Chapter 15 - The Lowest Point
The recording was incomplete.
There was no direct confession to murder.
Only Richard shouting.
Charles coughing.
A crash.
Then Richard’s voice.
“You should have left the girl buried in the past.”
The audio ended.
Police reopened the circumstances surrounding Charles Cole’s death.
Nathan barely slept.
The next morning brought something worse.
Grace disappeared.
Her room was empty.
Lily was gone.
Nathan found a note on the bed.
I’m sorry.
I can’t let her lose you too.
Do not follow us.
Nathan crushed the paper in his fist.
Detective Reyes checked the security cameras.
Grace had left at 4:13 a.m.
She used a rideshare to reach a bus station.
Then vanished.
Nathan felt betrayed for almost ten minutes.
Then Daniel noticed something.
“The handwriting.”
Nathan looked.
“What?”
“Grace writes her capital I with a straight line.”
He showed Nathan a signed statement from the previous day.
The note used decorative strokes.
Nathan’s anger disappeared.
“She didn’t write this.”
They checked Lily’s bedroom.
Her favorite stuffed rabbit remained on the bed.
Grace would never voluntarily leave without it.
Nathan called Reyes.
“She was taken.”
Security footage outside the estate showed a maintenance van entering through a service gate.
The gate credential belonged to Howard Keene.
Howard was already in custody.
Someone had cloned it.
Richard.
Nathan’s phone rang.
Unknown number.
He answered.
Grace’s voice came through.
“Nathan.”
He stood.
“Grace.”
Her breathing was fast.
“Don’t give him anything.”
“Where are you?”
“I don’t know.”
“Is Lily with you?”
A small cry sounded in the background.
Nathan gripped the phone.
“Lily?”
Grace whispered.
“She’s okay.”
A man took the phone.
Richard Vale.
Nathan’s body went cold.
“You have until noon.”
“For what?”
“The archive.”
“The police already have it.”
“You have Charles’s private ledger.”
Nathan glanced at Daniel.
They did.
A handwritten ledger had been removed before police sealed the room.
It listed offshore accounts and coded payments.
Richard continued.
“Bring it alone.”
Nathan said nothing.
“Or Grace goes to prison.”
“You kidnapped them.”
Richard laughed softly.
“Did I?”
“I have footage showing Grace left voluntarily.”
Nathan understood.
More fabricated evidence.
Richard continued.
“And by noon, police will find enough money in her account to prove she was extorting your father for years.”
Nathan closed his eyes.
“What about Lily?”
Silence.
That silence terrified him most.
Then Richard said.
“Children survive new families every day.”
Nathan nearly broke the phone.
The line disconnected.
Daniel looked at him.
“You cannot go alone.”
Nathan picked up the ledger.
“I’m not planning to.”
May you like
He looked toward Victoria.
“Call your brother.”
