Chapter 14 - What Mark Lost
Sarah refused to believe it.
Rebecca explained twice.
Thomas Whitmore had invested legitimate income decades earlier.
Some investments had grown.
Others had been mixed with recovered funds but remained traceable.
After restitution, taxes, and legal claims, approximately six million dollars legally belonged to Sarah.
She laughed.
Mark had spent years telling her she was nothing without his money.
Now his assets were frozen.
His mansion was under seizure proceedings.
His businesses were collapsing.
And Sarah possessed more legitimate wealth than she had ever known.
She did not celebrate Mark's destruction.
She celebrated freedom.
She purchased the small rented house.
Not the mansion.
The children didn't want the mansion.
Neither did she.
She created a trust for Emma and Toby.
Then she established a fund for tenants harmed by the fraudulent property network.
Daniel helped structure it.
Their relationship remained cautious.
Sarah had not forgotten his lie.
But she understood why he had hidden his connection to Hale.
One afternoon Daniel brought her a file.
"This is the last known list of Hale companies."
"Last known?"
"He keeps creating more."
"Do you think he's still in the country?"
"I know he is."
"How?"
Daniel showed her a photograph.
Victor Hale entering a black sedan three days earlier.
Sarah studied the face.
Older.
Calm.
Almost ordinary.
"Why hasn't he been arrested?"
"We need admissible evidence connecting him personally to the current crimes."
"The ledger?"
"His attorneys will claim it's fabricated."
"My father's recording?"
"Useful. Not enough."
"Mark?"
"Better."
Sarah looked at him.
"Then use Mark."
Daniel hesitated.
"There's a problem."
Of course there was.
"What?"
"Mark's cooperation agreement requires him to testify."
"Yes."
"He was scheduled for a deposition this morning."
Sarah waited.
"He never arrived."
Her heart sank.
"Did he escape?"
"No."
"Then where is he?"
Daniel placed a photograph on the table.
A transport vehicle.
Destroyed.
Burned.
Sarah stared.
"Was he inside?"
"No body."
"Guards?"
"Two injured. Alive."
"What happened?"
"They said another vehicle forced them off the road."
Sarah sat back.
"Victor."
"Probably."
Sarah thought about the man she had once loved.
She did not want Mark back.
She did not forgive him.
But she also did not want him murdered before he could answer for what he had done.
"What happens now?"
Daniel looked toward the children playing outside.
"We find him."
Three days passed.
No Mark.
Five.
No Mark.
On the sixth morning Sarah received a package.
No return address.
Inside was Mark's wedding ring.
Emma saw it.
"Is Dad dead?"
Sarah pulled her close.
"I don't know."
Beneath the ring was a handwritten note.
HE SHOULD HAVE FINISHED THE JOB TWELVE YEARS AGO.
Sarah showed it to Rebecca.
Then federal investigators.
The handwriting did not match Hale's known samples.
Daniel looked disturbed.
"What?"
Sarah asked.
He read it again.
"My father doesn't write threats."
"Maybe he's changed."
"No."
"Daniel, he's a criminal."
"I know exactly what he is."
"Then what are you saying?"
Daniel pointed at the sentence.
"This isn't his style."
Sarah stared at him.
"Whose is it?"
Daniel looked toward the old photograph of Thomas Whitmore.
"I don't know."
But Sarah could see that wasn't true.
May you like
He suspected someone.
And he was afraid to say the name.
