Chapter 5 - Grandma's Last Warning
Elena had hoped she would never have to tell Nathan this way.
Not with Claire staring at her like a prosecutor.
Not with Lucy listening.
"My mother was Carmen Ruiz," Elena said quietly. "She worked for your family before I was born."
Nathan frowned. "I remember that name."
"She was your mother's bookkeeper for the household staff and charitable accounts."
Claire crossed her arms. "And she was fired for stealing."
Elena looked directly at her. "No. She was accused of stealing."
Nathan's face changed.
Elena continued. "Your mother contacted mine two years ago. She apologized. She said she had discovered that the missing money from back then had been moved through a vendor account, not taken by my mother."
"Why didn't she tell me?"
"She said she was trying to prove who did it first."
Claire laughed. "Convenient."
Elena ignored her. "Mrs. Mercer offered my mom money. My mom refused. She wanted her name cleared, not a check. Then she got sick. Before she died, she told me Evelyn might contact me."
Nathan rubbed a hand over his face.
"My mother hired you six months later."
"Yes."
"And you didn't tell me."
"She asked me not to."
Nathan looked hurt, and Elena hated that more than anger.
"Why?"
"Because she thought someone inside the house was reading her mail and checking her phone."
Claire scoffed. "This is insane."
Elena stepped closer to the counter. "She told me one thing the week before she died. She said, 'If anything happens to me, watch Lucy. Children see what adults miss.'"
Lucy was drawing circles in spilled sugar with one finger.
Nathan swallowed.
His phone rang.
The outside accountant.
He answered on speaker.
"Nathan, I pulled the three vendors your mother flagged. She was right. They all route to the same registered agent in Delaware."
Nathan asked, "Who owns them?"
"Still working on it. But there's something else. The Foundation wired three-point-two million dollars this morning."
Claire's head snapped up.
"To whom?" Nathan asked.
"A holding company called Bellweather Strategic."
Elena saw Claire's fingers tighten around her handbag.
The accountant continued. "The transfer was authorized using your digital credentials."
"I didn't authorize anything."
"Then you need to freeze the account now."
Nathan was already typing.
His second phone buzzed before he finished.
A notification from Mercer Private Bank.
SAFE-DEPOSIT ACCESS CONFIRMED — BOX 718.
Nathan stared at the timestamp.
8:42 a.m.
He had been in Boston at 8:42.
"What's in box 718?" Elena asked.
Nathan looked at Claire.
"My mother's original trust documents."
Claire's face went blank.
Nathan opened the bank alert details.
May you like
The access had been granted using a notarized authorization bearing his signature.
A signature he had never written.
