Chapter 8 - The Threat
Grace stared at the message until the letters blurred.
Then she turned on Nathan.
"I'm leaving."
"No."
"That is not your decision."
"Running didn't protect you five years ago. It won't protect you now."
Grace stepped closer. "She's my daughter."
"She's my brother's daughter."
The words landed between them.
Grace's eyes filled, but her voice stayed hard. "You don't get to become family because danger finally made you curious."
Nathan flinched.
She was right.
He lowered his voice. "Then let me earn it."
Back at the estate, Maya called with another discovery. Victoria had not returned to her apartment. Her credit cards were inactive. Richard Ashford had canceled two meetings and flown from New York to Chicago on a private jet.
"They're together," Nathan said.
"Probably," Maya replied. "And one more thing. Voss is alive."
Nathan stood. "Where?"
"Nursing facility outside Rockford. Stroke three years ago. He can barely speak."
They drove there that evening.
Caleb Voss looked nothing like the dangerous man in old company photographs. He was thin, gray, and trapped inside a body that no longer obeyed him.
Nathan placed Ethan's photograph on the tray beside his bed.
Voss began to shake.
"You followed my brother the day he died."
Voss's eyes filled with tears.
"Did Richard Ashford order you to kill him?"
Voss tried to speak. Only air came out.
A nurse brought an alphabet board.
Slowly, painfully, Voss pointed to letters.
N-O.
Grace leaned closer.
"Then who?"
Voss's finger moved again.
V.
Nathan's jaw tightened.
I.
C.
T.
O.
R.
I.
A.
Grace stepped back.
Nathan shook his head. "Victoria was twenty-six. She wasn't running Ashford security."
Voss's hand slapped weakly against the tray.
Then he spelled two more words.
SHE KNEW.
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And finally:
ASK MARGARET.
