Chapter 16 - NATHAN LEARNS THE TRUTH
Nathan demanded to speak with me.
I almost refused.
Then I realized he deserved to hear the truth from someone other than his father.
Detective Cole arranged the meeting.
Nathan sat behind a glass partition.
Without the manor, his tailored suit, his staff, and his reputation, he looked smaller.
Not weak.
Just ordinary.
He picked up the phone.
I did the same.
“You look pleased.”
“I’m not.”
“You destroyed my company.”
“Your company is still operating.”
“Without me.”
“Yes.”
He laughed bitterly.
“So this was always the plan.”
“No.”
I looked at him.
“The plan was to survive you.”
His expression tightened.
I continued.
“Your father is alive.”
“I know.”
“He has been manipulating you.”
Nathan laughed.
“You think that is news?”
That surprised me.
“You knew?”
“I knew he wanted the reserve.”
“Did you know where the reserve came from?”
Nathan hesitated.
“No.”
“It was Hartwell money.”
He stared at me.
“You’re lying.”
“Your father stole the original capital decades ago.”
Nathan shook his head.
“He built Ashford Maritime.”
“With money taken through Hartwell subsidiaries.”
“No.”
“The proof is in my mother’s archive.”
Nathan’s confidence began collapsing.
“That is impossible.”
“Your father told you my mother stole from him.”
Nathan did not answer.
“He built your entire identity around a lie.”
Nathan looked away.
For several seconds, neither of us spoke.
Then he asked quietly, “Why did you stay?”
I had expected anger.
Not that question.
“At first, because I loved you.”
Nathan looked back.
“Then?”
“Because I started noticing things.”
“The accounts.”
“The lies.”
“The medical records.”
He lowered his head.
“You knew about those?”
“Not all of them.”
I paused.
“But I knew you were building a story about me.”
Nathan rubbed his forehead.
“You could have left.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“Because if I left too early, you would erase everything.”
Nathan looked at me.
“So every conversation…”
“No.”
“Every dinner?”
“No.”
“Every time you acted like we still had a marriage?”
I held his gaze.
“Some of those moments were real for me.”
That answer hurt him more than hatred would have.
I continued.
“But somewhere along the way, you decided control mattered more than love.”
Nathan became quiet.
Then he leaned closer.
“There is one thing you still don’t know.”
I waited.
“My father is not in Switzerland.”
“Where is he?”
Nathan looked toward the camera monitoring us.
Then back at me.
“He never left New York.”
My pulse changed.
“Where?”
Nathan smiled faintly.
May you like
“Ask Theodore about the old Ashford shipping terminal.”
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