Chapter 13 - The Woman Who Built Victor Vale
Victor refused to speak for twelve hours.
When he finally requested an attorney, the attorney never arrived.
The name he provided belonged to a lawyer who had died four years earlier.
Agent Kim described it as another psychological game.
Julian saw something else.
Victor was stalling.
Lydia was moving.
Federal investigators raided Marlowe Foundation offices in three states.
Computers were seized.
Accounts frozen.
Employees questioned.
Most claimed ignorance.
Several disappeared before agents arrived.
Lydia had built escape routes everywhere.
Then one accountant broke.
Her name was Claire Donovan.
She had worked at Marlowe for eleven years.
When shown evidence linking foundation money to banking fraud, she began crying.
"I thought we were helping people."
Julian sat beside Agent Kim during the interview.
Claire explained that Lydia rarely appeared in person.
Employees called her Mrs. Marlowe.
She was elegant, soft-spoken, and deeply persuasive.
She told staff that wealthy institutions were inherently corrupt.
That redirecting their resources was moral.
That the foundation's mission justified unconventional methods.
Over time, legal boundaries disappeared.
"Where is she now?" Agent Kim asked.
Claire shook her head.
"I don't know."
Julian placed Marianne's photograph on the table.
"Did Lydia ever mention her?"
Claire stared.
"She hated her."
"Why?"
"She said Marianne stole her family."
Julian frowned.
Lydia believed Arthur had abandoned her after she disappeared with Victor.
When Arthur later married Marianne and built a life, Lydia interpreted it as replacement.
Victor nourished that resentment.
Together they turned it into ideology.
Claire whispered, "Mrs. Marlowe said the Vance sons grew up in a life that should have belonged to her children."
Julian went still.
"Her children?"
Claire realized she had said too much.
"What children?"
Silence.
Agent Kim leaned closer.
"Lydia had children with Victor?"
Claire shook her head.
"Not with Victor."
Julian felt a new unease.
"Then with whom?"
Claire refused to answer.
But investigators searched foundation files and discovered birth records under multiple aliases.
Lydia had two sons.
One died young.
The other was alive.
His identity was sealed behind an adoption record.
The year of birth was thirty years earlier.
Marcus Hale was thirty.
Julian immediately assumed the connection.
But DNA testing disproved it.
Marcus was not Lydia's son.
So who was?
Nathan began reviewing everyone connected to Metropolitan Crown.
Managers.
Executives.
Board members.
Consultants.
One age matched.
Thirty years old exactly.
And the adoption record originated from the same county.
Marcus had a colleague.
Assistant compliance analyst Daniel Reed.
Quiet.
Respected.
Recently hired.
Julian remembered seeing Daniel several times.
Nobody had considered him important.
Agent Kim pulled his employment file.
Daniel had access to regulatory submissions, internal complaints, and executive audit notices.
Enough to warn Victor about Northbridge.
Enough to manipulate investigations.
His personnel photo appeared.
Julian stared.
There was something familiar around the eyes.
Arthur joined through video.
His face changed instantly.
"He looks like Lydia."
Federal agents rushed to Daniel's apartment.
Empty.
A laptop was still running.
On the screen was an open surveillance feed.
May you like
It showed Arthur's protected location.
Victor's network had found him.
