Chapter 17 - Eleanor’s Confession
Eleanor was alive.
Barely.
She had been drugged, restrained, and left under a heat lamp.
Marcus cut her free.
Hannah checked her pulse.
“Call an ambulance.”
Eleanor’s eyes fluttered.
“No hospital.”
“You need one.”
“No.”
Hannah gave her a look.
“I am a nurse.”
“You’re still in school.”
“Apparently my reputation is disappointing.”
Eleanor tried to laugh.
It became a cough.
Victor crouched.
“Raymond did this?”
“Yes.”
“Where is he?”
“Gone.”
“Why leave you alive?”
Eleanor closed her eyes.
“To make me talk.”
“About what?”
Her gaze shifted to the notebook Victor carried.
“The second ledger.”
“We found it.”
“Not Dominic’s.”
Victor frowned.
“What?”
“Mine.”
Silence.
Eleanor whispered, “I kept copies.”
“Where?”
“Safe deposit box.”
Victor nearly lost patience.
“Hannah.”
“Victor, she’s dehydrated.”
“I know.”
Hannah turned back.
“What is in your ledger?”
Eleanor’s expression changed.
“Everything I did for Dominic.”
Victor stared.
“You said he framed you.”
“He did.”
“That does not answer her.”
Eleanor closed her eyes.
“I helped him before that.”
There it was.
“I moved money. Created trusts. Hid ownership. Paid intermediaries.”
“How many years?” Hannah asked.
“Eleven.”
Victor’s voice became cold.
“You were his attorney.”
“I was also ambitious.”
Hannah understood the pattern.
Everyone around Dominic had believed they could touch darkness without becoming stained.
Eleanor opened her eyes.
“I thought I was smarter than him.”
“Were you?” Victor asked.
“No.”
“What changed?”
“Your mother.”
Victor went still.
“My mother?”
“She discovered one of the offshore structures.”
Victor had rarely spoken of his mother, Celeste, who died when he was nineteen.
“Dominic said she died from an aneurysm.”
Eleanor looked at him.
“She did.”
Victor exhaled.
“For once, no conspiracy.”
“But before she died, she made me promise something.”
“What?”
“To protect you.”
Victor looked stunned.
Eleanor continued.
“She knew Dominic was grooming you to inherit everything.”
“Then why disappear?”
“Because by then, protecting you meant staying alive long enough to preserve evidence.”
Hannah knelt beside her.
“What does Raymond want?”
“The trust.”
“We know.”
“No.”
Eleanor gripped Hannah’s wrist.
“Not Matthew’s money.”
“Then what?”
“The companies inside it.”
Victor understood.
“Dormant fronts.”
“Yes.”
“How many?”
“Twenty-seven.”
“What do they control?”
“Ports. Warehouses. Private security licenses. Three foreign shipping registries.”
Marcus swore.
“Raymond can rebuild the old network.”
Eleanor nodded.
“If he controls Matthew’s trust.”
Victor’s face hardened.
“He doesn’t control my son.”
“He controls the trustee appointment.”
“Until I remove him.”
“That is why he needs the ledger.”
Eleanor breathed painfully.
“Dominic’s notebook proves the trust was funded through criminal proceeds.”
Hannah understood.
“If the government sees it, the assets could be seized.”
“Yes.”
Victor looked at the black notebook.
Raymond did not want wealth.
He wanted infrastructure.
An empire preserved for a second generation.
An ambulance siren approached.
Eleanor caught Victor’s sleeve.
“One more thing.”
“What?”
“Raymond has someone inside Davis Maritime.”
Victor’s eyes narrowed.
“Who?”
“I don’t know.”
“You must.”
“I only know the codename.”
“What?”
“Lighthouse.”
Marcus and Victor exchanged a look.
Hannah noticed.
“What?”
Victor answered slowly.
“Lighthouse is the internal security designation for someone with executive-level access.”
“How many people?”
“Seven.”
Marcus named them.
Victor.
Marcus.
Arthur Blake.
Chief counsel Melissa Grant.
Operations president Thomas Reed.
Security director Owen Pike.
And—
Hannah.
She stared.
“Why am I executive-level?”
Victor looked guilty.
“I upgraded your access after Anthony.”
“So Raymond’s insider could theoretically be me?”
“No.”
“Obviously not.”
Eleanor’s eyes closed.
“Do not trust access logs.”
The paramedics arrived.
As Eleanor was loaded into the ambulance, Victor looked around the abandoned warehouse.
Someone close to him was feeding Raymond information.
Someone who knew about the party.
The trust.
The ledger.
And Hannah.
May you like
For the first time since Anthony fell, the enemy was not outside the walls.
He was already inside.
