Chapter 8 - THE MAN I TRUSTED
“Step away from the children,” Marcus said.
His voice sounded almost apologetic.
I moved in front of Liam.
Emma pulled Lucas behind her.
My father stared at Marcus in disbelief.
“You worked for me for eighteen years.”
“Twenty.”
Marcus held no weapon in his hand.
He didn’t need one.
He had controlled the house’s security systems since we arrived.
“You’re helping Daniel?” I asked.
“I helped whoever paid.”
That answer somehow made it worse.
“No loyalty?”
Marcus smiled faintly.
“Men like you talk about loyalty because you’re rich enough to buy the illusion of it.”
“What do you want?”
“The box.”
“You already took it.”
“No.”
He looked toward Liam.
“I searched their room. It wasn’t there.”
Emma turned toward the twins.
“Lucas?”
Lucas gripped the back of her sweater.
“I moved it.”
Marcus’s expression changed.
I nearly laughed.
A four-year-old had outsmarted him.
“Where is it?” Marcus asked.
Lucas shook his head.
“You’re not Mommy.”
Marcus stepped forward.
I moved with him.
“Don’t.”
He stared at me.
“Jason, I don’t want anyone hurt.”
“Then unlock the door and leave.”
“You know I can’t.”
My father quietly moved toward the desk.
Marcus noticed.
“Thomas.”
My father stopped.
“I’m seventy-one. What exactly do you think I’m going to do?”
“Something arrogant.”
“That does narrow it down.”
Despite the danger, Emma almost smiled.
Then the lights went out.
Complete darkness.
Lucas screamed.
I moved toward the sound.
A body struck mine.
Someone cursed.
Glass shattered.
Then emergency lights flickered on.
My father stood beside the desk holding the old manual security switch.
Marcus had fallen against a chair.
I grabbed him before he could recover.
We crashed to the floor.
At thirty-eight, I spent more time in boardrooms than gyms, but rage gave me strength I didn’t know I had.
Marcus swung.
I blocked him.
He drove a shoulder into me.
Then Emma shouted.
“Jason!”
Marcus broke free and ran toward the side door.
He didn’t know my father had locked it manually.
He hit the handle.
Nothing.
My father looked almost pleased.
“Old systems occasionally have advantages.”
Marcus turned.
That gave me enough time.
I tackled him again.
Seconds later, two county deputies entered through the library’s exterior doors.
Claire had triggered a silent emergency call from upstairs before Marcus disabled the network.
They restrained him.
I sat on the floor trying to breathe.
Liam ran toward me.
“Daddy!”
He wrapped both arms around my neck.
It was the first time he had called me that without someone prompting him.
Everything else disappeared.
“I’m okay.”
Lucas joined him.
Then Emma.
For several seconds, all four of us remained on the floor.
My father stood several feet away.
Alone.
I saw something in his face I had never seen before.
Regret.
Real regret.
Marcus began talking within hours.
Daniel had paid him for information for nearly three years.
Passwords.
Travel schedules.
Security gaps.
Copies of executive correspondence.
Marcus admitted Daniel ordered him to monitor Emma after she began reviewing the Crescent accounts.
“Did Daniel order the attack?” I asked.
The detective across from me nodded.
“Marcus says Cross told him to recover the evidence at any cost. Marcus claims he never expected Cross to personally confront Ms. Reed.”
“Where is Daniel now?”
“We don’t know.”
But I did know what Daniel wanted.
The ledger.
Lucas finally revealed where he had put the box.
Inside an old toy chest in my childhood bedroom.
Emma opened it.
Beneath crayons and two toy cars sat a wooden puzzle box.
Inside was a folded sheet of paper.
Passwords.
Account aliases.
A handwritten key connecting every shell corporation.
Claire photographed everything.
Federal agents received copies within minutes.
Daniel’s four-hundred-million-dollar network became visible.
So did the destination of the money.
One hundred eighteen million remained inside an investment fund controlled directly by Daniel Cross.
The rest had moved through political consulting groups, real-estate partnerships, and offshore accounts.
But one final transaction made no sense.
Twenty million dollars transferred two days earlier to a private aviation company.
Claire looked at me.
“He’s preparing to leave.”
“Where?”
Thomas studied the company name.
“Not leave.”
“What?”
He pointed at the screen.
“I know that company. They operate from Teterboro.”
Less than forty minutes away.
Federal agents moved immediately.
Then my phone rang.
Unknown number.
Daniel.
“Jason.”
“You’re running out of places to go.”
He laughed softly.
“You still think this is about escape.”
“What do you want?”
“You destroyed my life.”
“You stole four hundred million dollars.”
“I built your company.”
“No. You worked for it.”
“That’s the difference between men like us. You inherited a name. I inherited nothing.”
“You were paid millions.”
“And still had to stand behind you in every photograph.”
There it was.
Not money.
Not really.
Resentment.
“I know you have the passwords,” he said.
“So?”
“I also know your father is with you.”
I looked across the room.
Thomas watched me.
“What about him?”
“Ask Thomas what happened to my father.”
My father’s face changed before I asked.
Daniel laughed again.
“He never told you?”
“Dad?”
Thomas looked suddenly exhausted.
“Daniel’s father was my business partner.”
“Was?”
“He discovered I was planning to remove him from the original firm.”
Daniel’s voice came through the phone.
“Tell him the rest.”
Thomas closed his eyes.
“There was an investigation.”
“For?”
“Fraud.”
“Did he do it?”
Thomas didn’t answer.
That was the answer.
“You framed him.”
“I moved evidence.”
Emma covered her mouth.
Daniel’s father had gone to prison.
He died there.
My father had created the enemy now tearing apart our family.
Daniel spoke one final time.
“Bring me the ledger at Teterboro by midnight, Jason.”
“No.”
“Then every file proving what your father did goes public.”
I looked at Thomas.
For the first time in my life, he did not ask me to protect the family name.
“Let it,” he said.
Daniel went silent.
Thomas stepped closer to the phone.
“You hear me, Daniel? Release everything.”
His voice broke slightly.
“I should have admitted what I did fifteen years ago.”
Daniel disconnected.
My father looked at me.
“I created this.”
“No,” Emma said quietly. “You created the wound. Daniel chose what he became because of it.”
Twenty minutes later, federal agents called.
Daniel’s aircraft had been stopped before takeoff.
He had been arrested carrying three passports, nine million dollars in negotiable assets, and a hard drive containing enough evidence to indict himself.
For the first time in days, I allowed myself to believe it was over.
Then Claire’s phone rang.
She listened.
Her expression became serious.
“The board moved the vote to eight tomorrow morning.”
“Vote for what?”
She looked at me.
“Your permanent removal as CEO.”
Daniel had fallen.
But Miller Meridian was still about to take everything I had built.
May you like
The old Jason would have fought until there was nothing left.
For the first time in my life, I wasn’t sure I wanted to.
