Chapter 4 - Breakfast with a TraitorAt eight the next morning, Daniel Mercer arrived carrying coffee.
Dr. Patel remained upstairs with the children while an ambulance team prepared for transport. Victoria had been moved to the security office, where two guards waited for police.
In Sebastian’s study, Naomi stood beside the fireplace with her hands clasped tightly.
Sebastian remained behind his desk.
“You have one chance.”
“I understand.”
“Why did you come here?”
Naomi looked toward a framed photograph.
Charlotte.
Sebastian’s wife had been photographed on Nantucket the summer before the pregnancy. Her red hair blew across her face while she laughed at something outside the frame.
Naomi stared at the photograph too long.
Sebastian noticed.
“You knew Charlotte.”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“She found me.”
“When?”
“About six months before she died.”
Sebastian’s expression changed.
“My wife never mentioned you.”
“I asked her not to.”
“Why?”
Naomi swallowed.
“Because of Victoria.”
Sebastian’s patience snapped.
“Stop speaking in riddles.”
Naomi nodded.
Then reached into her apron pocket and removed an old cell phone.
The screen was cracked.
She opened a message thread.
Charlotte’s name appeared at the top.
Sebastian felt the room tilt.
Naomi handed him the phone.
The messages began six months earlier.
Charlotte: Ms. Brooks, my name is Charlotte Whitmore. I apologize for contacting you unexpectedly. I think we need to speak about St. Anne’s Hospital.
Sebastian scrolled.
Naomi had initially refused.
Charlotte persisted.
Eventually, they met.
“What was Charlotte investigating?”
Naomi sat slowly.
“Your wife was funding a maternal-health foundation.”
Sebastian nodded.
Charlotte had donated millions to programs for premature infants.
“She received an anonymous report,” Naomi continued. “It involved a private neonatal nurse who had been dismissed from St. Anne’s more than a decade ago.”
Sebastian’s fingers tightened around the phone.
“Victoria?”
“Yes.”
He stared at Naomi.
“But she told me you were dismissed.”
“That’s the story she helped create.”
Naomi’s eyes became distant.
“Twelve years ago, Victoria and I worked together.”
Sebastian said nothing.
“I was twenty-six,” Naomi continued. “Recently certified. Too eager. Too trusting. Victoria was already senior staff.”
Naomi looked down.
“My daughter Maya had been born with a heart defect. I was raising her alone.”
Her voice softened when she said the child’s name.
“She was eleven months old.”
Sebastian glanced at the bracelet hanging from Naomi’s neck.
“One night, Maya became sick while I was working.”
Naomi pressed her lips together.
“My mother called the hospital. I asked Victoria to cover my patients for thirty minutes so I could go downstairs and call a taxi.”
“She agreed?”
Naomi nodded.
“But she didn’t cover them.”
Sebastian felt dread.
“One premature baby needed medication at midnight,” Naomi said. “Victoria signed the administration sheet.”
“What happened?”
“The baby nearly died.”
Sebastian frowned.
“But if Victoria signed—”
“She claimed I had asked her to sign because I administered it.”
Naomi looked at him.
“She lied.”
“Couldn’t the hospital verify that?”
“Not easily. Cameras weren’t everywhere then. I had already left my station without formal permission because I was trying to get to Maya.”
Naomi wiped one tear quickly.
“And then my daughter died at home before I reached her.”
Sebastian’s anger disappeared.
Naomi continued.
“I arrived at the emergency department too late.”
For several seconds, neither spoke.
“The next morning, I was questioned about the premature infant upstairs. I could barely understand what they were saying.”
Her voice cracked.
“My baby was dead, and Victoria was telling administrators I had neglected another child.”
“Why would she do that?”
“Because she had been stealing medications.”
Sebastian’s expression hardened.
“Prescription drugs?”
“Yes. At first.”
Naomi explained that Victoria had been diverting supplies from private neonatal patients—specialized formula, expensive supplements, equipment.
The near-death incident threatened exposure.
Naomi became convenient.
A grieving young nurse.
A single mother.
A woman who had left her station.
Victoria blamed her.
“The hospital settled quietly,” Naomi said. “No criminal charges. But my career was destroyed.”
“Why didn’t you fight?”
“I did.”
“What happened?”
“My lawyer cost money I didn’t have. Victoria had supervisors who supported her. And I…”
Naomi looked toward the dark window.
“I didn’t care if I won anymore.”
Sebastian understood.
Grief had done something similar to him.
For seven weeks, he had existed without truly living.
Naomi continued.
“I eventually became a home-care aide. Then a housekeeper. Quiet work felt easier.”
Sebastian looked at Charlotte’s messages again.
“How did my wife find you?”
“One of the doctors from St. Anne’s finally admitted what happened.”
“After twelve years?”
“He was dying.”
Naomi gave a sad smile.
“People become brave when there’s nothing left to lose.”
The doctor had written to Charlotte’s foundation because Victoria was working with elite private families again.
Charlotte investigated.
Then she contacted Naomi.
“She wanted to expose Victoria,” Sebastian said.
“Yes.”
“Then why did she hire her?”
Naomi hesitated.
“She didn’t.”
Sebastian looked up sharply.
“I hired Victoria because Charlotte recommended her.”
“No.”
“I have the email.”
“Read it again.”
Sebastian frowned.
He opened his laptop.
Charlotte’s old email account had been preserved.
He searched Victoria Crane.
The recommendation appeared.
Victoria Crane comes highly recommended. Please make sure she is part of the neonatal care plan.
Sebastian turned the screen.
“There.”
Naomi stared.
“She didn’t write that.”
“You’re certain?”
“She told me the opposite.”
Sebastian’s stomach tightened.
“Then someone used her account.”
Naomi nodded.
“Charlotte suspected Victoria had a connection inside your household.”
Sebastian stood.
“Who?”
“She didn’t know.”
His mind immediately went through employees, assistants, executives.
Hundreds of people had access to pieces of his life.
Very few had access to Charlotte.
“What did she ask you to do?”
Naomi looked at him.
“She asked me to apply for a housekeeping position after the babies came home.”
“Why housekeeping?”
“Victoria would never accept me on the nursing team.”
“So Charlotte wanted you inside the house unnoticed.”
“Yes.”
Sebastian felt something close to betrayal.
“My wife planned this without telling me.”
“She planned to tell you.”
“When?”
Naomi’s eyes lowered.
“The night she went into labor.”
Sebastian’s chest tightened.
Charlotte had collapsed during a foundation dinner.
She was thirty-three weeks pregnant.
Doctors performed an emergency delivery.
Five daughters survived.
Charlotte did not.
“What exactly did Charlotte discover?”
Naomi reached into her pocket again.
This time she produced a key.
“Your wife rented a safe-deposit box.”
Sebastian stared.
“She gave me the key two weeks before she died.”
“Why haven’t you opened it?”
“Because it requires two signatures.”
“Whose?”
“Mine.”
Naomi looked directly at him.
“And yours.”
Sebastian said nothing.
An hour later, after the babies had been safely transferred to St. Catherine’s Hospital and police had taken Victoria for questioning, Sebastian and Naomi drove into Manhattan.
The bank opened a private vault room for Sebastian Whitmore at two in the morning without hesitation.
The safe-deposit box was narrow.
Inside were three things.
A flash drive.
A handwritten letter.
And a photograph.
Sebastian picked up the photograph first.
It showed Victoria standing outside a restaurant.
Beside her was a man Sebastian recognized instantly.
His own chief financial officer.
Daniel Mercer.
Sebastian’s closest friend of twenty years.
The godfather Charlotte had chosen for Rebecca.
Naomi whispered, “I’m sorry.”
Sebastian could barely hear her.
He unfolded Charlotte’s letter.
Her handwriting appeared across three pages.
Sebastian, if you are reading this, something happened before I could tell you the truth.
He stopped.
Naomi looked away, granting him privacy.
Sebastian continued.
Charlotte explained that she had discovered unexplained payments from one of the Whitmore family charities.
Money had been routed through medical suppliers.
Those suppliers were connected to Victoria.
Daniel Mercer had approved every transaction.
Then Charlotte wrote:
I don’t know whether Daniel is stealing from us or whether this is larger than money. But I know Victoria is involved, and I believe someone has been watching me.
Sebastian’s hand trembled.
The final paragraph nearly broke him.
If the girls arrive before I can finish this, trust Naomi. I know you will judge her by the uniform she wears. Please don’t. She has protected children when people with better titles failed them. If anything happens to me, she may be the safest person our daughters have.
Sebastian lowered the paper.
For the first time since Charlotte’s funeral, tears filled his eyes.
Naomi remained silent.
Sebastian inserted the flash drive into his laptop.
A folder opened.
Invoices.
Bank statements.
Medical contracts.
Photographs.
Then one audio recording.
He pressed play.
Charlotte’s voice filled the vault.
“Daniel, I know what you’ve been doing.”
A man responded.
Sebastian recognized him.
Daniel.
“Charlotte, you don’t understand the situation.”
“I understand that you moved eleven million dollars.”
“It isn’t what you think.”
“And Victoria Crane?”
Silence.
Then Daniel said something Sebastian would remember forever.
“You need to stop asking questions before you put those babies in danger.”
The recording ended.
Naomi covered her mouth.
Sebastian stared at the screen.
His oldest friend had threatened his pregnant wife.
He reached for his phone.
Naomi stopped him.
“What are you doing?”
“Calling Daniel.”
“No.”
“He threatened Charlotte.”
“And if he knows we found this, he’ll destroy whatever evidence is left.”
Sebastian looked at her.
Naomi’s voice became steady.
“Charlotte waited because she needed the entire network.”
Sebastian thought of his daughters sleeping beneath hospital monitors.
“Then we finish what she started.”
His phone buzzed.
A text message.
From Daniel.
Heard the girls were taken to the hospital. Everything okay?
Sebastian stared at it.
Naomi whispered, “He already knows.”
The phone buzzed again.
Call me when you can, brother. I’m worried about you.
Sebastian’s face went cold.
He typed three words.
Everything is fine.
Then he looked at Naomi.
“Tomorrow morning, Daniel comes to my house believing he’s still my best friend.”
Naomi nodded.
May you like
Sebastian closed Charlotte’s letter.
“And we find out why he wanted my daughters unprotected.”
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