Chapter 12 - Natalie’s Confession
The flash drive contained a video.
Natalie sat in what looked like a motel room.
Her hair was pulled back.
Her face was pale.
She looked straight into the camera.
“Emily, I don’t know whether I’ll have the courage to tell you this in person.”
“So I’m recording it.”
Dad stood behind my chair.
Charles sat across from us.
Natalie continued.
“I joined Ryan because I was desperate.”
“I owed almost two million dollars.”
“Ryan knew.”
“He offered to solve it.”
“In exchange, I became the third member of Strategic Holdings.”
She wiped her eyes.
“At first, he told me it was legal.”
“He said your money was family money.”
“He said you had agreed to finance the project privately because you didn’t want Jonathan involved.”
My stomach twisted.
Natalie had chosen to believe what benefited her.
But she hadn’t invented the scheme.
Ryan had.
Then she said something worse.
“When I started questioning the documents, Diane told me to stop.”
“She said Emily would forgive Ryan because Emily always forgives people she loves.”
Charles looked away.
Natalie continued.
“Eric handled the forged signatures.”
“Ryan gave him scans.”
“Diane notarized whatever needed notarizing.”
“I transferred money.”
“And when Meridian offered thirty-two million, we were supposed to divide it after Caldwell Manufacturing filed Chapter 7.”
Her voice shook.
“But Ryan changed.”
“He started talking about cutting Charles out permanently.”
“He said his father was becoming unpredictable.”
“He wanted the insurance policy.”
“I thought it was just leverage.”
“I don’t know anymore.”
Dad leaned closer to the screen.
Natalie took a breath.
“There is a ledger.”
“Eric kept handwritten transaction codes because Ryan didn’t trust electronic records.”
“Last week, I stole it.”
“I thought I could use it to protect myself.”
“I was wrong.”
“Ryan knows it’s gone.”
She looked directly into the camera.
“If anything happens to me, the original ledger is in the place Emily and I hid our grandmother’s jewelry when we were twelve.”
The video ended.
Dad looked at me.
“Do you remember?”
I did.
The ranch.
Grandmother’s old stable.
A loose brick behind the tack-room sink.
We drove there with law enforcement.
The Hawthorne ranch had been empty since my grandmother died.
I hadn’t visited in years.
Inside the tack room, dust covered everything.
I knelt beside the old sink.
Third brick from the floor.
I pulled it loose.
Behind it was a plastic waterproof pouch.
Inside was the black ledger.
And one other item.
A photograph.
Ryan stood outside my grandmother’s house.
The date printed in the corner was eight years old.
Two years before I met him.
May you like
On the back, Natalie had written five words.
HE KNEW WHO YOU WERE FIRST.
