“If you sign while the protocol is active, control can transfer.”
Thomas looked at Walter.
“To whoever owns the conversion instrument.”
Rachel frowned.
“The 480 million.”
Walter closed the red ledger.
“Someone you haven't met.”
Marcus stiffened.
“That isn't acceptable.”
Walter glanced at him.
“You brought us here.”
“You activated Emma.”
“You sent the photograph.”
Walter looked exhausted.
“Because somebody was going to trigger Aster whether I helped you or not.”
“That's not an answer.”
“It is the only reason you're still alive.”
He handed the ledger to Rachel.
“Read page eighty-four.”
Rachel did.
Her eyes widened.
“There's a shell company.”
“What's it called?”
“North Meridian Holdings.”
Thomas whispered,
Thomas stared at the page.
“I buried that name.”
Walter smiled without humor.
“You tried.”
Emma asked,
“Who is North Meridian?”
Thomas looked at his daughters.
“A company created before either of you were born.”
Elise pressed.
Thomas exhaled.
“Your grandfather.”
Rachel looked confused.
“But your grandfather died decades ago.”
“So how is the company still active?”
“Because it isn't controlled by a person.”
“Then what controls it?”
“A trust.”
“Another trust.”
“The hidden trust.”
Rachel whispered,
“You told us Bellwether was the hidden trust.”
“I told you what you were ready to hear.”
“You lied.”
Marcus watched her face.
She raised a hand.
She turned toward Thomas.
“You lied about the trust.”
“You lied about the crash.”
“You lied about being dead.”
“And you lied about Emma.”
Thomas looked devastated.
Thomas's voice broke.
“Because somebody was trying to turn you into a weapon.”
“You did that yourself.”
Thomas looked down.
Before he could answer, his phone rang.
“Thomas.”
Walter turned.
The voice on the line was distorted.
“You found the ledger.”
Thomas's face went pale.
“You weren't supposed to.”
“Who are you?”
The voice laughed.
“You know who I am.”
“Dad?”
The voice continued.
“Bring both daughters to the Morgan house.”
“Tomorrow night.”
“Or the patient dies.”
Thomas looked at the daughters.
“I need you to leave.”
“We're done leaving.”
“What did he mean by the patient?”
Thomas looked toward the chapel door.
“There's more than one.”
Walter's face was grim.
“We found three hospital beds.”
Emma's voice shook.
“Three?”
“Three women.”
“We don't know.”
“Warehouse facility outside the city.”
“Take me there.”
Walter shook his head.
“They asked for the daughters.”
Thomas clenched his jaw.
“Then they get me first.”
Elise grabbed his arm.
He looked at her.
“You're not sacrificing yourself again.”
For the first time, Thomas looked at Elise like he was seeing the little girl she used to be.
“You sound like your mother.”
Elise's voice was cold.
“And you sound like a man who still thinks his daughters need permission to fight.”
Chapter 16
Daniel broke down in the parking garage.
He didn't cry loudly.
He simply sat in the driver's seat and covered his face.
Elise stood outside the open door.
“How much did you know?”
He lowered his hands.
He looked at Thomas.
“I was there.”
Thomas said nothing.
“The night of the crash.”
“You were at the airfield.”
“To help your father disappear.”
Thomas interrupted.
Daniel turned toward him.
“They deserve to know.”
Thomas went silent.
Daniel looked at the daughters.
“The aircraft wasn't supposed to crash.”
“Because someone changed the navigation.”
Emma stepped forward.
“I never knew.”
“You knew my mother changed the passenger list.”
“You knew Dad was planning to disappear with me.”
“Then why did you let it happen?”
“Because your mother threatened to expose the entire operation.”
Emma stared.
“She threatened you?”
“She told me that if I helped Thomas take you, she'd tell the board what we'd been doing.”
“What were you doing?”
“Building the disappearance.”
“We created a false travel history. False hotel records. False banking movements. Your father wanted the world to believe he'd been preparing to run for months.”
Marcus asked,
“And the crash?”
“A shell flight.”
Rachel stepped closer.
“You put an empty aircraft in the air.”
“With a body.”
“A body?”
Daniel shook his head quickly.
“Not your father.”
Elise's stomach turned.
Daniel looked at Thomas.
Thomas answered.
“A person who had already died.”
“You used a dead body to fake your death.”
“That's insane.”
“It was the only way to make the death believable.”
“And then someone changed the route.”
Rachel looked at the ledger.
“The payment.”
“The person who rerouted the plane knew about the decoy.”
Elise looked at her mother.
“She knew?”
Daniel shook his head.
“She changed the passenger list. She didn't reroute the aircraft.”
Everyone became silent.
Thomas finally spoke.
“That's what I've been trying to find for ten years.”
“Who could access the navigation system?”
Daniel said,
“And…”
Walter's face hardened.
“I didn't do it.”
“Because Walter was with me.”
“Then someone used one of their credentials.”
Rachel went still.
“Credential cloning.”
“Can you prove it?”
Rachel opened her tablet.
“I can prove the signature was copied.”
She turned it toward them.
The authentication record had been duplicated.
At the bottom was a code.
M-04.
Elise felt a chill.
“What is M-04?”
Rachel looked at Thomas.
He went pale.
“It's the maternal authorization.”
“My mother.”
The car's interior suddenly felt too small.
Rachel looked back at the records.
“The authorization was generated from an account registered to your mother.”
“That means she did it.”
“No,” Thomas said.
Rachel looked at him.
“It means someone was using her credentials.”
Thomas's eyes moved toward Cynthia.
She had been standing by the garage entrance.
She looked away.
Elise saw it.
“Cynthia.”
Cynthia froze.
“Come here.”
“I should go.”
Cynthia looked at Thomas.
“I've been trying to protect you.”
“I wasn't the one who hid Emma.”
“You said Marcus asked you.”
Marcus looked stunned.