Chapter 6 - THE FUNERAL
Arthur Vale's grave was opened under police supervision the next morning.
The ring was gone.
Thomas had finally made a mistake, though.
A cemetery camera caught his face clearly.
For the first time in twenty-seven years, authorities had proof that Thomas Vale was alive.
But he disappeared before police reached his apartment.
Then the second blow came.
Daniel Mercer's autopsy found a sedative in his blood.
He hadn't died from complications of the fire.
Someone had killed him in the hospital.
Natalie stood inside Elliot's office staring at the report.
“He knew too much.”
Elliot nodded.
“And Thomas was there.”
“But if Thomas wanted Daniel dead, why wait?”
Marcus looked at them.
“Maybe he didn't.”
The possibility was worse.
Someone else might be involved.
Elliot ordered an internal review of every employee who had access to his father's records.
It produced one name neither expected.
Marcus Kane.
Natalie stared at the report.
Marcus himself looked stunned.
His security credentials had accessed Arthur's archive twelve times after Arthur's death.
“I didn't do this.”
Elliot said nothing.
Marcus removed his weapon and placed it on the desk.
“I've protected you for eleven years.”
“I know.”
“If you don't trust me, say it.”
Elliot's face tightened.
Natalie interrupted.
“The access times.”
Both men looked at her.
“Show me.”
She studied them.
Every entry occurred between 6:00 and 6:15 a.m.
Except one.
11:43 p.m.
Natalie remembered the building's security interface.
“Your logs use twelve-hour formatting.”
“Yes.”
“But the archive scanner uses twenty-four-hour formatting.”
Marcus frowned.
“So?”
“These records were recreated manually.”
She pointed.
“Someone typed the times into a template without realizing the source system would show 23:43.”
Elliot looked at Marcus.
“You were framed.”
Natalie nodded.
“And whoever did it understands security, but not design systems.”
Marcus gave her the first genuine smile she'd ever seen from him.
“I officially forgive you for the subway incident.”
They traced the forged logs.
The files originated from Elliot's chief financial officer.
Graham Pike.
Police arrested him that evening.
Pike confessed within four hours.
Thomas had paid him for twelve years.
He had replaced Elliot's tie.
He had leaked the photographs.
He had started the warehouse fire.
But he denied killing Daniel.
“Thomas ordered the fire,” Pike told investigators. “Mercer wasn't supposed to be inside.”
“Who killed him?” Natalie asked.
Pike looked terrified.
“I don't know.”
“You're lying.”
“I'm not.”
Then Pike said something that changed the investigation again.
“Thomas isn't trying to destroy Elliot.”
Elliot leaned forward.
“What?”
“He wants him alive.”
“Why?”
Pike laughed bitterly.
“Because he thinks Elliot belongs to him.”
Silence.
Elliot's face emptied.
“What does that mean?”
Pike refused to explain.
The answer arrived the following day.
Thomas Vale released a video publicly.
He sat in a dark room.
Older than Arthur had been when he died, but unmistakably related.
“Elliot,” he said calmly, “your father lied to you about more than your mother's death.”
Then he held up a document.
A birth certificate.
Elliot Vale.
Father:
Thomas Vale.
The internet exploded.
Vale Holdings shares dropped twelve percent in an hour.
Reporters surrounded Elliot's home.
Board members demanded emergency meetings.
Natalie found Elliot alone in Arthur's study.
He was staring at an old family photograph.
“Is it real?” she asked.
“I don't know.”
“Then don't let him decide what it means before you do.”
Elliot looked at her.
“What if Arthur wasn't my father?”
“Then Arthur was still the man who raised you.”
“He lied.”
“Yes.”
“So did your mother.”
Natalie flinched.
Elliot regretted it instantly.
“I'm sorry.”
“No. You're right.”
She sat beside him.
“Our parents apparently believed secrecy was a love language.”
He almost smiled.
Natalie took his hand.
“DNA can tell you biology. It can't tell you who stayed when you were sick. Who taught you to drive. Who yelled when your grades dropped. Who knew how you took your coffee.”
“My father hated coffee.”
“Then who knew how you took your terrible cereal mug?”
That finally made him laugh.
He leaned his forehead against hers.
“I don't know what I would have done if you hadn't fixed that tie.”
“Probably walked into your meeting looking ridiculous.”
He kissed her.
Then his phone rang.
The DNA test Thomas had demanded through attorneys was expedited.
Elliot opened the result.
Thomas Vale was not his father.
Probability: less than 0.1 percent.
Natalie exhaled.
“Then why forge the certificate?”
Elliot stared at it.
“He wasn't trying to convince me.”
“Who, then?”
“The board.”
Thomas wanted uncertainty.
Chaos.
Vale Holdings weakened.
Natalie suddenly remembered Rebecca's recording.
Arthur will blame himself.
Not Elliot.
Arthur.
“Elliot.”
“What?”
“What if your mother's death wasn't about money?”
He stared.
Natalie continued.
“What if Thomas hated Arthur enough to destroy everything Arthur loved?”
Elliot's phone buzzed.
A message from an unknown number.
One photograph.
Natalie's apartment.
Taken from inside her bedroom.
Below it:
Arthur chose Rebecca over blood.
May you like
Then another message arrived.
Will you make the same mistake?
