Chapter 19 - THE FATHER'S FINAL SECRET|
Adrien read the financial report three times before accepting what it suggested.
The payment to Marcus Reed had originated from an account created in his father's name nearly twenty years earlier. The account had remained dormant until shortly before the restaurant attack, when someone transferred a substantial sum through several intermediary companies.
If the transaction was genuine, it meant that the conspiracy surrounding Lily's attack might have begun long before Richard Sloane became involved.
But the account could have been accessed by someone else.
Adrien took the documents to Margaret Ellis.
“I want the transaction authenticated before anyone makes accusations.”
Margaret nodded.
“That's the right approach.”
They contacted the bank, obtained the original authorization records, and requested an independent forensic examination. The initial findings showed that the account had been accessed using credentials associated with an old family office.
The office had been closed years earlier.
Its records were supposed to have been destroyed.
Yet someone had preserved the access codes.
Maya located the former administrator, a retired accountant named Helen Ward. She agreed to meet them at her home.
Helen was seventy-three and used a walking frame. When Adrien showed her the records, she stared at them for a long time.
“I thought this had ended.”
“What ended?” Adrien asked.
Helen motioned for them to sit.
“Your father established the account after the first warehouse investigation. He believed someone was using the company to finance violence. He wanted a separate record of every suspicious payment.”
“Why was the account in his name?”
“Because he thought that would make the transactions easier to trace.”
Adrien frowned.
“Then why would money from that account be used to pay Marcus?”
Helen shook her head.
“It shouldn't have been possible. Your father gave the access codes to two people. One was me. The other was your uncle, Gabriel.”
Adrien went still.
Gabriel Voss had disappeared after a boating accident when Adrien was twenty-two. His body had never been recovered, but the family had accepted the official conclusion that he had drowned.
“Are you saying Gabriel could be alive?”
“I'm saying I never saw a death certificate that satisfied me. Your father told me the matter had been handled privately, and I was instructed never to discuss it again.”
Adrien looked at Maya.
“Find every record connected to Gabriel.”
The search uncovered a series of unexplained transfers between the old account and a private company registered overseas. The company had paid for medical treatment, travel, and residential property under several different names.
One of those payments had been made six months earlier.
The recipient was living in Chicago.
A man named Gabriel Voss.
Adrien felt the room close around him.
He had spent years mourning a relative whose disappearance had become another family secret. Now evidence suggested that Gabriel had survived and remained close enough to influence the events surrounding the attack.
They located him at a private residence outside the city.
Gabriel opened the door himself.
He was older, thinner, and carried a silver-topped cane. But his eyes were unmistakable.
“Hello, Adrien.”
Adrien stood motionless.
“You're alive.”
“Obviously.”
“You let us believe you were dead.”
Gabriel sighed.
“Your father thought my disappearance was the only way to keep the family safe.”
“Safe from whom?”
“From people who wanted the records destroyed.”
Gabriel explained that he had discovered the original financial conspiracy years earlier. When he tried to expose it, several associates threatened him. He staged his disappearance with help from a trusted intermediary and spent years moving between countries.
But his explanation did not account for the recent payment to Marcus.
Adrien placed the transaction records on the table.
“Did you finance the attack on Lily?”
Gabriel looked at the documents.
“No.”
“Did you give someone access to the account?”
He hesitated.
“I gave Richard Sloane the codes several years ago. He told me he needed to verify the old transactions.”
Adrien's expression hardened.
“You gave Richard access to an account connected to a conspiracy you knew could endanger my family?”
“I thought he was investigating.”
“You thought?”
Gabriel lowered his head.
“I was wrong.”
For a long moment, Adrien wanted to shout. He wanted to demand how many people had been hurt because the adults in his family had chosen secrecy over courage.
Instead, he sat down.
“Tell the investigators everything.”
Gabriel nodded.
“I will.”
“And if the evidence shows you helped finance the attack, you'll answer for it.”
“I understand.”
When Adrien returned to the mansion, Clare was waiting in the garden.
He told her about Gabriel, the account, and the possibility that the conspiracy had been sustained by years of fear and concealment.
Clare listened.
“Are you angry?”
“Yes.”
“Are you going to let the anger decide what happens next?”
Adrien shook his head.
“No.”
She took his hand.
“Then perhaps the truth is finally stronger than the secrets.”
He looked at her.
For the first time, he believed it might be.
The prosecutors eventually established that Richard had used Gabriel's old credentials to access the dormant account. Gabriel had been careless in sharing the information, but investigators found no evidence that he had knowingly financed the attack.
Richard faced additional charges.
The family secret was finally exposed.
And Adrien understood that the last piece of his old life had not been destroyed by an enemy.
May you like
It had been weakened by the choices his family made whenever telling the truth seemed too dangerous.
He would not make those choices again.
