Chapter 10 - THE WOMAN WHO SIGNED THE PAYMENT
Margaret denied ordering Emily’s death.
She admitted approving the payment.
“I thought it was maintenance.”
Ryan laughed.
“Through an offshore security company?”
Margaret looked away.
“I didn’t ask questions.”
“That’s your defense?”
“No.”
Her voice broke.
“It’s my shame.”
Maya pushed harder.
Who requested the payment?
Margaret answered—
“Natalie.”
Ryan stood.
“You were taking financial instructions from her?”
“She told me Emily had discovered enough to expose the whole network.”
“So you paid her?”
“I paid her to recover documents.”
“You paid the woman who was targeting my wife.”
“I didn’t know she intended to hurt Emily.”
Ryan stared at his mother.
“You never knew because you never wanted to know.”
Margaret began crying.
Ryan left.
The midpoint of the investigation changed everything.
Natalie had not entered the Collins family after Emily died.
She had been embedded in its secrets years earlier.
She used Evan’s debt.
Margaret’s fear.
Daniel’s access.
Then she eliminated people when they stopped being useful.
But one question remained.
Why?
Money alone did not explain the obsession.
Marcus found the answer in Natalie’s childhood records.
Her real name was not Natalie Kerr.
She had been born Natalie Mercer.
Her father was Thomas Mercer.
A contractor who lost his company twenty-five years earlier when Collins Development acquired his land during foreclosure.
Thomas blamed Ryan’s father.
He later died by suicide.
Natalie was twelve.
Her mother spent years telling her the Collins family destroyed them.
Natalie grew up watching the family become wealthier.
She went to law school.
Specialized in corporate structures.
Then quietly entered the financial ecosystem around Collins Development.
Ryan stared at the records.
“She built her whole life around revenge.”
Maya shook her head.
“Revenge might have opened the door.”
“What kept her inside?”
“Power.”
Natalie learned the Collins family had weaknesses.
Evan.
Margaret.
Hidden accounts.
She stopped trying to destroy them.
She decided to own them.
Daniel became her husband because he gave her access to forensic accounting systems.
Emily discovered too much.
Ryan became the final prize.
Marriage to Ryan placed Natalie inside the company she once hated.
And Ava?
Ava was Emily’s daughter.
The surviving heir.
Then Maya received a call.
Natalie had used a stolen credit card.
At a private marina.
Marcus checked the location.
A yacht registered to a shell company was scheduled to depart the following night.
Destination Mexico.
Ryan looked at Maya.
“She’s running.”
Maya shook her head.
“Not yet.”
“Why?”
“She just called 911.”
Ryan froze.
May you like
“From where?”
“Your house.”
