Chapter 5 - THE MAN WHO RAISED HIM
Elias Porter had worked for Nathaniel’s family for thirty-four years.
He taught Nathaniel how to drive.
Helped bury Nathaniel’s mother.
Held him upright at Sarah’s funeral.
If there was one man Nathaniel considered family, it was Elias.
That made Sarah’s note unbearable.
Nathaniel returned home with Clara at dawn.
She refused a hospital until Nathaniel promised her mother would not be billed.
He almost argued.
Then remembered who she was.
“Fine.”
A private physician examined her in the guest wing.
Mild concussion.
Dehydration.
No serious injury.
Nathaniel wanted to break something anyway.
Instead, he found Elias in the library.
The older man saw his face.
“You found her.”
“Yes.”
“Thank God.”
Nathaniel placed Sarah’s note on the table.
Elias read it.
His face changed.
Nathaniel’s chest tightened.
“You know.”
Elias sat slowly.
“Yes.”
“Tell me.”
“I promised Sarah.”
“She’s dead.”
“I know.”
“Then tell me why my wife wrote your name.”
Elias looked older suddenly.
“Sarah discovered Alan Royce was moving money for your father.”
Nathaniel froze.
“My father?”
Charles Vaughn had died twelve years earlier.
Three years before Sarah.
“What money?”
“Offshore accounts.”
“Why?”
“Bribes.”
Nathaniel stared.
“My father bribed people?”
Elias laughed sadly.
“Your father did much worse than that.”
Nathaniel’s jaw tightened.
“Continue.”
“Sarah found records proving Charles and Alan were hiding payments connected to medical trials.”
Clara, standing quietly by the doorway, stiffened.
“What trials?”
Elias looked at her.
“Unapproved drug testing.”
Nathaniel felt sick.
“On who?”
“Employees. Patients. People who needed money.”
“Did Sarah know?”
“She discovered it.”
“Then she got sick.”
“Yes.”
Nathaniel’s hands curled.
“Alan poisoned her.”
Elias looked away.
“That’s what Sarah believed.”
“What do you believe?”
“I believe she was right.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because Sarah asked me not to until I could prove it.”
“You had eight years.”
“I tried.”
Nathaniel’s voice rose.
“And failed.”
“Yes.”
That honesty hurt.
Elias continued.
“Sarah thought someone inside Vaughn Capital was still protecting the old network.”
“David?”
“No.”
“Camille?”
“No.”
“Then who?”
Elias looked at Nathaniel.
“Your brother.”
Nathaniel froze.
“I don’t have a brother.”
Elias closed his eyes.
“Yes, you do.”
Silence.
Nathaniel stared.
“My father had another son?”
“Yes.”
“Who?”
Elias looked toward the hallway.
Then spoke a name Nathaniel knew extremely well.
“Marcus Hale.”
Nathaniel’s security chief.
The man currently downstairs supervising Alan Royce’s arrest.
Nathaniel stopped breathing.
“Marcus is my brother?”
“Half brother.”
“Does he know?”
“Yes.”
“And he never told me?”
“Your father made him promise.”
Nathaniel laughed bitterly.
“My father is dead.”
“Marcus kept the promise anyway.”
“Why?”
Elias’s expression darkened.
“Because Marcus believes Sarah’s death was partly your fault.”
That sentence hit harder than anything else.
“What?”
“He believes Sarah came to you before she died.”
Nathaniel shook his head.
“She didn’t.”
Elias looked at him.
“She did.”
“When?”
“The night before her final hospitalization.”
“I was in London.”
“No.”
Elias’s eyes filled.
“You were told you were in London.”
Nathaniel stared.
“What does that mean?”
“You were here.”
May you like
“Impossible.”
“You don’t remember because Alan Royce treated you too.”
