Chapter 14 - Arthur’s Version
Ryan read his father’s note twice.
Then a third time.
Vivian did not ask to see it.
That was the first thing Elena noticed.
The second was that Vivian looked frightened again.
Not guilty.
Frightened.
“What version?” Ryan asked her.
Vivian’s voice came out thin. “Arthur blamed me.”
“For Dad’s death?” Elena asked.
“No. For pushing Thomas too hard.”
“What did you do?”
Vivian sat on an old wooden bench in the basement corridor.
“I told your father I would sue his firm into the ground if he published anything before we corrected the transfers.”
Elena stared at her.
Vivian did not look away.
“I was arrogant. I thought money and lawyers were the same as control. Thomas told me fear made people stupid. I told him fear made people cooperative.”
Elena heard her father’s voice in her memory: If someone wants you afraid, slow down. Fear loves speed.
“What happened next?”
“Two days later, he called Arthur and said he had proof Evan was running a second transfer network. The next night, Thomas died.”
Ryan’s voice hardened. “And you still kept Daniel employed?”
Vivian looked at him.
“Daniel brought me evidence that Evan was in Boston the night Thomas died.”
Elena felt cold.
“Was he?”
“We believed he was.”
Marcus, standing nearby, asked, “What kind of evidence?”
“Hotel key records. Restaurant receipt. Security footage.”
Elena looked at Ryan.
They both understood at the same time.
Credentials.
Logs.
Footage.
Exactly the kind of evidence someone had just manufactured against Ryan.
“Evan’s alibi was built,” Elena said.
Vivian closed her eyes.
“Yes.”
The memory card from Box 17 contained photographs of handwritten invoices and one short audio clip.
Thomas’s voice: “Say that again.”
Then another man.
Daniel Cross.
“I can put Evan anywhere you need him. That is what Arthur pays me for.”
A door slammed in the recording.
A third voice entered.
Evan.
“You recording this, Ward?”
The audio cut off.
Ryan leaned against the vault wall.
Vivian whispered, “My God.”
An officer stepped away to make a call.
Elena stared at the old memory card inside its evidence sleeve.
Her father had known.
He had almost gotten it out.
Then Marcus’s phone rang.
He answered, listened, and looked at Elena.
“Evan Vale just contacted the lender consortium.”
“What does he want?”
Marcus’s mouth tightened.
“He says he has proof that Ryan personally authorized every recent Harbor transfer.”
Ryan shook his head. “Fabricated.”
“Maybe,” Marcus said. “But he also says he has the original financial records proving Vivian’s eleven-year-old fraud.”
Vivian’s face went rigid.
“What is he asking for?” Elena said.
May you like
Marcus looked at Ryan.
“Control of Vale Meridian.”
