Chapter 6 - A Woman With Nothing Left to LoseVanessa Sinclair woke under police guard with a bullet wound through her shoulder and one question.
Daniel had never known.
His name was Jonathan.
Born seventeen months after Charles.
According to Charles, Jonathan had been everything their father hated.
Creative.
Impulsive.
Idealistic.
Where Charles studied finance, Jonathan played guitar in bars.
Where Charles obeyed their father, Jonathan challenged him.
Then Jonathan fell in love with a woman named Carol Holloway.
Their father considered her unsuitable.
A waitress.
No money.
No connections.
Jonathan refused to leave her.
So the Cross family left him.
“He was cut off?” Evelyn asked.
Charles nodded.
“My father removed Jonathan from the family trusts.”
Daniel looked disgusted.
“And you let him?”
“I was twenty-five.”
“You were always twenty-five when you needed an excuse?”
Charles ignored the insult.
“Jonathan disappeared. Years later, I learned Carol had given birth to a boy.”
“Grant.”
“Yes.”
Daniel paced the room.
“He knew?”
“Not initially.”
“When did he find out?”
“I’m guessing sometime before college.”
Daniel stopped.
“Before he met me.”
“Probably.”
Everything shifted.
Grant hadn’t accidentally befriended him.
Their meeting at Columbia.
Their years together.
Their business.
Had all of it been planned?
Evelyn seemed to read his thoughts.
“Knowing who you were doesn’t mean every part of your friendship was fake.”
Daniel gave her a bitter look.
“He has photographs of our unborn child on a murder wall.”
“I didn’t say he was innocent.”
Detective Morgan entered again with information from Grant’s apartment.
Bank records showed transfers through Ashbury to six offshore accounts.
The first movement began two years earlier.
Slowly.
Small amounts.
Then larger.
Most disturbing was a document investigators found hidden inside Grant’s safe.
A copy of the original Cross family trust.
“If Jonathan hadn’t been removed,” Morgan explained, “his descendants could have had claims against certain older assets.”
“How much?” Daniel asked.
Charles answered.
“Several billion today.”
Daniel laughed without humor.
“So that’s what this is.”
Charles shook his head.
“No.”
“No?”
“Grant has enough evidence to challenge the old trust, perhaps. He does not have a legitimate claim to Cross Meridian. You built that yourself.”
“Then why write that everything should be his?”
“Because resentment isn’t a legal theory.”
Morgan’s phone rang.
She stepped aside.
Evelyn looked at Daniel.
“You need sleep.”
He almost smiled.
“My pregnant wife was assaulted, my best friend may be a murderer, and I just learned I have a secret cousin who believes my life belongs to him.”
“Fine. You need coffee.”
“That I can do.”
Charles looked at Evelyn.
For the first time since entering, his expression softened.
“You remind me of Daniel’s mother.”
Daniel stiffened.
Evelyn simply said, “I’ll take that as a compliment.”
“It was.”
Charles left with Morgan.
Daniel remained.
At 5:13 a.m., Evelyn finally slept.
Daniel sat beside her.
His phone buzzed.
Grant.
One message.
YOU DESERVE THE TRUTH FROM ME, NOT THEM. 8 A.M. CHECK YOUR EMAIL.
Daniel showed Morgan immediately.
At exactly eight, an encrypted video arrived.
Grant appeared on screen.
No mask.
No disguise.
His face was bruised.
“Daniel.”
He smiled sadly.
“If you’re watching this, Charles has probably told you about Jonathan.”
Daniel’s hands tightened.
Grant continued.
“My father died when I was nine.”
Carol Holloway raised Grant alone.
They lived in rented apartments while magazines photographed Charles Cross buying yachts.
Jonathan drank.
Gambled.
Became bitter.
Before dying, he told his son that the Cross family had stolen his life.
“I believed him,” Grant said.
“At sixteen, I learned Charles had a son around my age. Daniel Cross. The golden heir.”
Daniel stared at the screen.
“I expected to hate you.”
Grant laughed quietly.
“Then I met you.”
Images appeared.
Young Daniel and Grant building computers.
Eating pizza on office floors.
Celebrating their first contract.
“I didn’t expect you to be decent.”
Daniel’s throat tightened.
“I didn’t expect you to refuse your father’s money. I didn’t expect you to work harder than everyone around you. I didn’t expect us to become brothers.”
Evelyn had awakened.
She watched silently.
Grant continued.
“For years, I forgot what I came for.”
Then his expression changed.
“Until your father used Ashbury.”
Grant explained Charles’s secret rescue investment.
He discovered it and saw an opportunity.
If Daniel believed Charles had secretly controlled Cross Meridian, Grant could destabilize both father and son.
At first, his plan was financial.
Steal money.
Expose Charles.
Humiliate Daniel.
But then Evelyn found the transfers.
“She was too smart,” Grant said.
Evelyn’s face hardened.
“She followed numbers nobody else noticed.”
Grant recruited Vanessa through resentment.
Vanessa had debts Daniel didn’t know about.
Gambling.
Bad investments.
Grant paid them.
In exchange, Vanessa cultivated rumors about Evelyn’s marriage.
He wanted Evelyn isolated.
He wanted Daniel distracted.
But Vanessa resisted when Grant ordered her to physically hurt Evelyn.
“So he did order her,” Daniel whispered.
On screen, Grant’s expression became emotionless.
“I told Vanessa to scare Evelyn. When she pushed her, I panicked. When Evelyn fell, I knew the investigation would reach me.”
Daniel’s eyes narrowed.
Then Grant confessed.
“I said finish it.”
Evelyn turned away.
Daniel paused the video.
“You don’t need to watch.”
“Yes, I do.”
He resumed.
“I’m not asking forgiveness,” Grant said. “I’m telling you something worse. I didn’t kill Marcus Bell.”
Daniel frowned.
“Marcus discovered the camera manipulation before I planned to erase the footage. He threatened to expose me. I arranged to meet him.”
Grant leaned closer.
“But someone reached him first.”
The video displayed a blurred image from the garage.
A figure beside Marcus.
Tall.
Male.
Grant enhanced it.
Daniel couldn’t see the face.
Then the figure turned.
Charles Cross.
Evelyn gasped.
Grant continued.
“Your father killed Marcus.”
Daniel stopped the video.
“No.”
Evelyn looked at him.
“You don’t know.”
“He said he found Marcus.”
“That doesn’t make it true.”
Daniel replayed.
The image clearly showed Charles near Marcus moments before the estimated time of death.
Grant’s final message appeared.
YOUR FATHER HAS BEEN PROTECTING HIMSELF FOR FORTY YEARS. ASK HIM WHAT HAPPENED TO JONATHAN.
The video ended.
Daniel called Charles.
No answer.
Again.
No answer.
Detective Morgan entered.
Her expression was grim.
“Daniel.”
“What?”
“We need Charles Cross.”
“So do I.”
“I mean now.”
She placed a clear evidence bag on the table.
Inside was a gold cuff link.
Daniel recognized it immediately.
His father wore a matching pair the previous evening.
“Where did you get that?”
Morgan answered.
“Under Marcus Bell’s body.”
Daniel stared.
Charles had claimed Marcus was already dead when he arrived.
If that were true, why was his cuff link beneath the body?
Morgan continued.
“Your father lied about something.”
Daniel looked toward Evelyn.
May you like
She whispered,
“Find him before Grant does.”
Related Stories
