Chapter 9 - The Accountant
Sebastian Varela had never carried a weapon for me.
He never needed one.
He understood numbers better than most men understood fear.
He created companies that existed for three days.
He moved money across borders before banks realized it had arrived.
He could look at ten pages of accounts and tell me exactly which employee was stealing.
Then, eighteen months before I disappeared, Sebastian resigned.
He claimed he wanted a quiet life.
I believed him.
That mistake had now reached my daughter.
Victor leaned against the tunnel wall.
“Sebastian built the Varela fortune using your infrastructure.”
“And you knew?”
“I suspected.”
“For nineteen years?”
“I spent nineteen years trying to prove it.”
Mateo laughed bitterly.
“How heroic.”
Victor ignored him.
“Sebastian didn’t simply steal money.”
“What did he steal?”
“Your identity.”
I thought of Elena’s investigation.
Contracts signed under The Ghost.
Companies operating after I had vanished.
“He kept The Ghost alive.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Victor looked at Rafael.
“Because fear was useful.”
Rafael’s face changed.
“What are you talking about?”
Victor turned to him.
“Your first waterfront contract was secured through a company called Meridian Holdings.”
Rafael said nothing.
“Meridian Holdings belonged to The Ghost.”
Rafael stared at me.
“You?”
“No.”
Victor answered for me.
“Daniel had already disappeared.”
Rafael seemed to understand.
“Sebastian.”
“Yes.”
Victor looked toward me.
“Beltran received campaign funding from related companies.”
“And Cordova?”
“Construction contracts.”
“And the Varelas?”
“They controlled everything behind the curtain.”
Renata squeezed my hand.
Her eyes were exhausted.
I wanted her back in a hospital.
Instead, we were standing beneath an unfinished building discovering that the fortune behind the men who broke her face had been built from the corpse of my old identity.
Rafael turned toward Santiago.
“You knew nothing about this?”
Santiago shook his head.
“No.”
“Did Emmett ever mention Meridian?”
“No.”
Then he stopped.
“Actually…”
Everyone looked at him.
“Last month he was drunk.”
“What did he say?”
“He said his family owned a ghost.”
Victor and I exchanged a glance.
Rafael looked sick.
We returned Renata to the hospital using a private ambulance.
This time Mateo placed people on every floor.
Victor stayed away.
Rafael took Santiago home.
But before leaving, he gave me something unexpected.
“Emmett sent this to Santiago after the attack.”
A screenshot.
The message read:
IF SHE TALKS, GRANDFATHER WILL DO WHAT HE DID TO HER MOTHER.
I stared at it until the letters blurred.
Finally, we had something more than suspicion.
Sebastian Varela knew about Elena.
Possibly because he had ordered her death.
I went to Renata’s bedside.
She was sleeping again.
I kissed her forehead.
Then Mateo entered.
“We found Holloway.”
I stood.
“Alive?”
Mateo hesitated.
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“In a motel outside Albany.”
“Why hasn’t he come forward?”
“Because he says he knows who killed Elena.”
My heartbeat slowed.
“And?”
May you like
Mateo looked directly at me.
“He won’t tell anyone except you.”
