Chương 4
“I don’t know.”
“What exactly did he say?”
Claire closed her eyes, searching through a memory that had seemed meaningless at the time.
“He said, ‘If the Ghost King is really out, then leave him out.’”
Elias leaned back slowly.
“Anything else?”
“He told whoever it was that you couldn’t threaten a man like that without consequences.”
She opened her eyes again.
“I thought he was talking about a competitor.”
“He might have been.”
“You’re the Ghost King.”
It was not a question.
“Yes.”
Claire turned her face away.
Elias did not reach for her this time.
A nurse entered to check the monitor and stopped when she noticed the tension in the room.
“Everything okay?”
Claire almost laughed.
“No.”
The nurse glanced at Elias, then back at her.
“Do you want him to step out?”
Elias stood before Claire answered.
“I’ll be outside.”
Claire looked at him but did not stop him.
In the corridor, Matteo had sent another message.
Étienne’s corporate compliance archive flagged an internal entity called Arden Holdings.
Elias read the next line.
Arden borrowed heavily against pledged Delcourt assets three months before Étienne died.
Another message followed.
The pledges appear unauthorized.
Elias’s jaw tightened.
Then came the worst one.
Maturity trigger is 8:00 today.
If controlling shareholder validates the restructuring before then, the debt rolls over.
If not, lender can seek enforcement.
He stared at the screen until the words stopped looking like English.
Viviane had not been trying to steal Claire’s inheritance merely because she wanted the estate.
She had been trying to make Claire validate something already rotten.
He called Matteo.
“What is Arden?”
“A shell company.”
“Whose?”
“On paper, a Luxembourg trust.”
“In reality?”
“I’m still working on that.”
“Why would Étienne pledge company assets through a shell?”
“He may not have.”
Elias walked farther down the corridor.
“You said the pledges appear unauthorized.”
“The signatures are inconsistent with samples from his last year.”
“Forgery?”
“I’m not saying that yet.”
“Say what you can prove.”
“The digital certificates were issued correctly.”
“Meaning?”
“Someone had access to Étienne’s credentials.”
“Viviane?”
“Possible.”
“Pauline?”
“Possible.”
“Who benefited?”
“That is what gets interesting.”
Matteo paused.
“Arden transferred approximately eleven million euros over eighteen months to consulting entities linked to Delcourt procurement contracts.”
“Linked to whom?”
“We have two names so far.”
“Give them to me.”
“Marc Vanel and Luc Bernier.”
Elias stopped walking.
He knew the second name.
“Bernier sits on Delcourt’s board.”
“Yes.”
“And Vanel?”
“Chief financial officer.”
That explained the deadline.
Not all of it.
Enough.
“If Claire signs the rollover?”
“She potentially validates the debt structure as controlling shareholder.”
“And if she refuses?”
“The existing irregularities become harder to bury because enforcement would trigger examination of the pledged assets.”
“Viviane needed her signature to conceal the original fraud.”
“That is my working theory.”
“Not just steal the company.”
“No.”
Elias looked through the narrow window in Claire’s door.
She was speaking quietly with the nurse.
Her face had the closed expression she used when she was trying not to cry in front of strangers.
“Where are Vanel and Bernier?”
“Vanel’s phone connected near the Delcourt estate earlier tonight.”
Elias’s voice sharpened.
“You have his location?”
“Corporate device, company-owned, collected through security systems he agreed to under his employment policy.”
“Good.”
“And Bernier is in Paris.”
“Has anyone contacted them?”
“Not from our side.”
“Keep it that way.”
“You sound disappointed.”
“I am.”
Matteo went quiet.
Elias pressed his thumb against his forehead.
“That was a joke.”
“A terrible one.”
“I’m tired.”
“So am I.”
Matteo’s voice softened.
“Do not turn this into what you used to be.”
“I know.”
“You keep saying that.”
“I know.”
The nurse came out.
“She wants you.”
Elias ended the call.
Claire was staring at her tea when he returned.
It had gone cold.
She pointed toward the chair.
“Sit.”
He obeyed.
“I’m going to ask you questions.”
“All right.”
“If I don’t like an answer, I may ask you to leave.”
“All right.”
“If you lie once, we’re done for today.”
He nodded.
Claire’s mouth tightened.
“Were you a murderer?”
Elias felt the question in his chest.
“Yes.”
She inhaled carefully.
“How many?”
“I don’t know.”
Her eyes snapped to his.
“That is not believable.”
“It is.”
“You killed so many people you lost count?”
“No.”
He looked at the floor.
“Some deaths were ordered by me, some happened during conflicts I created, and some were caused by people working under my authority.”
Claire’s eyes filled but she blinked the tears back.
“Did you personally kill people?”
“Yes.”
“Were they innocent?”
The answer took longer.
“Not by the standards of the world I was in.”
Claire looked disgusted.
“That is a coward’s answer.”
“Yes.”
He forced himself to meet her eyes.
“There were people who had families.”
“That still isn’t what I asked.”
“No children.”
Her face tightened.
“No civilians targeted for being witnesses or inconvenient.”
“Targeted.”
Elias closed his eyes briefly.
“I told you it would be ugly.”
“You told me you processed freight invoices.”
“I did that too.”
She stared at him in disbelief.
He almost smiled at the absurdity of the sentence and hated himself for it.
Claire noticed anyway.
“Did you almost laugh?”
“Yes.”
“What is wrong with you?”
“A great many things, apparently.”
She looked away and wiped beneath one eye with the heel of her hand.
For several minutes neither spoke.
Renaud entered, checked the monitor, looked from one face to the other, and decided not to ask.
“You can leave in a few hours if your temperature stays stable and you promise not to do anything idiotic.”
Claire pointed weakly at Elias.
“Can you prescribe something for husbands?”
“Divorce attorneys are not covered by my specialty.”
Claire gave a small laugh and then cursed because of her ribs.
Renaud smiled.
“That will teach you.”
When he left, the room settled again.
Claire looked at Elias.
“Did my father know all of this?”
“Not all of it.”
May you like
“How much?”
“Enough to recognize the name.”
