Chapter 7 - MY FATHER’S LAST WARNINGI remembered Victor Soren eventually.
The sophistication was chilling.
Not enough to survive a full forensic investigation.
But enough to survive casual scrutiny.
Enough to make a procurement officer think a request had already been cleared.
Enough to delay questions.
Enough to place doubt around my name if the operation ever collapsed.
Thomas insisted he had no idea.
Investigators were unconvinced.
So was I.
But something bothered me.
If Thomas wanted to frame me, why keep a notebook containing references that could connect him to the fabrication?
Why keep Daniel’s laptop?
Why warn Daniel away from Victor Soren?
And why attempt to flee only after receiving the Christmas call?
Fear did not prove innocence.
But the pattern did not fit the villain investigators expected.
I told Agent Briggs exactly that.
She studied me.
“You’re defending him.”
“No.”
“It sounds like it.”
“I’m identifying inconsistency.”
“He used your name.”
“Someone used my name.”
“You think it wasn’t him?”
“I think Thomas is vain, resentful, financially reckless, and capable of lying when cornered.”
Briggs raised an eyebrow.
“But?”
“But he has never been technically sophisticated enough to build this.”
“That doesn’t mean he acted alone.”
“I agree.”
“So what are you suggesting?”
“Find Victor Soren.”
She closed the file.
“We’re trying.”
Thomas’s attorney eventually arranged a controlled meeting.
Thomas wanted to speak with me in person.
I agreed only with counsel present.
We met in a sterile conference room.
Thomas looked terrible.
Unshaven.
Exhausted.
His expensive suit hung loosely from his shoulders.
For the first time since our divorce, I did not see the man who had spent years competing with me.
I saw someone drowning.
He looked at me.
“They used me.”
I said nothing.
“I thought I was helping Calder win contracts.”
“By using my name?”
His face twisted.
“I never authorized that.”
“But you knew they referenced me.”
“Yes.”
My anger sharpened.
“How much?”
“They said having a connection to you made clients comfortable.”
“And you allowed it.”
“Yes.”
“At any point did you think about asking me?”
“You would have said no.”
“That should have told you something.”
He looked away.
“I wanted to prove I could do it without you.”
I almost laughed at the absurdity.
“You wanted independence by exploiting my reputation?”
“I know how it sounds.”
“It sounds exactly like what happened.”
He flinched.
Good.
Some truths should hurt.
“Who is Victor Soren?” I asked.
Thomas glanced at his attorney.
The attorney nodded.
“A facilitator.”
“For what?”
“International partnerships.”
“That means nothing.”
Thomas swallowed.
“He connected Calder executives with foreign buyers.”
“Legal buyers?”
“Some.”
“And others?”
“I didn’t know.”
“Did you suspect?”
He hesitated.
“Yes.”
There was the crime beneath the crime.
Not necessarily treason.
Not necessarily espionage.
Cowardice.
The deliberate decision not to know.
“Why did you try to leave?”
His eyes filled.
“Because Victor called me.”
“When?”
“Christmas Eve.”
“What did he say?”
Thomas rubbed his forehead.
“He said the investigation was accelerating. He told me if I stayed, Calder would sacrifice me.”
“And if you left?”
“He promised protection.”
“Where?”
“Singapore.”
“Was Rebecca’s account connected to him?”
“Yes.”
I closed my eyes.
“Thomas.”
“I thought it was legitimate compensation.”
“No, you hoped it was.”
He looked at me.
“You always knew how to say the sentence I didn’t want to hear.”
“That’s because you spent our marriage avoiding it.”
Silence filled the room.
Then Thomas whispered:
“He told me they were going to blame you.”
My gaze locked on his.
“What?”
“Victor.”
“When?”
“Months ago.”
“And you didn’t tell me?”
“He said it was contingency language. I didn’t understand.”
“You understood enough to remember it.”
Thomas’s eyes dropped.
“He said if regulators challenged the approvals, there was documentation showing they came through your office.”
My entire body went still.
“You knew.”
“I didn’t know it was fabricated.”
“But you knew my name was being used.”
“Yes.”
“And you said nothing.”
“Yes.”
Twenty-six years of marriage.
Two children.
Thousands of shared mornings.
And when Thomas learned someone might be constructing a trail toward me, he stayed silent because speaking would threaten his income.
There are betrayals louder than adultery.
That was one.
I stood.
His attorney looked alarmed.
“Colonel—”
“I’m done.”
Thomas stood too.
“Laura, please.”
I turned.
He was crying.
I had seen Thomas cry only three times.
At Daniel’s birth.
At his father’s funeral.
And the night I told him I wanted a divorce.
“I was angry at you,” he said. “For years. I wanted you knocked down a level.”
I stared at him.
“But I never wanted this.”
Something inside me hardened.
“Thomas, there is a difference between wanting someone destroyed and standing quietly while someone lights the match.”
His face collapsed.
I walked out.
That night, Emily called.
“Dad told me what happened.”
“How much?”
“Everything.”
“I doubt that.”
“He said he knew your name was being used.”
“Yes.”
Emily was quiet.
Then:
“I feel sick.”
“You’re allowed.”
“I spent Christmas protecting Rebecca’s feelings from you.”
“That has nothing to do with this.”
“It does to me.”
I sat on my couch.
“Emily, I’m not going to let one bad choice define our relationship.”
“What if I deserve it?”
“You don’t.”
“I excluded you from your own family.”
“That hurt.”
She started crying.
“But hurt can be repaired.”
“How?”
“By doing better next time.”
She sniffed.
“You make it sound easy.”
“It isn’t.”
“Then why say it like that?”
“Because hard things still start with simple decisions.”
Three weeks later, Victor Soren was located.
Not in Singapore.
Not in Europe.
In Virginia.
And when investigators searched the apartment he had rented under another name, they found encrypted drives, false documents, cash, and a photograph.
The photograph had been taken eight years earlier.
It showed a military retirement ceremony.
My father stood near the center.
Thomas was beside him.
And in the background, barely visible among several civilian guests, stood Victor Soren.
That was when the investigation changed completely.
Because Victor had known my family long before Calder hired Thomas.
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Which meant Thomas may not have been selected because of what he could sell.
He may have been selected because of me.
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