Chapter 7 - THE SECRET DAMON’S FATHER TOOK TO HIS GRAVE
Charles Ashford had been dead for fourteen months.
That made confronting him impossible.
It did not make his betrayal hurt less.
Damon stared at the forged authorization until the letters lost meaning.
His father had taught him to sign his name.
Had coached him through his first acquisition.
Had held him upright at Elena’s funeral when Damon thought his knees would give out.
And eighteen months after her death, Charles had apparently used Damon’s forged signature to enter a deposit box Elena had hidden from the family.
Theo found the bank surveillance archive.
The footage had no audio.
But the man entering the vault was unmistakably Charles.
He stayed seventeen minutes.
He left carrying a thick envelope.
“What was in the box?” Naomi asked.
The bank maintained an inventory photograph from the day Elena opened it.
Three envelopes.
A hard drive.
A black ledger.
When Charles entered, all four items were present.
Afterward?
The box was empty.
Damon stood by the study window.
“My father knew.”
Naomi did not soften it.
“Yes.”
“He knew Elena was afraid.”
“Maybe.”
“He knew Victor was stealing.”
“Probably.”
“And he protected him.”
Margaret spoke carefully.
“Charles protected the Ashford name.”
Damon laughed once.
A bitter sound.
“That was always his religion.”
Theo began reviewing Charles’s archived email accounts.
Most sensitive records had been deleted.
But deleted did not mean gone.
By late afternoon, he recovered fragments.
One email to Victor was dated nine days after Elena’s death.
No more discussion of the foundation. We protect the company first. Damon cannot know until the exposure is contained.
Damon read it twice.
Naomi watched him.
“I’m sorry.”
“I’m not.”
She frowned.
He looked toward Elena’s portrait.
“I spent years believing grief was the worst thing that happened to me.”
He turned back.
“It wasn’t.”
“What was?”
“Trusting the wrong people afterward.”
Theo interrupted.
“There’s more.”
Another recovered email.
Charles to an unknown account.
Marcus Carter’s records must be found before Naomi receives them.
Naomi went pale.
“My name.”
“Your husband told someone about you.”
Theo traced the unknown account.
It belonged to a legal services company.
That company shared an address with Victor’s private attorney.
The same attorney who had offered Naomi $500,000 six months ago.
The chain was closing.
Then Naomi’s phone rang.
Unknown number.
She almost ignored it.
Damon shook his head.
“Answer.”
Naomi put it on speaker.
A man spoke.
“You should have taken the money.”
Naomi gripped the phone.
“Who is this?”
“You brought your daughter into something that was finished three years ago.”
Damon’s face turned hard.
“Victor?”
The caller laughed.
“No.”
Then the line went dead.
Theo immediately began tracing it.
Naomi looked terrified.
Damon asked, “Was that Victor?”
“No.”
“You’re sure?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
Naomi swallowed.
“Because I know that voice.”
She stared at Damon.
“It belonged to Marcus’s best friend.”
Damon waited.
Naomi whispered the name.
“Ethan Reed.”
Damon knew him.
May you like
Everyone at Ashford Holdings did.
Ethan Reed was Victor’s deputy CFO.
