Chapter 12 - The Founder
I had spent years believing I built Nexus to escape my family. The truth was worse. I built it because of them.
Evan drove me back to the house.
Liam was waiting.
He looked at Evan.
“You're alive.”
Evan smiled.
“Disappointed?”
“Not even slightly.”
Sarah arrived twenty minutes later.
She had left Gary at the hospital with Debbie.
When she saw Evan, she hugged him.
He held her tightly.
For a moment, he looked like the brother I remembered.
Then Sarah asked,
“What is happening?”
I handed her the documents.
She read them.
Her hands shook.
“Mom?”
“Yes.”
“Dad?”
“Yes.”
“Victor?”
“Yes.”
She looked at me.
“And Nexus?”
I nodded.
She whispered,
“This is insane.”
“No.”
I looked at the documents.
“It was planned.”
I finally understood why Dad had treated me differently.
Why he had pushed me toward engineering.
Why he had told me never to sign anything without reading every page.
Why he had kept my early prototypes hidden.
Why he had insisted I create a separate legal identity for my technology.
Nexus wasn't just a business.
It was a locked vault.
The code contained historical transaction records embedded deep inside the data architecture.
The system had been designed to identify suspicious financial movement.
That's how the company became valuable.
That's how it grew.
And that's why so many people wanted control of it.
I called the board.
“Emergency session.”
My CFO answered.
“Alina, the board has already scheduled one.”
“I know.”
“What will you do?”
“Attend.”
“They expect to remove you.”
“Good.”
“Good?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I want every person involved in one room.”
Liam looked at me.
“You're setting a trap.”
“Yes.”
Sarah stared.
“You're going to confront Mom?”
“Not yet.”
“Then who?”
I looked at the board list.
One name stood out.
A director appointed eighteen months earlier.
Thomas Reed.
My uncle's old business partner.
The same man who had appeared in my father's photograph.
I called him.
He didn't answer.
I sent one message.
I know about November.
He called immediately.
I put him on speaker.
“Alina.”
“Thomas.”
“We need to talk.”
“We are.”
“You don't understand what you're dealing with.”
“I understand that you helped my mother.”
Silence.
“Who told you?”
“No one.”
“You're making a mistake.”
“Am I?”
He took a breath.
“Your father was going to expose everyone.”
“I know.”
“He would have destroyed the family.”
“He was trying to save me.”
“He was trying to save himself.”
I looked at Evan.
Thomas continued.
“There was a transfer.”
“What transfer?”
“Your father moved money into your name.”
“How much?”
“Four point five million.”
I felt the room go still.
“I know.”
“You don't know why.”
“Tell me.”
“He didn't want you to inherit money.”
“Then what?”
“He wanted you to inherit leverage.”
I frowned.
“What leverage?”
Thomas whispered,
“Proof.”
My pulse raced.
“What proof?”
“Every illegal transaction your mother and Victor ever made.”
I stared at Liam.
Thomas continued.
“Your father put it inside Nexus.”
“Where?”
“In the founder archive.”
I looked toward the screen.
The founder archive was a system I had never accessed.
“Why didn't Dad tell me?”
“Because he knew if you knew, you'd go looking.”
“And?”
“And they would find you.”
I closed my eyes.
“Thomas.”
“Yes?”
“Who actually killed my father?”
There was a long silence.
Then he said,
“Your mother ordered it.”
Sarah started crying.
Thomas continued.
“But someone else carried it out.”
“Who?”
He whispered a name.
“Gary.”
The line disconnected.
Sarah collapsed into a chair.
Evan stared at the floor.
Liam looked at me.
I stood.
“Tomorrow morning, we end this.”
Then my phone rang.
May you like
It was the hospital.
Gary had disappeared.
