Chapter 6 - THE SISTER WITH TWO FACES|
Margaret Cross had spent her entire life learning how to survive powerful men.
She had grown up in a mansion where every kindness carried a price, every family dinner concealed a negotiation, and every disagreement could become a war. Her father had taught her that fear was weakness and loyalty was everything. By the time she reached adulthood, she had learned to hide her fear so well that even her younger brother sometimes mistook it for confidence.
But when Julian placed the payment receipt in front of her, the mask finally slipped.
"I didn't authorize this," she insisted. "I swear to you."
Julian stood across from her in the library, his broad shoulders rigid beneath his black shirt.
"The account is registered to your personal office."
"That doesn't mean I made the payment."
"Your signature is on the authorization."
"Then someone forged it!"
I watched them argue, holding the photograph of my father so tightly that the edges bent against my fingers.
I wanted to believe Margaret. She had been the one who gave me the key, the one who brought me into the mansion, and the one who revealed that my mother might still be alive. But she had also lied about why she hired me. She had hidden information about my family and had sent me into a dangerous situation without explaining the risks.
Trust was becoming a luxury I could no longer afford.
"Who has access to your office?" I asked.
Margaret looked at me.
"My executive assistant. Two accountants. Julian's chief financial officer has temporary access to some of the records."
"Names."
She hesitated.
"Arthur Bell handles the financial administration. My assistant is Sophia Grant."
Julian immediately called his head of security.
"Lock down the financial archives. No one accesses the payment records without authorization from my attorney."
He ended the call and turned toward Margaret.
"You're not leaving the estate until we understand this."
Her expression hardened.
"You don't get to imprison me."
"I'm not imprisoning you. I'm ensuring that the person who may have helped conceal Elena's mother doesn't disappear."
"And what about you?" Margaret shot back. "You've been pretending to be paralyzed for three months. You've been testing employees with staged threats. You think you have the right to question everyone else's honesty?"
Julian's jaw tightened.
For a moment, I thought he would explode.
Instead, he looked at the floor.
"No," he said quietly. "I don't."
Margaret seemed almost startled by the admission.
Julian continued.
"But I have a responsibility to find out who is using my family to hurt people. That includes finding out whether you have been involved."
Margaret's eyes filled.
"I wanted to save you."
"You keep saying that. Explain how hiding Elena's mother saved me."
She opened her mouth, then closed it.
Finally, she sat down.
"Seven years ago, I discovered that someone had been moving money through the shipping network. I suspected Victor's people, but I didn't know which records were genuine. David Vale approached me because he believed he could prove it."
"My father trusted you?" I asked.
"He trusted me enough to leave a copy of his findings. He didn't trust me enough to tell me where the original was."
I glanced at the brass key.
"The safe."
Margaret nodded.
"When your father disappeared, I believed he had been killed. I was terrified that the same people would come after you and your mother. I arranged for you to enter Julian's household because I needed to keep you close enough to protect you while we searched for the ledger."
"By letting me believe I was just a maid?"
"I didn't know how else to keep you safe without alerting the person watching you."
I shook my head.
"You could have told me the truth."
"And if you had refused to come?"
"That would have been my decision!"
The words echoed through the library.
Margaret lowered her eyes.
For the first time, she seemed to understand that her fear had not given her the right to make choices for me.
Before anyone could speak again, the security chief entered carrying a tablet.
"Mr. Cross, we've found the source of the recent payments."
Julian took the tablet.
A series of transactions appeared on the screen. The latest payment had been authorized through a remote terminal connected to Margaret's office, but the login had originated from a network registered to Cross Holdings' headquarters.
"Who has access to that network?" Julian asked.
"Several senior executives. The terminal was also accessed remotely using a temporary credential."
"Whose credential?"
The security chief hesitated.
"It was issued to Arthur Bell."
Margaret went white.
Arthur Bell had been Julian's chief financial officer for eleven years. He had managed the books through two major expansions, three violent disputes with rival organizations, and the restructuring that followed Victor Cross's death.
Julian trusted him with nearly everything.
"Bring him here," Julian ordered.
The security chief shook his head.
"We tried. His apartment is empty, his office has been cleared, and his private security detail has disappeared."
Julian's expression turned lethal.
"How long?"
"At least four hours."
I looked at the payment receipt again.
The money had been transferred three weeks earlier. The payment was not a mistake made that morning. Someone had planned it, disguised it, and continued paying for a secret that could destroy the Cross family.
Then Margaret noticed a second line on the tablet.
"Julian," she whispered. "Look at the beneficiary."
The payment had not gone to the medical group.
It had gone to a private security company called Northstar Protective Services.
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The company's listed director was a man who had supposedly died seven years earlier.
My father.
