Chapter 13 - ELENA’S COUNTERMOVE
Nathan survived the shooting.
The bullet passed through his shoulder without striking a major artery.
At the hospital, he refused to speak for six hours.
Then an envelope arrived without a sender.
Inside was a photograph of Nathan’s twelve-year-old daughter leaving school.
Nathan immediately requested federal protection.
In exchange, he offered everything.
He had begun working with Edmund seven years earlier after discovering Vale International was financially stronger than Ashford Capital publicly admitted.
Edmund promised Nathan the chief executive position.
Nathan provided confidential budgets, project weaknesses, and family information.
At first, he told himself he was preparing for a legitimate merger.
Then he helped create delays.
Then false reports.
Then bribes.
By the time he understood the full plan, he had committed enough crimes to belong to Edmund permanently.
“Where is he?” Ortiz asked.
Nathan shook his head.
“He never stays where people expect.”
“What does he want now?”
“The ledger.”
“He knows federal agents have it.”
“He believes there is a second record.”
Elena remembered her mother’s words from the recording.
I placed the proof where you will never reach it.
The ledger beneath the chapel might not be the only evidence.
Nathan explained that Edmund believed Elena’s preferred share contained an encoded key to offshore accounts.
The original shareholder certificate included a serial number.
Combined with information hidden in the ledger, it could open accounts containing money stolen over decades.
Edmund did not merely fear prison.
He wanted the fortune.
“Does he know the serial number?” Adrian asked.
“No.”
“Victoria saw the deed.”
“She saw a copy.”
Elena had the original.
It remained inside the federal vault.
For the first time, she saw a way to force Edmund into the open.
She announced that she had decoded the account access.
The statement was false.
She claimed the stolen assets would be returned to victims within forty-eight hours.
If Edmund believed her, he would act before losing the money.
Adrian hated the plan.
“He already tried to kill Nathan from a rooftop.”
“He will continue whether we hide or not.”
“You are seven months pregnant.”
“And he has used that fact against me from the beginning.”
Elena placed her hand over the child moving beneath her dress.
“I will not pretend I am helpless simply because he wants me to feel helpless.”
They created a false transfer event at Marlowe Federal Bank.
The original bank building had belonged to Elena’s grandfather.
Its underground vault could be secured by federal agents.
Elena would appear to access the accounts.
Edmund’s network would learn the time through a controlled leak.
At noon the following day, Elena entered the bank with Adrian.
Reporters waited outside.
Inside the vault room, agents hid behind reinforced doors.
A replica certificate rested on the table.
Minutes passed.
No one came.
Then Adrian’s phone rang.
Rosa was calling from the estate.
Her voice was unsteady.
“Mr. Vale, there is a woman here.”
“What woman?”
“She says she is Elena’s aunt.”
Elena’s face changed.
She had no living aunt.
The caller took the phone.
“Hello, Elena.”
The voice was elderly.
Familiar in a way Elena could not immediately place.
“My name is Claire Dalton.”
Room 804.
The woman from the hotel records.
“You have been looking at photographs of me,” Claire continued.
“Who are you?”
“Your mother’s sister.”
Elena gripped the edge of the table.
“My mother had no sister.”
“That is what she needed everyone to believe.”
Claire claimed she had worked inside Edmund’s organization for thirty years.
The hotel room served as an archive.
The photographs were not collected for Edmund.
They were collected for Elena’s mother.
Claire had continued watching Elena after Eleanor died.
“Why did you never come to me?” Elena asked.
“Because Edmund believed I belonged to him.”
“Do you?”
“Not anymore.”
Claire had information about the offshore accounts.
But she would speak only at the estate.
Ortiz warned that it could be a trap.
Elena returned anyway.
Claire Dalton waited in the library.
She was seventy, with silver hair and the same green eyes Elena’s mother had possessed.
She carried a small wooden box.
Inside was a second ledger.
This one contained account passwords, witness statements, and copies of letters connecting Edmund to Judge Marlowe’s death.
“Your mother knew he would search the chapel,” Claire said.
“She left him evidence he could fear.”
“And you kept the evidence that could convict him?”
“Yes.”
“Why now?”
Claire looked toward Elena’s stomach.
“Because he has decided no one from our family can be allowed to inherit the truth.”
She handed Elena a letter.
It had been written by Edmund two days earlier.
Find Claire.
Find Elena.
End the Marlowe line before the child is born.
Adrian read it.
There was no more ambiguity.
Edmund was not only trying to steal a company.
He intended to erase the family that could expose him.
A sound came from the corridor.
Rosa screamed.
Adrian ran toward the door.
A security guard lay unconscious near the staircase.
The front entrance stood open.
May you like
Claire’s wooden box was gone.
And so was Elena.
