Chapter 3: The Price of Silence
For several seconds, I thought I had misunderstood him.
“What did you just say?””
My father’s former attorney, Martin Hale, went silent on the other end of the phone.
Then he repeated it.
“The payment recipient was Victoria Harrington.””
Grace stood across from me, one hand pressed against her injured shoulder.
She had gone completely still.
“How much?”” I asked.
“Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars initially.””
“Initially?””
Martin exhaled.
“There were additional transfers.””
I lowered myself into my father’s old leather chair.
“How many?””
“Seven that I can verify.””
Grace covered her mouth.
I stared at the dark window behind my desk, seeing my reflection instead of the city.
“Total?””
“Just over nine hundred thousand dollars.””
My stomach turned.
Victoria had always told me her family money paid for her lifestyle before we met. The apartment in Manhattan. The designer clothes.
The European trips. The charitable donations that helped establish her reputation among my circle.
Nine hundred thousand dollars.
My father’s money.
“Why would my father pay Victoria before she was even part of my life?””
“That,” Martin said, “is why I called.””
Paper rustled on his end.
“I found the transfers inside a restricted archive. Your father instructed the accounting department to classify them as consulting fees.””
“Consulting for what?””
“There’s no legitimate service attached.””
Grace suddenly whispered, “Nathan.””
I looked at her.
She seemed frightened.
Not surprised.
Frightened.
“You know something.””
Grace lowered her eyes.
“Martin,” I said into the phone, “send me everything.””
“I will. But there’s something else.””
My fingers tightened around the phone.
“Of course there is.””
“The first transfer occurred five years ago.””
The timeline struck immediately.
Before Victoria became my girlfriend.
Before my father died.
Before Lily was born.
“What date?””
Martin told me.
Grace made a strangled sound.
I turned toward her.
“What?””
She sank onto the sofa.
“That was three days after your father came to my apartment.””
My pulse hammered.
“What happened at your apartment?””
Grace stared at her hands.
“He brought someone with him.””
I already knew the answer before asking.
“Victoria?””
“No.””
Grace looked up.
“A man I never knew.””
Martin remained silent on the line.
Grace continued.
“Your father put an envelope on my table. Fifty thousand dollars in cash.””
I felt sick.
“He told me to take it and leave the state.””
“You refused.””
“Yes.””
“What happened?””
“The man photographed me.””
“Why?””
“He said they needed evidence that I had accepted money.””
“But you hadn’t.””
Grace gave a bitter laugh.
“That didn’t matter.””
She looked toward the hallway, checking that Lily wasn’t nearby.
“Your father told me if I ever contacted you, he would claim I tried to extort the Cole family. He said his attorneys would bury me.””
I stood abruptly.
“And I knew nothing.””
“You were in London negotiating the Ashford acquisition.””
I froze.
I remembered that trip.
My father had insisted I go.
He had personally arranged it.
He had even extended my stay by four days because of a supposedly urgent meeting.
A meeting that, looking back, he could easily have handled himself.
“He sent me away.””
Grace nodded.
“I tried calling you.””
I stared at her.
“What?””
“Eleven times.””
The number cut through me.
“I never received those calls.””
“I know.””
“How?””
“Because someone answered your phone on the twelfth.””
My skin prickled.
“Who?””
“A woman.””
Martin suddenly spoke.
“Nathan.””
His voice had changed.
“What?””
“I think you need to see the files before we continue.””
“Martin, who answered my phone?””
“I don’t know.””
Grace did.
I could see it in her face.
“Say it.””
She hesitated.
“Victoria.””
The office went silent.
“That’s impossible. I hadn’t met her.””
“You hadn’t.””
Grace’s eyes hardened.
“But she knew you.””
I felt as though the floor had shifted.
“When I called, she said she was your assistant. She told me you wanted nothing to do with me.””
“I never had a female assistant in London.””
“I know that now.””
“What exactly did she say?””
Grace swallowed.
“She said, ‘Nathan knows about the baby. He doesn’t want it.’”
My chest tightened.
Grace’s voice broke.
“She knew I was pregnant before I had told anyone except your father.””
I couldn’t breathe properly.
Victoria hadn’t entered my life by chance.
Someone had placed her there.
“Martin,” I said, “where are you?””
“At my office.””
“Stay there.””
“Nathan, it’s nearly three in the morning.””
“Stay there.””
I ended the call.
Grace stood.
“What are you doing?””
“Getting answers.””
“Nathan—”
“Victoria is still in this house.””
Grace’s face changed.
“No.””
I stopped.
“What?””
“She left.””
“When?””
“About twenty minutes ago.””
I grabbed my phone and opened the security application.
The driveway camera showed Victoria’s car leaving through the gates at 2:41 a.m.
She had taken two suitcases.
I called her.
Straight to voicemail.
Again.
Voicemail.
Then my phone vibrated.
A message from Martin.
Three scanned documents appeared.
The first showed a payment authorization signed by my father.
The second listed a private account belonging to Victoria.
The third was different.
A handwritten agreement.
I enlarged it.
Grace moved beside me.
At the top were four words:
*COLE SUCCESSION CONTINGENCY AGREEMENT*
Below them were my father’s signature and Victoria’s.
I read the first paragraph.
Then again.
“No.””
Grace leaned closer.
“What does it say?””
I couldn’t answer immediately.
Because according to the document, Victoria hadn’t merely been paid to keep Grace silent.
She had been promised something much larger.
Control.
If I died without a legally recognized child, a special trust connected to Cole Industries would activate after my marriage.
And Victoria would become one of its controlling beneficiaries.
Grace whispered, “Nathan…”
I kept reading until one final handwritten note appeared beneath my father’s signature.
*The child must never establish legal paternity.*
Then my phone rang again.
Martin.
I answered.
His first words made every hair on my arms rise.
“Nathan, I found the identity of the man who went to Grace’s apartment with your father.””
“Who?””
May you like
Martin took a breath.
“He still works for you.””
