Chapter 13 - Victoria'S Last Bargain
Victoria's Last Bargain
Victoria requested a private meeting from prison.
Grace almost refused.
Nathan asked why Victoria wanted to speak.
“She says she knows who controls the anonymous shares.”
They met behind glass.
Victoria looked thinner but calmer.
“I was told my father was finished,” she said.
“He isn't,” Nathan replied.
Victoria shook her head.
“Howard is finished. The people who served him are not.”
She slid a folded paper across the table.
A list of names.
Bankers.
Lawyers.
Security contractors.
A judge.
And one name Nathan recognized immediately.
Samuel Roth.
Nathan turned toward his attorney.
Samuel did not move.
Victoria watched him.
“I didn't say he betrayed you.”
Nathan's stomach tightened.
“What did he do?”
“He protected your father.”
Samuel finally spoke.
“Only once.”
The room became silent.
Twenty-four years earlier, Samuel had helped Richard hide a financial ledger from Howard.
He had believed the ledger contained evidence that would protect Evelyn.
Instead, Richard used it to negotiate.
Samuel had spent decades carrying the guilt.
Nathan was furious.
Grace stopped him from leaving.
“Ask what happened next.”
Samuel's eyes filled.
“I was afraid.”
The words changed everything.
Not innocence.
Not betrayal.
Fear.
Samuel admitted he had hidden a second copy of the ledger.
He had never told Richard.
He had never told Nathan.
He had hidden it inside the foundation of the first Cole warehouse.
Nathan stared at him.
“Where is it now?”
Samuel whispered the answer.
“Under your mother's grave.”
That night, Nathan returned to the cemetery.
May you like
Someone had already been there.
The grave was open.
