Chapter 5 - The Man Who Helped Destroy HerGrace woke beneath fluorescent hospital lights.
He brought two security officers.
Martin Hale was already waiting in Nathan’s office.
He had gray hair, rimless glasses, and the tired posture of a man who had spent half his life behind spreadsheets.
“Nathan, what is going on?”
Nathan locked the door.
“Sit down.”
Martin remained standing.
“I received a call from Richard Langford.”
“I expected you would.”
“He says Victoria has been arrested.”
“She has.”
Martin removed his glasses.
“This is catastrophic.”
“For whom?”
“The company.”
Nathan almost smiled.
“My daughter was attacked, Martin.”
The CFO froze.
Nathan saw it.
Just for a fraction of a second.
Recognition.
“You knew.”
Martin sat.
“Nathan—”
“How long?”
Martin rubbed his forehead.
“Your father told me.”
“When?”
“Several years ago.”
Nathan’s voice sharpened.
“How many people knew I had a child except me?”
Martin looked away.
“How many?”
“Five.”
Nathan felt as though the floor shifted.
“Names.”
“Charles.”
“Obviously.”
“Myself.”
“Continue.”
“Richard Langford.”
Nathan nodded.
“Victoria?”
Martin hesitated.
“Yes.”
“And?”
Martin closed his eyes.
“Your mother.”
Nathan stopped.
“What?”
“Eleanor knew.”
Nathan’s mother had died when he was twenty-eight.
Two years after Grace vanished.
Cancer.
Nathan remembered sitting beside her hospital bed while she held his hand.
She had told him she wished he would find someone who loved him for himself.
Had she known the woman who already did was raising his child alone?
Nathan struggled to speak.
“My mother knew?”
“She found out later.”
“When?”
“About a year after Grace left.”
“What did she do?”
Martin looked miserable.
“She confronted Charles.”
Nathan stared.
“About what?”
“Everything.”
A memory surfaced.
His parents arguing behind the locked library door.
His mother crying.
His father refusing to explain.
Nathan had assumed it concerned her illness.
It hadn't.
“Did she try to find Grace?”
“Yes.”
Nathan’s breath caught.
Martin continued.
“Your mother hired a private investigator.”
“Did he find her?”
“For a short time.”
Nathan remembered Grace describing the break-in.
His pulse accelerated.
“Who was the investigator?”
Martin hesitated.
“Samuel Price.”
“Where is he?”
“Dead.”
Nathan felt cold.
“How?”
“Car accident.”
“When?”
“Five years ago.”
Nathan’s eyes narrowed.
“Before or after Grace’s apartment was broken into?”
“I don't know.”
Nathan stared at him until Martin looked away.
“There's a safe,” Martin finally said.
Nathan stopped.
“What safe?”
“Your father kept a private safe behind the portrait in his old executive office.”
Nathan knew the portrait.
Charles Cole shaking hands with the governor.
Nathan had hated it.
“The office was remodeled.”
“The safe wasn't removed.”
Nathan left without another word.
The old executive suite had become a conference area after Charles died.
Workers removed the portrait.
Behind it sat a steel panel.
Nathan entered the code.
His father's birthday.
Nothing.
Martin tried Eleanor’s birthday.
Nothing.
Nathan looked at him.
“Any ideas?”
Martin hesitated.
Then typed six numbers.
The safe opened.
Nathan stared at him.
“What code?”
Martin looked pale.
“Lily’s birthday.”
Nathan felt the air leave his chest.
Inside were four folders.
A flash drive.
A photograph.
And a letter addressed to Nathan.
His hands shook as he opened it.
The letter had been written three days before Charles died.
Nathan read silently.
Nathan,
If you are reading this, then I have failed to correct what I did.
Nathan stopped.
He looked at Martin.
“You've read this?”
“No.”
Nathan continued.
Charles confessed.
Not cleanly.
Not nobly.
But enough.
He admitted driving Grace away.
He called it the greatest mistake of his life.
He admitted believing she was after Nathan’s money.
Then he described discovering Lily existed.
According to Charles, Eleanor had found Grace through Samuel Price.
She intended to bring Grace home.
But before she could, someone inside the family learned where Grace was staying.
The break-in happened two days later.
Eleanor blamed Charles.
Charles denied ordering it.
Then Samuel Price died.
Nathan’s heart pounded.
The final section was worse.
There is something Richard doesn't know.
The Langford bailout was unnecessary.
Nathan frowned.
Cole Industries had nearly collapsed five years earlier.
Everyone knew that.
Charles wrote that the company's liquidity crisis had been manufactured through hidden transfers and deliberately accelerated loan calls.
Someone had created the emergency.
Then Langford Capital arrived as the rescuer.
A rescue that came with influence.
Board seats.
Contracts.
And eventually, Victoria.
Nathan looked at Martin.
“You knew about this?”
Martin shook his head.
Nathan kept reading.
Charles suspected Richard.
But two days before his death, he discovered evidence suggesting someone inside Cole Industries had helped.
He placed evidence on the flash drive.
Nathan picked it up.
Martin’s phone suddenly rang.
He glanced at the screen.
His expression changed.
“Who is it?” Nathan asked.
Martin didn't answer.
The phone stopped.
Immediately, Nathan’s rang.
Unknown number.
He answered.
“Nathan Cole?”
“Yes.”
“This is Dr. Evelyn Marsh from St. Catherine's emergency department.”
Nathan’s stomach dropped.
“We have Grace Holloway.”
“What?”
“She was brought in approximately fifteen minutes ago.”
Nathan was already moving.
“What happened?”
“She collapsed.”
Nathan’s heart hammered.
“Is Lily with her?”
A pause.
“No.”
Nathan stopped walking.
“What?”
“Ms. Holloway arrived alone.”
Nathan’s blood turned to ice.
“She would never leave Lily.”
The doctor sounded confused.
“Mr. Cole, she was found unconscious in a parking garage.”
Nathan ran.
By the time he reached the mansion, police vehicles filled the driveway.
Margaret stood outside crying.
Nathan jumped from the SUV.
“Where is Lily?”
Margaret covered her mouth.
“She was upstairs.”
“Where?”
“I went to bring breakfast. The window was open.”
Nathan sprinted toward the house.
Detective Serena Brooks intercepted him.
“Nathan.”
“Where is my daughter?”
“We're searching.”
He shoved past her.
Lily’s bedroom was empty.
The bedcovers had been pulled aside.
A stuffed rabbit lay on the floor.
The window was open.
On the sill sat a white envelope.
Nathan picked it up.
Inside was a photograph.
Grace and Lily leaving a grocery store three years earlier.
Someone had been watching them.
Written beneath the photograph were six words.
CHARLES SHOULD HAVE KEPT HIS PROMISE.
Nathan stared at the message.
Serena appeared beside him.
“What promise?”
“I don't know.”
His phone buzzed.
A text from an unknown number.
A video attachment.
Nathan opened it.
Lily sat inside a dark room.
She was crying but appeared unharmed.
A distorted voice spoke from behind the camera.
“Bring Charles Cole’s flash drive to Pier 19 at midnight.”
Nathan glanced at the flash drive still clenched in his hand.
The voice continued.
“No police.”
Lily looked toward the camera.
“Daddy?”
Nathan nearly collapsed.
Then the final sentence played.
“And Nathan?”
The screen went black.
“If you copy the drive, the girl dies.”
Nathan looked at Serena.
Neither spoke.
Because both knew something the kidnapper did not.
Nathan had not copied it.
But the security system had automatically uploaded every file inserted into Cole Industries’ executive network.
And thirty seconds before Grace collapsed…
May you like
Martin Hale had secretly emailed Nathan one sentence.
Don't trust me.
Related Stories
