Chapter 8 - THE TRAITOR INSIDE NATHAN'S HOUSE
Nathan reached for his weapon.
Luca didn’t move.
“Before you do something stupid, check my left pocket.”
Nathan froze.
Luca slowly raised his hands.
Bella—me—stood against the wall, wondering whether the only man protecting us had just been exposed as the person trying to kill me.
Nathan removed a second phone from Luca’s pocket.
“What is this?”
“A burner I took from Vincent’s driver.”
Nathan’s eyes narrowed.
Luca nodded toward the attacker’s phone.
“Someone cloned my number so the hit would lead back to me.”
“Why?”
“Because Vincent knows you’ll kill a traitor before asking questions.”
Nathan looked away.
That accusation landed because it was true.
Luca continued.
“I’ve been watching your uncle for six months.”
Nathan stared at him.
“Without telling me?”
“Because I didn’t know whether he owned you.”
Silence.
Then Luca unlocked the burner phone.
One recording remained.
Vincent’s voice filled the room.
Find Hannah Carter’s daughter before she finds the harbor ledger.
My blood went cold.
Nathan looked at me.
“What harbor ledger?”
“I don’t know.”
Luca did.
“Container 614.”
Nathan turned.
Luca explained that an abandoned Drake Harbor storage site had been sealed after Samuel Drake’s death.
Vincent had repeatedly attempted to have one container removed from inventory.
Samuel’s old legal department prevented it because the ownership documentation was incomplete.
Nathan immediately contacted an outside attorney and federal investigators.
No secret raid.
No disappearing evidence.
For once, he chose daylight.
By afternoon, law enforcement officials opened Container 614 under legal supervision.
Inside were rusting office cabinets.
Old manifests.
Photographs.
And a metal lockbox marked with Daniel Carter’s initials.
My father.
I stopped breathing.
Inside were hundreds of copied financial records.
Nathan’s father and mine had been building a case against Vincent together.
There were photographs of illegal shipments.
Bank transfers.
Names of corrupt officials.
And a handwritten journal belonging to Daniel Carter.
I turned to the final pages.
My father had written about me.
Bella smiled today. Hannah says she has my eyes.
I broke.
Nathan held me while I cried for the father I had never known.
Then investigators found something else.
A file marked NATHAN DRAKE - AGE 18.
Nathan opened it.
Inside were bank documents relating to the first company he had purchased after his father’s death.
Nathan went silent.
“What is it?” I asked.
His face looked sick.
“The money.”
“What money?”
“The money that built my first company.”
He handed me the page.
The funds had come through a chain of accounts controlled by Vincent.
At the beginning of that chain was a settlement account.
The account belonged to my father.
May you like
Daniel Carter.
Nathan’s empire had been started with money stolen from my family.
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