Chapter 13 - FORTY-SIX MILLION
The money had vanished over five years.
Shell vendors.
Fake equipment.
Consulting fees.
Ambrose companies.
Victoria companies.
And one account that made no sense.
D.C. Strategic Holdings.
Daniel went still when he saw it.
“What?”
He did not answer.
I knew.
“Daniel.”
“My brother owns that company.”
The room changed.
“You have a brother?”
“Yes.”
“Does he work with Ambrose?”
“I don’t know.”
Wrong answer.
Daniel’s younger brother, Nathan, had left the family business years earlier.
Or so Daniel claimed.
D.C. Strategic received six million dollars from Carter-Lane.
Daniel had never disclosed it.
I felt stupid.
Again.
“Did you buy our debt to cover your brother?”
“No.”
“Did you know?”
“No.”
“Can you prove that?”
He flinched.
Good.
He deserved to.
Daniel handed his phone to federal investigators.
Then his laptop.
Then access to his company records.
No argument.
That mattered.
Nathan disappeared.
That mattered more.
Federal agents found him in Detroit.
He tried to run.
They arrested him at a train station.
Nathan confessed quickly.
He had laundered money for Ambrose.
He claimed Daniel knew nothing.
Then he said Dad had contacted him before dying.
Dad wanted Nathan to secretly track Ambrose payments.
Nathan agreed.
Then Ambrose paid him more.
He switched sides.
Daniel listened without moving.
His brother looked at him through the interview-room glass.
“I needed money.”
Daniel said.
“You had money.”
“I wanted mine.”
That sentence landed hard.
Nathan had spent his life under Daniel’s shadow.
He wanted power.
Ambrose gave him a taste.
Then owned him.
Federal prosecutors recovered eleven million.
Thirty-five remained missing.
Nathan offered a location.
A private vault.
Inside were bearer bonds.
Cash.
Jewelry.
And a second flash drive.
The drive contained videos of politicians, executives, judges.
Ambrose had been collecting leverage for years.
One video showed Victoria.
Another showed my father.
Another showed Daniel.
I looked at him.
“What is that?”
He stared at the file name.
Then said.
“I have no idea.”
We opened it.
May you like
Daniel appeared on screen meeting Lawrence Ambrose six months before he picked me up in the storm.
