Chapter 12 - THE BETRAYAL OF HIS MOST TRUSTED MAN
Damon stared at the financial document.
Frank Marino.
The man who had stood beside his father.
The man who had protected Damon since childhood.
The man Damon trusted more than almost anyone.
His signature appeared beside Evelyn's.
"Tell me this is fake," Damon said.
Frank looked devastated.
"It isn't."
Delaney stepped back.
Damon's expression became terrifyingly still.
"Explain."
Frank lowered his head.
"Twenty years ago, Charles Hale discovered something about my family."
"What?"
"My younger brother was involved in an illegal operation connected to Hale's companies. Charles threatened to have him killed unless I cooperated."
Damon stared.
"So you helped him?"
"I gave him access to financial records. I thought that was all he wanted."
"Twenty million dollars, Frank."
"I didn't authorize that transfer."
"Your signature says otherwise."
Frank swallowed.
"I signed a limited authorization document months ago. Charles must have used it to forge the transfer."
Damon stepped closer.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because I was ashamed."
Delaney watched Frank carefully.
There was guilt in his face.
But also something else.
Desperation.
"What about Evelyn?" she asked.
Frank turned toward her.
"I never knew they were drugging her."
Damon's voice cracked.
"She trusted you."
Frank lowered his eyes.
"I know."
For several moments, nobody spoke.
Then Damon made a decision.
"You're suspended from every company position. Turn over your credentials and phone. You will cooperate with the police."
Frank nodded.
"I understand."
Damon looked toward his security chief.
"Keep him here until the investigators arrive."
As Frank was escorted away, he stopped beside Delaney.
"Miss Whitfield."
She looked at him.
"I'm sorry about your mother."
Delaney's eyes narrowed.
"Why?"
Frank hesitated.
Then whispered:
"Because Margaret trusted me once, too."
Before she could respond, he was taken away.
Damon turned toward the security monitors.
"We have a location. We have evidence. Now we get my mother back."
Delaney approached.
"I'm coming."
"No."
"Damon—"
"It's too dangerous."
"Your mother trusted me when she couldn't trust anyone else."
His jaw tightened.
"That doesn't mean I should put you in danger."
Delaney stepped closer.
"I'm not asking you to."
She held up her phone.
"I'm asking you to listen."
She played a recording.
Frank's final words echoed through the room.
Margaret trusted me once, too.
Damon frowned.
"Why did you record that?"
"Because I thought he was hiding something."
Then she opened the photographs recovered from the vault.
One showed Frank beside Margaret twenty-eight years earlier.
But the back contained a note.
Frank knows the location of the second evidence file.
Damon stared.
"There's another file?"
Delaney nodded.
"And I think he knows how to find it."
Before Damon could answer, his phone rang.
Unknown number.
He answered.
A weak voice whispered:
"Damon?"
His entire body went rigid.
"Mother?"
Evelyn was crying.
"Please hurry."
Then she said the words that changed everything.
"Victoria isn't Charles Hale's daughter."
May you like
A pause.
"She's the daughter of the man who murdered your father."
