Chapter 8 - THE WRONG VILLAIN
Vale lifted both hands.
“If you’re about to accuse me of kidnapping Charles because of initials on an eighteen-year-old photocopy, call the police first. I’d like witnesses.”
Elena watched his right thumb rub the pale band where a ring had recently sat.
“You took it off.”
“What?”
“Your signet ring.”
Vale glanced at his hand.
“I take jewelry off when I work.”
“At two in the morning too?”
Caroline stepped closer to Elena.
Vittorio did not move.
Vale’s mouth tightened.
“This is grief looking for a face.”
Elena folded Margot’s letter.
“Then you won’t mind if we verify everything.”
“Verify whatever you like.”
He reached for the bank-room door.
Matteo blocked it.
Vale looked at Vittorio.
“Move your employee.”
“He doesn’t work for you.”
The bank manager had gone silent near the wall.
Elena opened the next file.
Vendor schedules.
Foundation reimbursements.
Marketing retainers.
One name repeated every few months under slightly different descriptions.
Northbridge Advisory.
Caroline pointed.
“That vendor came through my foundation.”
Audrey shook her head.
“No. Mine too.”
Elena took out her phone and logged into archived payment reports before anyone could stop her.
Northbridge had received $11.8 million over six years.
The approving business unit on the largest transfers:
Brand Strategy.
Victoria.
Caroline swore under her breath.
Vale’s eyes flicked toward the door again.
Elena called Victoria.
No answer.
Again.
Nothing.
“Where is she?” Audrey asked.
Elena called mansion security.
The guard answered on the fourth ring.
“Ms. Whitmore?”
“Find Victoria.”
A pause.
“She left.”
“When?”
“Twenty minutes ago.”
“With who?”
“She drove herself.”
Elena ended the call.
Vittorio was already moving.
“Get her location.”
Dominic looked up from his laptop.
“Her phone is offline.”
Vale exhaled through his nose.
“There is your answer.”
Elena turned.
“You seem relieved.”
“I’m pointing out the obvious.”
“The obvious is usually where someone wants you looking.”
They found Victoria forty minutes later in a parking garage beneath a hotel on Lexington.
She sat in her car with both hands locked around the steering wheel.
Elena yanked open the passenger door.
Victoria flinched so hard her shoulder hit the window.
“Why are you here?”
“Northbridge Advisory.”
Victoria’s face collapsed.
Not confusion.
Recognition.
Elena got in and shut the door.
“Talk.”
Victoria stared straight ahead.
“He said it was temporary.”
“Who?”
No answer.
Elena reached over and turned off the engine.
The garage went quiet around them.
“Who?”
Victoria’s fingers began shaking.
“Dad.”
Elena almost laughed.
“Try again.”
“He told me to approve the invoices.”
“Why?”
“He said they were legal expenses being routed through marketing because the board couldn’t see them yet.”
“Eleven million dollars?”
“I didn’t see the total.”
“You approved them.”
“I approved batches.”
Elena leaned closer.
“Why were you in my office?”
Victoria closed her eyes.
“The call said Dad found something in your desk that Vale had been asking about.”
“What?”
“A blue file.”
“And you believed him?”
Victoria’s eyes opened.
“No.”
Elena stopped.
“Then why go?”
“Because Vale had already called me.”
A car passed two rows away.
Headlights swept across Victoria’s face.
“He said if Dad defaulted, our trusts were gone. He said Dad had pledged them years ago, and if I told anyone before the refinancing closed, the lenders would seize everything.”
Elena’s throat tightened.
“What did Vale ask you to do?”
“Nothing at first.”
“At first?”
Victoria looked at her.
“Then he asked which files you kept off-network.”
Elena went still.
“You told him?”
Victoria shook her head fast.
“No. I swear.”
“Did he have the ring on?”
Victoria blinked.
“What ring?”
“Silver signet. Crossed lines. Crown.”
Her sister’s face changed.
“Yes.”
“When?”
“The night I went to your office.”
Elena’s pulse kicked.
“He was there?”
Victoria whispered, “Outside the camera.”
Elena opened her door.
Her phone rang before her foot hit the concrete.
Caroline.
Elena answered.
“Where are you?”
Caroline’s voice came fast.
“I found who controls Meridian Family Office.”
Elena stopped walking.
“Who?”
Keys clicked on the other end.
Then silence.
“Caroline?”
A breath.
“Oh my God.”
The line went dead.
Elena called back.
No answer.
She called again while running toward the elevator.
Nothing.
By the time she reached the mansion, Caroline’s laptop was open on the library desk.
Her chair lay on its side.
A coffee cup had shattered near the fireplace.
Caroline was gone.
Elena touched the trackpad.
One corporate-control search remained on the screen.
MERIDIAN FAMILY OFFICE — CONTROLLING PERSON.
May you like
The result displayed a single name.
ADRIAN VALE.
