Chapter 13 - The Cross Family Betrayal
The boy knew the final secret
We pulled Noah inside.
Marcus locked every door.
Lena cleaned the cut on his forehead.
Emily sat beside him.
"Where's Victor?"
Noah shook his head.
"He doesn't know I left."
"How did you escape?"
Noah pointed at Daniel.
"He helped me."
Daniel closed his eyes.
I stared at him.
"How long have you been helping Victor?"
Daniel looked at me.
"Ten years."
"Then why help us now?"
"Because Noah was the last thing Victor had."
Daniel sat down.
"I was afraid."
"Of Victor?"
"Of what would happen if the truth came out."
"What truth?"
He looked at Noah.
"Your father did not die naturally."
I knew what he meant.
My father had suffered a heart attack.
At least that's what I'd been told.
"He was murdered."
Daniel placed a file on the table.
Toxicology.
A drug found in my father's blood.
A drug that caused cardiac arrest.
Victor had killed him too.
Then Daniel showed me something worse.
A confession signed by my father before his death.
Victor was not acting alone.
The hospital network.
The shell companies.
The manipulated records.
All of it had been financed by someone else.
A woman.
Margaret Vale.
Victor's mother.
I frowned.
"She's dead."
"No."
Daniel shook his head.
"She's the one who owns the foundation."
I stared.
Margaret was alive.
And she controlled the trust Victor had been trying to seize.
She was the real architect.
Victor was merely her weapon.
The final page contained a location.
A private estate in Westchester.
We drove there after midnight.
The mansion was silent.
No guards.
No lights.
The front door opened by itself.
Inside were photographs.
Hundreds.
My father.
My mother.
Victor.
Claire.
Emily.
Noah.
And me.
Someone had been watching all of us for decades.
Then Margaret appeared at the top of the stairs.
She was elegant.
Seventy-eight.
Silver hair.
A calm smile.
"I was wondering when you'd come."
I raised my gun.
"Where is Claire?"
"Dead."
"Where is Camille?"
"Also dead."
"What about Victor?"
She smiled.
"Alive, for the moment."
Emily stepped forward.
"Why?"
Margaret looked at her.
"Because your father made a mistake."
"My father?"
She pointed at me.
"Nathaniel."
Then she looked at Noah.
"And because my son was never meant to inherit anything."
Noah stepped closer to me.
"Why did you take us?"
Margaret's expression softened.
"For protection."
"Protection from what?"
"From yourselves."
She walked toward a large painting.
My father stood in the center.
Beside him was a young woman.
Claire.
And another child.
A little girl.
Emily.
But the dates didn't match.
Margaret touched the painting.
"Your father took Emily from Anna."
I stared.
"Why?"
"Because Anna discovered the money trail."
"What money trail?"
"The original Cross fortune was built on something your father stole."
I felt anger rising.
"What did he steal?"
"Everything."
The word echoed.
Margaret explained.
My grandfather had built a secret financial network during a crisis decades earlier.
My father inherited it.
Then he tried to dismantle it.
But the network was worth billions.
Banks.
Hospitals.
Private funds.
Political accounts.
Victor wanted control.
Margaret wanted revenge.
Claire had become the one person standing between them.
I looked at her.
"You killed Claire."
Margaret shook her head.
"No."
She smiled.
"You did."
I froze.
"What?"
"You were driving."
The room went silent.
She placed a photograph on the table.
The car.
My hands on the wheel.
Claire beside me.
Emily in the back seat.
My memories shattered.
I saw headlights.
A truck.
Claire shouting.
My hand turning the wheel.
Then another memory.
A man behind the truck.
Victor.
The crash.
But there was more.
I had been driving because Claire asked me to.
Because we were escaping.
Because someone was chasing us.
Margaret leaned closer.
"You blamed yourself for ten years."
I whispered,
"You altered my memory."
She smiled.
"Yes."
I raised my gun.
Then Noah shouted,
"Uncle Nate!"
I turned.
A red laser appeared on my chest.
Sniper.
A shot rang out.
Margaret dropped.
Victor stood behind her.
He was smiling.
May you like
"Now," he said,
"we finally get to see who kills who."
