Chapter 4 - THE TWINS’ REAL FATHERAt 11:31 p.m., three black federal SUVs left Dobbins Air Reserve Base.
Grace sat in the middle vehicle beside Agent Vale.
She had changed out of her dress uniform and into civilian clothes.
Her phone remained in her hand.
Nathan had been instructed to stay at the house.
He ignored the instruction.
Of course he did.
Twenty minutes later, Vale received word that Nathan’s car had been spotted leaving Buckhead at dangerous speed.
Grace closed her eyes.
“Idiot.”
Vale almost smiled.
“You married him.”
“Currently reconsidering that decision.”
They were heading toward Peachtree-DeKalb Airport, where investigators believed Eric Halden kept access to a chartered Gulfstream through one of Whitmore Aerospace’s shell corporations.
The flight plan listed Nassau.
From there, Grace knew, money could disappear.
People could too.
At the airport’s private terminal, federal agents moved quickly.
Grace remained in the vehicle as instructed.
Through the windshield, she saw officers surround a hangar.
A black SUV sat beside the aircraft.
Its rear doors were open.
Then shouting began.
A man ran.
Grace recognized Eric immediately.
Tall.
Silver-haired.
Forty-two.
Nathan’s best friend.
Eric sprinted toward a service road before two agents tackled him.
Another agent approached the SUV.
Claire emerged slowly, carrying one baby.
Eleanor followed with the other.
Grace’s chest tightened.
Whatever Claire had done, the newborns had done nothing.
Agents carefully took the infants.
Claire was handcuffed.
Eleanor was not.
Not yet.
Then another car screeched into the parking lot.
Nathan.
He jumped out before the vehicle had fully stopped.
Grace swore.
Vale ordered an agent to intercept him.
Nathan pushed past anyway.
“Claire!”
She looked toward him.
For the first time, her expression contained no affection.
Only hatred.
“You ruined everything.”
Nathan stopped.
“I ruined it?”
“You couldn’t even wait one night before opening her envelope.”
Nathan almost laughed.
“My wife leaves me evidence that my family is committing federal crimes, and your problem is that I read too quickly?”
Claire’s eyes flashed.
“You were supposed to sign the divorce papers first.”
Grace heard every word from twenty yards away.
Nathan did too.
His face went blank.
“Why?”
Claire looked toward Eleanor.
That glance was enough.
Nathan turned to his mother.
“You knew.”
Eleanor straightened.
“I protected what belonged to us.”
“By doing what?”
No answer.
Nathan stepped toward Eric.
Agents restrained him.
“Are those babies yours?”
Eric looked away.
Nathan shouted.
“ARE THEY YOURS?”
Both newborns began crying.
Claire flinched.
And Eric finally said quietly:
“Yes.”
Nathan stopped moving.
Grace watched the impact travel through him.
Not because he had lost children.
He had never actually had them.
But for months, he had built an imaginary future around them.
He had bought cribs.
Chosen names.
Prepared a nursery.
Destroyed his marriage.
All for a lie.
Nathan looked at Claire.
“You knew.”
She began crying.
“They are Eric’s.”
“For how long?”
“What?”
“How long have you two been together?”
Claire said nothing.
Eric answered instead.
“Three years.”
Nathan stared.
Three years.
Nathan’s affair with Claire had lasted six months.
Which meant Claire had been sleeping with Eric long before Nathan ever touched her.
Nathan looked physically ill.
“Was anything between us real?”
Claire’s face hardened.
“You were convenient.”
Grace looked away.
She hated Nathan for betraying her.
But watching a human being discover he had been manipulated at every level still hurt.
Eleanor stepped forward.
“Enough.”
Agents turned.
She addressed Nathan.
“Your feelings are irrelevant right now.”
Nathan stared at his mother.
“My feelings?”
“The family company employs eleven thousand people. Pension funds depend on it. Communities depend on it. Your grandfather built that business.”
“And you robbed it.”
“I stabilized it.”
“You forged contracts.”
“I protected it.”
“You tried to pass Eric’s children off as mine.”
Eleanor lifted her chin.
“Because you could not produce heirs.”
Grace saw Nathan physically recoil.
That sentence cut deeper than anything Claire had said.
Eleanor continued mercilessly.
“You were going to lose everything your grandfather built because you were too weak to do what was necessary.”
Nathan stared at his mother as if seeing a stranger.
“You knew I was sterile.”
“Of course I knew.”
Grace’s jaw tightened.
Nathan whispered, “How?”
“Your physician contacted the family medical office years ago.”
“That information was private.”
“Privacy is a luxury for ordinary families.”
Nathan laughed once.
A broken sound.
“So Grace wasn’t the one who hid it.”
“No.”
His mother glanced toward Grace.
“She was merely sentimental enough to believe it mattered.”
Nathan’s eyes followed hers.
He saw Grace standing by the SUV.
Their eyes met.
For several seconds, nobody else existed.
Then Eleanor looked at Grace and said, “This woman was always the problem.”
Grace walked forward.
Vale tried to stop her.
She ignored him.
“Why?” Grace asked.
Eleanor smiled faintly.
“You were impossible to control.”
“Because I wouldn’t quit my career?”
“Because you asked questions.”
Grace stopped several feet away.
“So you engineered my divorce.”
“I provided Nathan with an alternative.”
Claire scoffed.
“You promised me he would marry me.”
Eleanor looked at her with contempt.
“I promised you financial security.”
“You said my boys would inherit.”
“They would have.”
Nathan turned.
“Through fraud.”
Eleanor shrugged.
“Through paperwork.”
That answer ended any ambiguity.
Vale stepped forward.
“Eleanor Whitmore, you need to come with us.”
Eleanor gave him a bored expression.
“Am I under arrest?”
“Not yet.”
“Then I’m leaving.”
She turned.
Vale blocked her.
“I strongly recommend against that.”
Before anyone could speak again, an agent hurried from the hangar.
“Sir.”
He handed Vale a tablet.
Vale read.
His expression changed.
“What?”
The agent whispered something.
Grace watched Vale look toward Eleanor.
Then Claire.
Then Eric.
“What is it?” Grace asked.
Vale turned the screen around.
Bank records.
A transfer had occurred eleven minutes earlier.
$186 million.
Destination unknown.
Vale looked at Eric.
“Where did you send it?”
Eric smiled.
“I didn’t.”
Claire stared at him.
Eleanor remained perfectly calm.
Grace understood first.
“This wasn’t their escape plan.”
Vale looked toward her.
Grace continued.
“It was a diversion.”
Eleanor’s smile disappeared.
Grace turned toward Nathan.
“Someone else moved the money while everyone was watching them.”
Nathan stared.
“Who?”
Grace looked again at the transaction.
Authorization code.
Initials.
J.W.
Nathan’s face went white.
Those initials belonged to only one other person with access to the trust.
His younger brother.
May you like
Jonathan Whitmore.
The brother everyone believed had died twelve years earlier.
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