Chapter 6 - THE FATHER WHO BUILT MY EMPIRE
I hadn't spoken about my father in almost ten years.
Charles Cole was a complicated man.
He built a shipping company from two rented trucks and one aging warehouse.
He also made deals with people he should have avoided.
By the time I inherited his businesses, criminal operations had become tangled with legitimate investments.
I spent years expanding them.
Some decisions were legal.
Others weren't.
And I'd justified too many things by telling myself I was protecting what my father built.
Now Margaret Bennett was suggesting Charles Cole had been betrayed by Richard Harper.
I stared at her.
"What did William find?"
She opened the metal box.
"Your father and Richard Harper invested in waterfront transportation projects together."
I nodded.
"I know."
"But William discovered several ownership transfers had been falsified."
My stomach tightened.
"Which ones?"
She handed me a copy of an old contract.
I recognized the corporate seal.
Cole Marine Holdings.
The document transferred several valuable shipping rights into a company controlled by Harper Capital.
The signature at the bottom appeared to be my father's.
But the date was wrong.
Charles Cole had been hospitalized that week.
I remembered because I'd been the one sitting beside his bed.
"He couldn't have signed this."
Margaret nodded.
"William thought so too."
Nora looked between us.
"Then why didn't Grandpa report it?"
"He tried."
Margaret's expression tightened.
"Richard threatened to destroy Bennett Events."
Nora sat slowly.
"So Grandpa kept the evidence?"
"Yes."
I examined the papers.
Some of the transactions involved companies I now controlled.
Others connected to old shipping contracts I'd spent years renegotiating.
If the documents were genuine, Richard Harper had spent decades profiting from fraudulent transfers.
And Miles was trying to gain control of the last property containing the original records.
I looked toward Nora.
"Your family isn't just being pressured into a marriage."
She swallowed.
"Then what is happening?"
"Someone is trying to secure the evidence before it becomes public."
Margaret nodded.
"Exactly."
Nora stared at the contract.
For a moment, she seemed impossibly young.
Twenty-five.
A woman who wanted to bake pastries.
Who'd hired a fake boyfriend because her mother wouldn't stop pushing a marriage.
Now she was caught inside a financial dispute involving millions.
I wanted to tell her I'd handle everything.
That she could go home and forget the danger.
But I caught myself.
She'd spent her whole life surrounded by people who decided things for her.
I wasn't going to become another one.
"Nora," I said quietly, "what do you want to do?"
She looked surprised.
Then her expression hardened.
"I want the truth."
I nodded.
"Then we'll help you find it."
Before we could leave, a sound echoed from the basement.
A door closing.
I turned.
Nora froze.
"There's nobody else here."
I looked toward the dark staircase.
Then a man's voice called from below.
"William Bennett should've burned those papers."
May you like
Miles Harper stepped out of the shadows.
And in his hand was a key to a room Nora had never known existed.
