Chapter 13 - Nathan Cross Finally Came Back
Nathan disappeared for six weeks.
Then he made one mistake.
He contacted Claire.
Not Victoria.
Not Richard.
Claire.
He offered her money for the original ledger.
Claire recorded the call.
Police arranged the meeting.
Nathan came to a parking garage with a forged passport and enough cash to disappear.
He was arrested before he reached the elevator.
During questioning, he blamed his father for everything.
Martin had forged Anna’s trust signature.
Martin had hidden Emma’s beneficiary notices.
Martin had pressured the officer investigating Anna’s death.
But Nathan admitted something of his own.
Six years earlier, when Emma turned eighteen, he found her.
He knew exactly where she lived.
He chose not to notify her.
Why?
Because Victoria’s control of the trust gave Nathan’s firm millions in annual legal fees.
Emma read the confession twice.
Then she closed the file.
Not every betrayal had been about murder.
Some had been simpler.
Greed.
That almost made them uglier.
Nathan also admitted he was the one who recommended Victoria hire Emma at the mansion.
He wanted her close.
He believed Anna may have told Emma where the blue key was.
Victoria had agreed because she wanted to watch Nathan watching Emma.
Emma sat quietly when Richard explained it.
“So both of them brought me here for their own reasons.”
“Yes.”
“And neither told me who I was.”
“No.”
Emma looked around the mansion.
The place where she had scrubbed floors.
Carried trays.
Been laughed at.
The place where her father once lived.
The place where her mother hid with her as a newborn.
She understood now why working there had always felt strangely familiar.
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She had not remembered the house.
Her body had simply been returning to a story that began before she could remember.
