Chapter 7 - THE CHOICE
Elliot wanted Natalie out of Chicago.
She refused.
“No.”
“Thomas has been inside your apartment.”
“And sending me away gives him exactly what he wants.”
“It keeps you alive.”
“It isolates you.”
“I can handle being isolated.”
Natalie stared at him.
“That may be the saddest thing you've ever said.”
He looked away.
She understood then.
Elliot had spent his entire adult life believing attachment created targets.
His mother died.
His father became secretive.
People around him learned to fear rather than know him.
Thomas wasn't merely threatening Natalie.
He was reopening the oldest wound Elliot had.
“If you want me gone because you don't want me here, say it.”
His eyes snapped back.
“You know that's not true.”
“Then I'm staying.”
He stepped closer.
“This isn't a branding problem.”
“No. But it is still a problem caused by someone controlling what people see.”
That gave her an idea.
For thirty years, Thomas had survived through secrecy.
So Natalie proposed removing secrecy entirely.
They released Rebecca's recording.
The ledgers.
The trust documents.
Arthur's letters.
Everything except evidence needed by police.
Public perception shifted.
More importantly, former Vale employees began calling.
One remembered Thomas arguing with Eleanor days before her death.
Another remembered Graham Pike destroying files.
A retired mechanic remembered inspecting Eleanor's car.
The brake line hadn't failed.
It had been cut.
Thomas had paid him to remain silent.
Police finally had a witness.
But Thomas disappeared.
Then Daniel's killer surfaced.
A hospital nurse confessed she had been paid to inject Daniel.
By whom?
Not Thomas.
Graham Pike.
Pike had lied.
Daniel could identify him as the arsonist.
Pike killed Daniel to save himself.
The conspiracy that had looked enormous began breaking into smaller pieces of greed and fear.
Yet Thomas remained free.
Three weeks passed.
Natalie returned to work.
Mercer & Rowe's board offered her Daniel's position.
She declined.
Instead she opened her own studio.
Elliot became her first client.
“Technically,” she told him, “you need to sign my contract.”
“You already control $184 million.”
“That's not my money.”
“Legally—”
“My mother created a trap. I'm not buying a yacht with evidence.”
They eventually created the Rebecca Reeves Foundation with the recovered money, funding scholarships, community design projects and legal assistance for families affected by corporate fraud.
For the first time, Natalie felt the money belonged somewhere.
Life almost became normal.
Almost.
One snowy Friday, Elliot took her to a tiny Italian restaurant with no security inside.
Marcus sat in a car across the street.
Natalie noticed Elliot's tie.
Crooked.
Deliberately.
“You did that on purpose.”
“What?”
“The knot.”
He looked innocent.
“You told me I'm terrible at ties.”
“You've been tying them since you were thirteen.”
“Perhaps I've declined.”
Natalie reached across the table.
She fixed it.
His hands settled around hers.
“I was hoping you'd do that.”
“Manipulative.”
“Effective.”
She smiled.
Then the restaurant lights went out.
Elliot stood immediately.
Outside, tires screamed.
Marcus burst through the door.
“Back exit. Now.”
A vehicle had struck the electrical transformer.
They escaped through the kitchen.
But Thomas wasn't attacking them.
He wanted their attention elsewhere.
Arthur Vale's lake house was burning.
By the time they reached Wisconsin, flames had consumed half the property.
Firefighters battled the blaze.
Elliot stood in the snow watching his childhood disappear.
Natalie slipped her hand into his.
Then a firefighter approached carrying a metal box recovered from the basement.
Inside were Eleanor Vale's belongings.
Letters.
Photographs.
And a diary.
Elliot read it until dawn.
Eleanor had known Thomas was stealing.
But the final pages revealed why he hated Arthur.
Their father had intended to leave Vale Holdings equally to both sons.
Then Thomas committed fraud.
Arthur discovered it and forced their father to disinherit him.
Thomas blamed Arthur for losing everything.
Then Eleanor wrote something worse.
Thomas came tonight.
He said if Arthur takes the company, he'll take Arthur's family.
The final entry was dated two days before her death.
Elliot closed the diary.
Natalie saw tears finally fall.
Not many.
Enough.
“He killed her because of my father.”
“No.”
Elliot looked at her.
“Thomas killed her because Thomas chose to kill her.”
That distinction mattered.
Just as the tie had.
Elliot nodded slowly.
Then Marcus entered.
“We found Thomas.”
“Where?”
Marcus's expression was grim.
“Chicago.”
“Where in Chicago?”
“At Rebecca Reeves's grave.”
Natalie's blood turned cold.
They drove back immediately.
When they arrived, Thomas was gone.
But something waited on Rebecca's headstone.
Her silver drafting pencil.
The one stolen from Natalie's apartment.
Beside it was a note.
ASK YOUR MOTHER WHO SHE SAVED FIRST.
Natalie stared at those words.
Then she remembered a story Rebecca had told her when she was little.
About pulling a boy from Lake Michigan.
A boy whose name she'd never revealed.
Natalie turned to Elliot.
“How old were you when your mother died?”
“Fourteen.”
“And the summer before?”
“Thirteen.”
“Did you nearly drown?”
Elliot's face went white.
“Yes.”
May you like
Natalie finally understood.
“My mother saved you before she ever saved your company.”
