"I need the envelope contents.
The agreement, the letter, the photograph.
I need them formally entered."
"Daniel is filing them with the family court this morning," Nathan said.
"Paternity test is already scheduled for nine o'clock."
"Good.
Now." Reyes folded her hands.
"Gerald Pruitt.
Marcus Cole named him as the individual who delivered the fabricated letter to Ms.
Calloway five years ago.
Do you have a current address?"
"Not yet."
"I do," Reyes said.
She slid a printed page across the desk.
"Gerald Pruitt, forty-one, currently employed by Hartwell Security Consulting as a senior investigator.
He has a company vehicle registered in New Jersey.
He was in this city yesterday.
His keycard accessed the Hartwell Industries building at six forty-five a.m."
Grace stared at the page.
"He was there," she said.
"While it was happening.
He was right there."
"He may have been the one who confirmed your location to Victoria," Reyes said.
"Which means he's either a witness or a co-conspirator, depending on what he knew." She looked at Nathan.
"I want to bring him in for a conversation before Hartwell's attorneys get to him.
But I need something from you first."
"What?"
"I need you to understand that when I do this, it becomes official.
It stops being a private matter.
The Hartwells will know within the hour, and they will come at you with everything they have." She paused.
"Are you ready for that?"
Nathan thought about the article.
Victoria's photograph.
The forty thousand shares.
He thought about Lily eating a granola bar in the hallway.
"Do it," he said.
Reyes picked up her phone.
She made one call, said six words, and hung up.
"He'll be at the precinct by noon," she said.
"Now go get your daughter's paternity test done.
I'll call you when Pruitt arrives."
---
They were back at Daniel's office by ten-thirty when Victoria called Nathan's phone directly.
He answered.
Put it on speaker.
"I saw that you met with Marcus last night," Victoria said.
Her voice was careful.
Controlled.
"I want you to think very carefully about what you're doing, Nathan."
"I am thinking carefully," he said.
"That's why I answered."
"Marcus is not reliable.
Whatever he told you — he has his own reasons.
His division funding is contingent on our merger closing.
He would say anything to protect himself."
"He signed a statement, Victoria.
Under oath."
A pause.
"Statements can be challenged."
"So can police reports," Nathan said.
"Especially fabricated ones."
The silence this time was longer.
"I loved you," Victoria said.
"I want you to remember that.
Whatever happens next — I genuinely loved you."
"I know you believed that," Nathan said.
"But you raised a hockey stick over a four-year-old girl.
So I think we have different definitions of the word."
He ended the call.
Grace was watching him from across the room.
She didn't say anything.
She didn't need to.
His phone rang again immediately.
Unknown number.
He answered.
"Mr.
Cole." The voice was male, older, slightly hoarse.
"My name is Gerald Pruitt.
I understand you've been looking for me." A pause.
"I'd like to talk before the detective does.
There are things you don't know yet.
Things about your father's letter that weren't in the envelope."
----------------------------------------
Chapter 7: What Gerald Pruitt Carried
----------------------------------------
Nathan told Grace to stay in Daniel's office.
She argued for thirty seconds, then looked at Lily and stopped arguing.
Gerald Pruitt was waiting at a coffee shop two blocks away.
He was a compact man in his early forties with the kind of careful stillness that comes from years of watching other people without being watched back.
He had a paper cup in front of him that he hadn't touched.
Nathan sat down across from him.
"You called me," Nathan said.
"Talk."
Pruitt looked at his hands.
"I delivered that letter to Grace Calloway five years ago.
I want to be clear that I knew what it was.
I knew it was fabricated.
I was paid by Edward Hartwell directly, in cash, and I was told that if I ever disclosed the arrangement, he would ensure I faced crjminal charges for a separate matter involving a former client." He paused.
"That separate matter was also fabricated.
He had documentation prepared.
He keeps documentation prepared for everyone who works for him."
"He blackmailed you into silence."
"Yes."
"And now?"
Pruitt reached into his jacket and produced a small USB drive.
He set it on the table between them.
"I've been recording my interactions with Edward Hartwell for the past two years," he said.
"Audio.
Some video.
I didn't know when I'd need it.
I knew I would eventually."
Nathan looked at the drive.
He didn't touch it.
"Why are you doing this now?" he said.
"Why today?"
---
Pruitt was quiet for a moment.
"Yesterday morning, Hartwell called me into his office.
He told me that the situation with Grace Calloway had become unmanageable and that it needed to be resolved permanently." He looked up.
"He didn't use those exact words.
He never does.