Chapter 6 - Charles Kane Left One Warning
Charles’s old files were retrieved from secure storage.
Most contained ordinary business records.
One folder was encrypted.
Ethan knew the password.
It was Lily’s middle name.
Daniel stared at him.
“Lily wasn’t born when Dad died.”
Exactly.
That meant someone had altered the archive later.
The folder was not Charles’s original.
Someone wanted it to look like his.
Inside were documents accusing Daniel of moving money through shell
companies.
The same allegations planted on the prepaid phone.
Marcus was building a historical trail.
But he made a mistake.
One document referenced a Kane Development project approved eighteen
months after Charles died.
Daniel looked at investigators.
“So somebody created this recently.”
Yes.
Digital metadata pointed toward a workstation used by Marcus’s office.
Then a genuine Charles file surfaced on an older offline drive.
It contained one handwritten scan.
IF ANYTHING HAPPENS TO ME, CHECK NORTHSTAR.
Northstar was a dormant subsidiary.
Forensic accountants traced it.
Money flowed from Northstar into consulting firms connected to Marcus.
But another recipient appeared repeatedly.
V.K. Holdings.
Daniel initially assumed Vanessa.
He was wrong.
V.K. Holdings had existed for nineteen years.
Long before Daniel met her.
Its registered beneficiary was Victor Kane.
Daniel’s uncle.
Charles’s older brother.
Victor had supposedly cut ties with the family after a bitter dispute
decades earlier.
Daniel had not seen him since childhood.
Ethan stared at the records.
“Uncle Victor?”
Marcus was not operating alone.
And the financial scheme had begun long before Vanessa entered the
family.
The same afternoon, investigators located Victor Kane.
He was living less than thirty miles away under his own name.
He did not run.
He did not deny the payments.
Instead, he said:
“Marcus stole from me too.”
Then he asked to speak to Daniel privately.
Daniel refused.
“No more private family secrets.”
Victor smiled sadly.
“Then bring everyone.”
What he revealed next changed Daniel’s understanding of his father.
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Charles Kane had not been investigating the fraud from outside.
He had helped start it.
