Chapter 7 - The Brother Who Inherited the Secret
Daniel did not run.
When Natalie asked him to enter the conference room, he closed the door and sat in the same chair Rowan had occupied.
Mara placed the Northstar ownership records in front of him.
Daniel read the first page.
Then he removed his glasses.
“How long have you known?” Natalie asked.
“That Northstar was connected to Meridian? Since it was created.”
“That you owned it?”
“I don’t.”
“Your signature says otherwise.”
“My signature created the trust. It did not make me the beneficiary.”
“Who is the beneficiary?”
Daniel looked tired.
“Henry.”
Natalie stared at him.
“My father is dead.”
“The trust was established under instructions he left before his death.”
“Northstar was formed fourteen months ago.”
“The legal structure was prepared years earlier. It activated when someone attempted to access the Blue Lantern archive.”
“Grant activated it?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Northstar was a trap.”
Mara crossed her arms.
“You submitted an eighteen-million-dollar payment request to your own trap?”
“I did not submit it. Grant did.”
“Using Natalie’s authorization.”
“I didn’t know he had her credentials.”
Natalie pushed the records closer to him.
“You lied to me in my father’s house.”
“I withheld information.”
“Do not insult me with careful words.”
Daniel looked down at the papers.
“Henry believed there were people inside Vale Maritime helping the smuggling network. He created Northstar as a dormant company that could attract anyone searching for Blue Lantern’s financial channels.”
“And you kept it hidden from me.”
“I was protecting you.”
Natalie laughed bitterly.
“Every man in this story uses the same excuse.”
“Because Henry made us promise.”
“He made Grant promise too. How did that work out?”
Daniel flinched.
Mara sat beside Natalie.
“Who receives the Northstar funds?”
“No one. Transfers are routed through temporary holding accounts so we can identify participants. The money is supposed to return automatically.”
“Supposed to?”
“The eighteen million did not return.”
Natalie’s anger became colder.
“Where is it?”
“I don’t know.”
“Who altered the routing?”
“Someone with access to Meridian’s executive financial system.”
“You have access.”
“So do you.”
“And someone has my credentials.”
Daniel nodded.
“Grant.”
“Or you.”
Mara placed another document on the table.
“Northstar made a payment of 2.7 million dollars to accounts connected to Grant.”
Daniel looked genuinely surprised.
“That wasn’t part of the trap.”
“Then someone took control of it.”
Daniel stood and walked toward the window.
“Henry designed Northstar to identify the network. If Harbormaster discovered the trap, they could reverse it and use the company to frame everyone connected to Blue Lantern.”
“Including Grant,” Natalie said.
“And me.”
Mara looked at Daniel.
“Why did Rowan know about the brass key?”
Daniel turned.
“I didn’t tell him.”
“Who did?”
“I don’t know.”
Natalie remembered the shot fired at the steel door beneath her father’s house.
“Mason Reed said Grant sent him.”
“Grant did,” Daniel said.
“How do you know?”
“Grant contacted me before Mason arrived. He said the house was compromised.”
“You were working with Grant?”
“I was receiving information from him.”
“For how long?”
“Seven years.”
Natalie’s breath caught.
Daniel continued before she could speak.
“Grant began sending evidence after he discovered Rowan had concealed files from the original investigation. He believed someone in the admiral’s office was protecting Harbormaster.”
“Did Grant tell you about Claire?”
“Yes.”
“And the affair?”
Daniel hesitated.
Natalie saw the truth again.
“You all knew.”
“I knew they were spending time together.”
“In hotel rooms?”
“I did not ask.”
“You didn’t want an answer.”
“This was larger than your marriage.”
“Not to Ethan.”
Daniel looked away.
Natalie gathered the documents.
“You’re suspended from Meridian effective immediately.”
“Natalie.”
“You will provide complete access to every account, server and private file you control. Mara will supervise.”
“If you remove me now, whoever altered Northstar will know we found them.”
“They already know.”
“Then let me help.”
“You can help from outside the company.”
Daniel’s phone rang.
The screen displayed an unknown number.
He answered.
No one spoke at first.
Then a distorted voice filled the speaker.
“Monday. Pier 14. The shipment proceeds, or the child learns why lighthouses go dark.”
The call ended.
Natalie stood so quickly that her chair struck the wall.
She called Ethan’s school.
The administrator checked his classroom.
Ethan was not there.
His teacher believed Natalie’s assistant had collected him twenty minutes earlier for a dental appointment.
Natalie had made no appointment.
Security footage showed Ethan walking through the front entrance beside a woman wearing a Meridian employee badge.
The camera captured the woman’s face only briefly.
It was Claire Dalton.
Natalie called Grant.
He answered on the first ring.
“Where is Ethan?”
“I don’t know.”
“Claire took him.”
Silence.
Then Grant’s voice changed.
“Natalie, listen carefully. Do not call the police yet.”
“I’m calling everyone.”
“If Claire took him from school, she had a reason.”
“She is your mistress, not his guardian.”
“Claire would never hurt Ethan.”
“You don’t get to tell me what she would do.”
“I’m going to find them.”
“You have ten minutes to bring me my son.”
“Natalie.”
“After that, I freeze every contract, every account and every access point connected to you.”
Grant breathed slowly into the phone.
“If you freeze the contracts before the shipment arrives, we lose Harbormaster.”
“I don’t care.”
“You will when you understand what they can control.”
“My son is missing.”
“And I am telling you that taking him may be the only reason he is still alive.”
Grant ended the call.
Thirty seconds later, Natalie received a photograph.
Ethan sat inside a car holding the box from his lighthouse model. He appeared frightened but unharmed.
Claire was visible beside him.
Beneath the photograph was a message.
Bring the brass key to the eastern gate at 8:00 Monday morning.
Tell no one.
Natalie enlarged the image.
In the reflection of the car window, she could see the person taking the photograph.
May you like
It was not Claire.
It was Admiral Rowan.
