Chương 6
“I took the children out.”
“You sent Lily across an open drive carrying supplies while Rosa made two trips for infants.”
“I was drawing you away.”
“From your seven-year-old daughter?”
The question landed. Sarah looked toward the study door.
Nathan saw guilt move across her face before anger covered it.
Wesley continued, “You threw away your phone, cut the vehicle tracker, and ran into the woods. You could have died.”
“I thought the service tunnel was open.”
“It collapsed years ago.”
“Not all of it.”
“You did not know that.”
“No.”
Wesley lowered his voice. “Sarah, this has gone far enough.”
“You used to say that when Marcus was the one losing money.”
“I said it to both of you.”
Nathan turned toward her. “You knew him before?”
Wesley looked at Sarah.
She said nothing.
“How long?” Nathan asked.
“This is not the time,” she said.
“It appears to be the only time anyone tells me anything.”
Marcus reached the front steps. The entry buzzer sounded.
Once.
Then again.
“Nathan,” Marcus called through the door. “I know Sarah is inside.”
Sarah’s entire body went still.
Wesley held out the coat. “Give me the key, and we can keep this contained.”
Nathan looked at him. “Contained from whom?”
“People who will not care whether Sarah was pressured. They will not care that nobody intended for funds to disappear permanently. They will see transfers, signatures, and access logs. That will be enough.”
Sarah closed her eyes.
Nathan felt the answer before he asked.
“What did you do?”
She shook her head.
“What did you do, Sarah?”
“I signed one authorization.”
“For Marcus?”
“For the family office.”
“You don’t have authority over the family office.”
“I had authority over the trust distribution.”
“Not as trustee.”
“You weren’t answering calls.”
“I was in surgery.”
“For three days?”
“I was working.”
“You are always working.”
“Do not make my schedule responsible for fraud.”
Her face hardened. “There. That word. You’ve been waiting to say it.”
“I found my name on documents I never signed.”
“The first transfer was supposed to last six weeks.”
Nathan stared at her.
Marcus pressed the buzzer again.
Sarah spoke faster. “One of the funds froze redemptions. Marcus had payroll, investor withdrawals, penalties. He said if the missed payments became public, the firm would collapse. People would lose jobs. Clients would panic. He needed a bridge.”
“How much?”
She looked away.
“How much?”
“Four million.”
Nathan felt as if the floor shifted beneath him.
Wesley said, “It was repaid.”
Sarah gave him a flat look. “That one was.”
Nathan turned to Wesley. “You knew.”
“I knew there was a liquidity issue.”
“You knew she used trust money.”
“I knew she authorized a transfer.”
“Which she had no authority to authorize.”
Wesley’s silence answered.
Nathan looked back at Sarah. “And after that?”
“Marcus said the repayment had created another gap.”
“So he took more.”
“He moved it. I didn’t.”
“With your access?”
“Some of it.”
“How much is missing?”
“I don’t know.”
“You brought me financial records and you don’t know?”
“The archive contains the full ledger.”
“Open the door!” Marcus shouted.
The control in his voice had finally disappeared.
Thomas began crying in the study.
Marcus heard him.
His face appeared in the narrow glass beside the door, distorted by frost. He pressed his forehead to the pane.
“That’s my son.”
Lily screamed from behind the locked study door.
It was one short sound, followed by immediate silence.
Nathan crossed the hall and stood between Marcus’s face and the study.
“Back away from the door.”
“My children are frightened because you locked them in a room.”
“They were frightened before you arrived.”
“Sarah made them frightened.”
Inside the study, Rosa’s voice murmured steadily. Nathan could not make out the words.
Marcus’s eyes moved past him and found Sarah.
Something in his expression softened.
“Jesus,” he said. “Look at you.”
Sarah folded her arms over her wet clothes.
“I’ve been looking everywhere,” Marcus said. “I thought you were dead.”
“You tracked the car.”
“I found the phone first. It was smashed.”
“I threw it under a truck.”
“I know.”
“How?”
Marcus hesitated.
Sarah gave a small nod. “You had Wesley following us.”
“I had him watching because you took three children in dangerous weather.”
“Before I took them.”
Marcus looked at Wesley.
Wesley said, “We can discuss this later.”
“No,” Sarah said. “Tell him.”
Wesley’s eyes narrowed. “Tell whom what?”
“My brother. Tell him when you began following me.”
“Sarah.”
“Was it after I copied the files, or before?”
Marcus slapped one palm against the glass. “Open the door.”
Nathan said, “The police are coming.”
“Good. They can explain that you cannot keep my children from me.”
“They can also examine the documents in my hand.”
Marcus’s face changed again, not with fear but calculation.
“You opened them.”
“Yes.”
“Then you know Sarah is involved.”
Nathan glanced toward his sister.
Marcus saw it.
“Of course she didn’t tell you.” He laughed once, without humor. “She ran here because she thought the great Nathan Hale would perform another miracle and keep her clean.”
“Stop talking,” Sarah said.
“No. He deserves to know who he’s protecting.”
Nathan stepped closer to the glass. “What do you want?”
“My family.”
“The coat.”
“My family first.”
“Why the coat?”
Marcus’s eyes shifted toward Wesley, who still held it.
“Give it to him,” Marcus said.
Wesley did not move.
Marcus’s gaze sharpened. “Wes.”
“There are police coming,” Wesley said.
“I heard.”
“We should leave.”
“My children are inside.”
“And your position becomes worse every minute you remain.”
“This is not a position.”
Wesley looked at him with something almost like pity. “Everything is a position now.”
For several seconds, the only sound came from the storm and Thomas crying in the study.
Marcus removed one glove and placed his bare hand against the glass. “Sarah, open the door.”
May you like
She stared at his hand.
Nathan had seen her hold that hand at their wedding. Marcus had trembled during the vows and laughed when he lost his place. Sarah had looked at Nathan from the altar with bright, triumphant affection, as if her happiness proved he had been wrong to worry.
