Chapter 8 - THE PARTNER WHO DISAPPEARED
Victor Sloane had helped create Vale Dominion.
My father told me the truth inside Martin Crane’s guarded hospital room.
Thirty years earlier, Elias Vale had been a financial investigator.
Victor was the strategist beside him.
Together they built a private intelligence firm designed to trace money ordinary law enforcement could not follow.
They were friends.
Partners.
Almost brothers.
Then Black Meridian changed everything.
Victor believed the network was too valuable to destroy.
Dad believed it had to be exposed.
They fought.
Victor disappeared with confidential records days before Midnight Crown was activated.
Everyone assumed he had been killed.
“He wasn’t killed,” Martin said.
“No.”
Dad stared through the window.
“He became Black Meridian.”
The realization was almost impossible to process.
Nathan had spent years believing himself powerful.
But he had merely been operating inside another man’s machine.
“How did Nathan meet Sloane?” I asked.
Martin answered.
“Seven years ago.”
Before our marriage.
Nathan’s first major international contract had been impossible for a company his size.
I remembered how proud he had been.
He called it the deal that made him.
Now I understood.
Victor Sloane had made him.
“Nathan became his public face,” Martin said.
“A legitimate businessman who could move Black Meridian cargo through legal ports.”
“And Celeste?”
“Recruiter.”
My stomach tightened.
Celeste had not simply entered Nathan’s life as an executive consultant.
“She was placed beside him.”
Martin nodded.
“To supervise him.”
Suddenly, the affair looked different.
Not less cruel.
Not less personal.
But more calculated.
Celeste had stroked Nathan’s ego while reporting his weaknesses to someone else.
Nathan believed he owned her.
Victor owned them both.
“What happens tomorrow?” I asked.
Martin’s face went pale.
“Midnight Crown completes at midnight.”
“What does that mean?”
“All remaining Black Meridian assets consolidate.”
“How much?”
“Possibly billions.”
“Where?”
Martin looked at Dad.
“That’s the problem.”
“The final destination changes every six hours.”
Dad leaned closer.
“There must be an authorization key.”
Martin nodded.
“Three pieces.”
“Nathan has one.”
“Celeste has one.”
“And the third?”
Martin hesitated.
“Sloane.”
I thought of the black flash drive.
Celeste had surrendered it.
The investigators possessed her key.
Nathan’s key could potentially be seized.
Victor Sloane remained the missing piece.
Then Martin said something that changed everything.
“Nathan doesn’t know Celeste’s key was on the drive.”
I looked at Dad.
If Nathan believed Celeste still controlled it, he would contact her.
And if Nathan contacted Celeste, Victor might contact Nathan.
A plan formed immediately.
“No,” Dad said.
I had not even spoken yet.
“You don’t know what I was going to say.”
“Yes, I do.”
“I can make Nathan come to me.”
“Absolutely not.”
“He still believes he can control me.”
“You are injured.”
“That makes me more believable.”
Dad stared at me.
“I almost lost you last night.”
“And you’ll lose the chance to stop Sloane if we do nothing.”
Martin closed his eyes.
He knew I was right.
Dad hated that I was right.
Finally, he said the words I knew he would regret.
“What exactly are you proposing?”
I looked toward the city beyond the hospital window.
May you like
“I’m going home.”
“And I’m going to make my husband believe he still has a chance to win.”
