse you.”
“You were going to.”
“No.”
Gerald seemed surprised.
Nathan leaned forward.
“My wife died from an aneurysm confirmed by three physicians and an autopsy. I’m angry, not stupid.”
Gerald’s shoulders lowered slightly.
“But you had her medical records.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Gerald looked ashamed for the first time.
“To assess risk.”
“What risk?”
“You.”
Nathan stared.
“If you died before the boys became adults, the trust controlled assets worth hundreds of millions. I wanted to know whether that possibility was likely.”
“You were calculating when I might die.”
“Yes.”
The answer was horrifying precisely because Gerald delivered it like a financial fact.
“And Caroline?”
“She began investigating.”
“So you obtained her medical information too.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“I wanted to know whether stress or illness might affect her ability to challenge the documents.”
Nathan stood.
“You’re disgusting.”
“Yes.”
Again, no defense.
Nathan almost preferred denial.
“Why come back?”
Gerald pointed toward the red folder.
“Because there’s something you don’t know about Elena.”
Nathan froze.
“What?”
Gerald smiled faintly.
“There. That reaction.”
“Choose your next words carefully.”
“She’s not who you think she is.”
Nathan said nothing.
Gerald opened the folder.
Inside were background reports.
Photographs.
Employment records.
Elena Morales.
Nathan’s eyes narrowed.
“Why did you investigate her?”
“Because Caroline knew her family.”
Nathan stopped.
“What?”
“Not Elena directly. Her mother.”
Nathan stared.
“Explain.”
“Caroline volunteered at St. Agnes Family Center before you met.”
Nathan remembered.
Vaguely.
Caroline had spent years helping at community programs.
“She knew Rosa Morales.”
Elena’s mother.
Nathan had seen the name on Elena’s employment records.
Gerald continued.
“Rosa died eight years ago.”
“I know.”
“Caroline helped her family during Rosa’s illness.”
Nathan felt something shift.
“How does Elena fit?”
“She applied here using a staffing agency after Caroline died.”
“Yes.”
“I recognized the surname.”
“So?”
“So I thought she had come deliberately.”
Nathan’s jaw tightened.
“Did she?”
“I don’t know.”
“Then stop implying you do.”
Gerald slid a photograph across the table.
Caroline stood beside a woman Nathan assumed was Rosa.
A teenage girl stood nearby.
Elena.
Seventeen or eighteen.
Nathan stared.
Elena had seen Caroline before.
She had never told him.
Gerald said, “Ask her.”
Nathan stood.
“You used this to threaten her?”
“I told her I knew.”
“And?”
“She begged me not to tell you.”
Nathan’s chest tightened.
“Why?”
Gerald shrugged.
“That’s what you should ask.”
Reyes entered.
“That’s enough.”
Gerald looked toward him.
“You’re arresting me?”
“Police are.”
“For fraud?”
“And attempted extortion, document forgery, unlawful access to medical records, and several things attorneys will enjoy arguing about.”
Gerald stood.
Nathan looked at him.
“Why photograph my sons?”
“Insurance.”
Nathan’s fists tightened.
Gerald raised his hands.
“I never intended to touch them.”
“You terrified their father.”
“That was the point.”
Nathan stepped closer.
Gerald looked at him calmly.
“You spent years thinking your money made you untouchable.”
Nathan’s voice became quiet.
“No. I spent years thinking money made me useful.”
Gerald frowned.
Nathan continued.
“It made me absent.”
For once Gerald had nothing to say.
Police escorted him away.
The red folder remained.
Nathan carried it upstairs.
Elena was sitting with the twins on the floor.
Noah held a toy train.
Ethan was drawing.
When Elena saw the photograph in Nathan’s hand, her face went white.
“Can we talk?”
She looked at Lucia.
Lucia nodded.
They went into the hall.
Nathan showed her the photograph.
“You knew Caroline.”
Elena closed her eyes.
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I didn’t know her well.”
“But you recognized her when you came here.”
“Yes.”
“Why hide it?”
“Because I needed the job.”
Nathan frowned.
“That doesn’t explain anything.”
Elena took a breath.
“My mother cleaned offices at night. Caroline met her through St. Agnes. When my mother got sick, Caroline helped us.”
“How?”
“She drove her to appointments. She helped me fill out college forms. She brought groceries once.”
Nathan stared.
“That sounds like Caroline.”
Elena smiled sadly.
“Yes.”
“Did you apply here because of her?”
“No.”
Nathan studied her.
“I swear.”
“Then what happened?”
“The agency sent me.”
“And when you realized whose home it was?”
“I almost left.”
“Why didn’t you?”
Her eyes moved toward the playroom.
“The boys.”
Nathan understood.
“You saw them.”
“They were three.”
Elena’s voice softened.
“Ethan was sitting under the dining table.”
Nathan frowned.
“Why?”
“He was hiding from a thunderstorm.”
Nathan remembered the thunder song.
“Noah was upstairs crying because someone had packed away Caroline’s blankets.”
Nathan looked down.
“I told the staff to pack her things.”
“I know.”
“You stayed because of them.”
“At first.”
Nathan looked at her.
“And later?”
Elena met his eyes.
“Because they needed someone.”
The words were simple.
No accusation.
That made them worse.
Nathan leaned against the wall.
“Why did Gerald use this against you?”
“He said if you learned I had known Caroline, you would think I had manipulated my way into the house.”
“Did you believe that?”
“I didn’t know you.”
Nathan almost laughed.
“You worked for me.”
“That isn’t the same thing.”
Again.
True.
“Why were you afraid of losing the job?”
Elena’s eyes filled.
“Because Gerald told me I would never see the boys again.”
Nathan’s chest tightened.
“He said he would make sure no Whitmore reference ever followed me. That I had crossed boundaries. That you would agree.”
“I wouldn’t.”
“I know that now.”
The sentence hurt.
Now.
Not then.
Nathan looked through the playroom doorway.
The boys were arguing about whether a blue train could fly.
He turned back.
“Your medical bill.”
Elena sighed.
“I had pneumonia last year. No insurance for part of the year after the agency transition.”
Nathan’s brow furrowed.
“You didn’t have insurance?”
“Gerald changed my classification.”
Nathan closed his eyes.
Of course.
“I’m fixing everything.”
Elena shook her head.
“You can’t fix everything.”
“I can try.”
“That’s not what your boys need.”
Nathan looked at her.
“What do they need?”
“You.”
The answer came immediately.
“They need you to eat breakfast when you say you will. They need you to know which stuffed animal goes in which bed. They need you to hear the same story ten times without checking your phone.”
Nathan swallowed.
“They need to know they’re more important than your schedule.”
He nodded.
“I’m learning.”
“I know.”
That surprised him.
“How?”
Elena smiled.
“You came to my aunt’s house carrying casserole.”
Nathan laughed.
“That was humiliating.”
“It was very dry.”
He laughed harder.
Elena did too.
For a moment, the house felt warm.
Then Ethan called from the playroom.
“Elena!”
They turned.
Ethan stood in the doorway holding Caroline’s flash drive.
“There’s another video.”
Nathan froze.
“What?”
“It opened on the TV.”
Nathan and Elena rushed inside.
On the screen was Caroline.
Alive.
Smiling.
She looked directly into the camera.
“If Nathan is watching this with Elena Morales, then something extraordinary must have happened.”
Nathan stopped breathing.
Elena covered her mouth.
Caroline continued.
“And Elena, there’s something I never got the chance to tell you.”
May you like
The video paused.
The screen went black.
