Chapter 5 - The Bell Family
David began searching before they even left the bank.
By the time they returned to the mansion, the first results were waiting.
Victoria Hale did not officially exist until five years earlier.
No childhood records.
No university enrollment.
No employment history that could be independently verified.
Rebecca Bell did.
She had grown up outside Pittsburgh.
Her younger brother was Aaron Bell.
Neither sibling had any medical training.
Aaron had worked as a pharmaceutical sales representative before being fired over falsified expense reports.
Rebecca had spent years moving between nonprofit organizations under different job titles.
Three of those organizations later collapsed after financial irregularities were discovered.
No charges were filed.
No money was recovered.
Mark stared at the screen.
“How did no one find this before?”
David looked embarrassed.
“We ran a normal background check.”
“She built a normal background.”
“Yes.”
Mark closed the laptop.
“What’s on Sarah’s flash drive?”
Elena inserted it into an isolated computer.
There were twelve folders.
Most contained financial documents.
The first showed payments from the Ashford Children’s Foundation to organizations Mark had never heard of.
The organizations shared mailing addresses.
Several traced back to companies controlled by Rebecca Bell.
Victoria.
“She was stealing from Sarah’s foundation.”
Elena nodded.
“For years.”
Mark opened another folder.
There were emails.
Sarah had discovered suspicious transfers nearly four years earlier.
She had confronted someone named R.B.
R.B. denied wrongdoing.
Then threatened to destroy Sarah’s reputation.
Mark kept reading.
One email stopped him.
IF YOU KEEP DIGGING, YOUR FAMILY WILL PAY FOR IT.
Mark’s hands curled into fists.
The next document was worse.
A photograph of Victoria.
Younger.
Standing beside Sarah at a charity dinner.
They were smiling.
On the back Sarah had written a single sentence.
She says she wants to help children, but I think she only wants access to us.
Mark sat back.
Victoria had not entered his life after Sarah’s death.
She had been orbiting the family long before.
“How did she get close to me?”
Elena asked.
Mark already knew.
A charity auction.
Eighteen months after Sarah died.
Victoria had approached him near the entrance.
She introduced herself as the director of an arts foundation.
She told him she admired Sarah’s work.
Mark remembered how comforting that had felt.
Someone who respected Sarah.
Someone who did not seem threatened by her memory.
Now every kind word felt poisoned.
David entered the library.
“We found Aaron Bell.”
Mark stood.
“Where?”
“Maybe nowhere.”
“What does that mean?”
“He disappeared three weeks ago.”
Mark frowned.
“Same time his fake clinic closed.”
“Yes.”
“Any financial activity?”
“One transaction.”
David handed him a printout.
“A two-hundred-thousand-dollar deposit.”
“From whom?”
“A holding company registered in Delaware.”
“Owner?”
“We’re tracing it.”
Elena kept reading Sarah’s files.
Then she stopped.
“Mark.”
He turned.
Sarah had created a spreadsheet showing stolen foundation funds.
The total was enormous.
$8,420,000.
But below it was another figure.
$46,000,000.
Mark stared.
“What is that?”
Elena opened the attached note.
Sarah believed the foundation theft was merely a test.
The real target was the Ashford Family Trust.
The trust held shares in Mark’s company, real estate, investment accounts, and voting rights.
More than forty-six million dollars in assets were controlled for Liam’s benefit.
Victoria had not been trying to replace Sarah.
She had been trying to gain access to Liam.
Mark remembered the recorder.
The fake statements.
The sedatives.
A horrifying possibility emerged.
“She was building a case that Liam was unstable.”
Elena nodded slowly.
“And maybe that you were abusive.”
Mark looked at her.
“If she married me…”
“She could present herself as the safe parent.”
Mark felt cold.
“But she’s not his mother.”
“No.”
Elena looked back at Sarah’s letter.
“Unless something happened to you.”
Silence filled the room.
Mark stared at the woman who had spent two years sharing his table.
Sleeping beside him.
Planning their wedding.
And he finally understood why Victoria had been so patient.
She had not needed Mark’s love.
She had needed his name.
Then David’s phone rang.
He answered.
His expression changed immediately.
“What?”
Mark stepped toward him.
David put the call on speaker.
A police detective spoke.
“We found Aaron Bell.”
Mark’s heart slammed.
“Where?”
“In a motel outside Richmond.”
“Is he alive?”
There was a pause.
“Yes.”
“But?”
“He’s asking for protection.”
“From Victoria?”
“No.”
The detective lowered his voice.
“He says Victoria isn’t the person running this.”
Mark looked at Elena.
“What does that mean?”
May you like
The detective answered.
“He says if he tells us who is, someone inside your own company will try to kill him.”
