Chapter 10 - The Enemy Inside Hartwell
Jonathan was allowed into the detached security office.
Not the house.
Daniel insisted on recording everything.
Jonathan looked exhausted.
His expensive coat was wrinkled.
His face looked older than Evelyn remembered.
She sat across from him.
“You own Northstar Pacific.”
Jonathan nodded.
“Yes.”
Daniel leaned forward.
“That admission alone creates serious problems.”
“I know.”
Evelyn stared at her cousin.
“Why?”
Jonathan slid the folder across the table.
“Because Nathan came to me three years ago.”
Evelyn did not touch it.
“What did he want?”
“He said Grant Meridian needed a private restructuring vehicle.”
“For what?”
“To protect assets if Hartwell called the debt.”
Evelyn felt anger rise.
“And you agreed.”
Jonathan looked ashamed.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I thought you were destroying him.”
Evelyn stared.
Jonathan continued.
“Nathan told me you were using the trust to control your marriage.”
Daniel scoffed.
Jonathan ignored him.
“He showed me emails.”
“What emails?”
“Messages where you threatened to bankrupt him if he left you.”
Evelyn went still.
“I never wrote that.”
“I know that now.”
Jonathan opened the folder.
Printed emails.
Her name.
Her address.
Her writing style.
Forgeries again.
Nathan had not simply forged signatures.
He had forged an entire version of Evelyn.
Jealous.
Controlling.
Unstable.
Jonathan rubbed his forehead.
“I believed him.”
“You wanted to believe him.”
Jonathan looked at her.
She was right.
He did not deny it.
“Northstar was supposed to acquire assets legally.”
“Below market?”
Jonathan looked away.
“Yes.”
Evelyn felt disgust.
“You planned to profit from Hartwell-backed property.”
“I planned to recover value before Grant Meridian collapsed.”
“For yourself.”
“Yes.”
At least he admitted it.
Daniel tapped the folder.
“You said someone inside Hartwell helped Nathan.”
Jonathan removed a photograph.
A man leaving a restaurant with Nathan.
Richard Hale.
Evelyn stared at it.
“No.”
Jonathan handed over more photographs.
Richard.
Nathan.
Three meetings.
Two cities.
One dated only six months earlier.
Evelyn’s chest tightened.
Richard had stood beside her at Aurelia.
He had called Daniel.
He had helped trigger the freeze.
Daniel looked disturbed.
“Where did you get these?”
“My investigator.”
Evelyn looked at Jonathan.
“Why were you investigating Nathan?”
“Because six months ago he changed the deal.”
“What deal?”
Jonathan leaned forward.
“He stopped talking about protecting Grant Meridian.”
Evelyn waited.
“He started talking about taking Hartwell.”
Silence.
Jonathan continued.
“He said once you were removed, he would have enough proxies inside the trust to force a restructuring.”
Evelyn thought of Richard.
The man who had defended her tonight.
The man who had helped save Nathan years earlier.
Her phone buzzed.
A message from Richard.
We need to talk privately. Do not trust Daniel until we do.
Evelyn looked up.
Daniel saw her face.
May you like
“What happened?”
For the first time that night, Evelyn did not tell him.
