Chapter 4 - The Forgery Led To Callahan
Ethan did not deny the code.
Callahan Business & Fiduciary was legitimate.
It managed real estate, trusts, restaurants, security contracts, and
several family-owned businesses.
It was also one reason newspapers struggled to separate the Callahan
myth from the Callahan balance sheet.
Ethan called his general counsel.
Not a bodyguard.
Not a fixer.
A lawyer.
Within an hour, the company confirmed CBF-4471 had been generated from
an internal document template.
The employee account belonged to Vincent Russo.
Rachel knew that name.
She stared at Ethan.
“Marcus talked about a Vinny.”
Ethan’s jaw tightened.
Vincent Russo was a junior operations manager at one of Callahan’s
warehouse companies.
He was also Ethan’s cousin.
Rachel felt panic return.
“So Marcus works for you.”
“No.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“No. I expect you to believe evidence when we have it.”
Ethan’s calmness no longer felt reassuring.
It felt dangerous.
Not because he threatened her.
Because he did not need to raise his voice to make everyone around him
move.
He ordered an internal preservation hold on Vincent’s records and told
counsel to contact law enforcement.
Rachel studied him.
“You’re turning in your cousin?”
“If he forged custody documents, being my cousin is irrelevant.”
Rachel almost laughed.
“In my family, blood is never irrelevant.”
Ethan looked at Sophie.
“That’s how families get away with things.”
The sentence stayed with Rachel.
Then company investigators found another document in Vincent’s account.
A scanned California driver’s license.
Rachel’s.
She had lost the original eight months earlier.
Marcus told her she probably dropped it at the diner.
He had helped her search.
Now a copy was sitting inside a Callahan company system in Chicago.
Attached to it was a photograph of Rachel holding newborn Sophie outside
a Los Angeles hospital.
Rachel’s hands began shaking.
“That picture was never online.”
Danielle looked at her.
“Who took it?”
“I don’t know.”
Ethan’s counsel checked the upload metadata.
The photograph had been added by Vincent.
But the source file carried another name.
MVEGA_ARCHIVE.
Marcus.
Rachel felt suddenly cold.
This was not something Marcus invented after hearing she was coming to
Chicago.
He had been preparing it for months.
Then Elena called again.
Marcus had disappeared from the wedding hotel.
But before leaving, he told her something.
“Tell Rachel to ask Callahan why her father owed his family money.”
Rachel stared at Ethan.
May you like
“My father?”
For the first time, Ethan looked genuinely surprised.
