CHAPTER 3 — THE FIRST LIE
The photograph had been taken in Geneva.
My father and Nathan sat across from each other in a private restaurant. A date stamp in the corner placed the meeting eight months before my wedding.
Nathan had told me he first heard Julian Vale’s name during a business conference two years later.
I looked at Dad.
“You knew him.”
“I investigated him.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
His jaw tightened.
“Yes. I met him.”
The room felt suddenly smaller.
Agent Mercer opened another file.
It contained a recording.
Nathan’s younger voice filled the room.
“I love your daughter.”
My father answered.
“You barely know her.”
“I know enough.”
“You know she is kind. You know she trusts too easily. You know she will defend someone long after they stop deserving it.”
Nathan laughed softly.
“Then maybe she needs someone ambitious enough to protect her.”
The recording ended.
I stared at my father.
“You interviewed him?”
“I warned him.”
“You gave him a reason to hide who he was.”
“I wanted to know how he behaved when challenged.”
“And when he lied to you?”
“I continued watching.”
The words cut more deeply than I expected.
“You knew what kind of man he was before I married him.”
“No. I knew he was ambitious and dishonest about small things. That is not the same as knowing he was capable of this.”
“You could have told me.”
“You were in love.”
“You could have tried.”
“I did.”
I remembered vague concerns. Questions about Nathan’s temper. Warnings about rushing into marriage. But Dad had never shown me the recording.
He had never admitted meeting Nathan.
Instead, he had created a test.
He had encouraged me to conceal my identity and wait for Nathan to reveal himself.
Agent Mercer interrupted.
“There’s more.”
He displayed transfers from a Vale Meridian subsidiary to one of Celeste’s shell companies.
The payments began eighteen months ago.
My father stepped closer.
“I never authorized those.”
“Your digital signature appears on each transfer,” Mercer said.
“It was forged.”
“Possibly.”
I looked between them.
“How much?”
“Forty-two million dollars.”
The number silenced the room.
Mercer explained that the funds had moved through Ashford suppliers before reaching accounts controlled by Celeste. Someone with high-level access inside my father’s company had approved every transaction.
Nathan and Celeste were not merely stealing from Ashford Global.
They were stealing directly from Vale Meridian.
My father took the tablet.
“Give me the names of every executive with authorization access.”
“I already have them.”
Mercer’s eyes hardened.
“One belongs to your brother.”
Dad went still.
I had not seen my uncle Adrian in nearly a year.
He served as Vale Meridian’s chief financial officer and had resented my inheritance since the day my mother’s will was read.
My father looked at me.
“This is no longer only about Nathan.”
“It never was,” I said.
The door opened.
A nurse entered, visibly shaken.
“Mr. Vale, there’s been an incident downstairs.”
Mercer reached for his weapon.
“What kind of incident?”
The nurse looked at me.
“The woman brought in from Blackthorn Manor collapsed during questioning.”
“Celeste?”
May you like
The nurse nodded.
“She says she was poisoned.”
