Chapter 5 - THE MAN MY FATHER TRUSTED MORE THAN HIS CHILDREN
Graham Vale had been part of my life since I was a child.
He attended my mother's funeral.
He helped my father expand Carter Holdings.
He sat beside me at Arthur Carter's burial five years earlier and told me he would always protect my family's interests.
Now I was staring at footage of him entering my mansion with a security chief who had apparently assaulted my housekeeper.
I called Graham.
He answered on the second ring.
"Roman. It's rather late."
"Where are you?"
"At home."
"Where were you at 12:43?"
Silence.
Then a soft laugh.
"Working, I imagine. What's this about?"
"You came to my house with Victor Crane."
Another silence.
"Victor asked me to review an old property file."
"Which file?"
"Something from your father's archive."
"Why did you leave without telling me?"
"I didn't realize I needed permission to enter a house I've visited for thirty years."
I looked toward Elena.
She shook her head urgently.
I lowered my voice.
"Did you know my sister was alive?"
Graham stopped breathing.
The silence told me more than his next answer.
"Roman, I think you should get some rest."
I ended the call.
Elena was sitting in my father's old armchair.
She looked exhausted, but the fear in her face had changed.
She no longer seemed frightened of being discovered.
She seemed frightened of what I was going to discover next.
"Why did you stay away after Father died?" I asked.
She looked at me.
"Graham."
"Explain."
Elena told me she'd escaped the warehouse fire through a service exit before the building was completely engulfed.
A nurse who had once worked for our mother helped her obtain treatment and temporary shelter.
When Elena learned that her own family had reported her dead, she realized someone wanted her disappearance to be permanent.
She changed her name.
Moved repeatedly.
And eventually began living quietly in Vermont under the identity Nora Ellis.
"Why not contact me privately?"
She reached into her coat.
A folded copy of an old letter.
"Because I received this three months after the fire."
It appeared to come from me.
Elena, I know you're alive. Stay away from Boston. If you return, I'll tell Father where you are.
My stomach turned.
"I never wrote that."
"I know that now."
"How?"
"Daniel Harper."
I stared.
Elena explained that Daniel found her eighteen months earlier while researching historical financial transactions involving the Beatrice Carter trust.
He had discovered payments connected to Nora Ellis.
At first, he believed she was simply another beneficiary.
Then he recognized discrepancies in her identification records and contacted her.
"He told me you didn't know I was alive."
My throat tightened.
"He wanted us to meet?"
"Yes."
"What happened?"
Elena looked down.
"He died before we could."
I sat opposite her.
For years, I had believed my father buried my sister.
For years, Elena had believed I'd threatened to send her back to him.
Someone had kept us apart long after Arthur Carter died.
And that someone was still controlling parts of my business.
Then Elena told me why she'd returned tonight.
"Daniel left a sealed packet with an attorney before he died. I finally received it last week."
"What was in it?"
"Instructions for finding your father's original trust records."
She pointed toward the hidden room.
"Daniel believed the records were still here."
"Did you find them?"
"Not before Victor caught us."
I looked toward the concealed doorway.
"Then we'll look together."
But before I could move, Luca called from the estate office.
He had located Margaret Finch's personnel files.
The employment deductions made against Grace had been directed into a separate account.
Its listed owner wasn't Carter Holdings.
It was a company controlled by Graham Vale.
May you like
Graham had been stealing from my housekeeper while using my name to make her too frightened to complain.
And if Grace's employment records were being manipulated, I had no reason to believe she was the only employee being exploited.
