Chapter 2 - The Ledger in the Floorboards
"Put the gun down, Victoria," I said, keeping my voice level, though every nerve ending in my body screamed to lunge across the island.
"You don't get it, do you, Nathan?" Victoria laughed, a brittle, manic sound that set my teeth on edge. She took two steps back, putting the heavy granite island between us, her grip on the small revolver rock-steady. "You’ve always been so painfully naive. The brilliant logistics heir who can’t see what’s happening right under his own designer roof."
"You shoot her in this kitchen, you spend the rest of your life in a maximum-security cell," I said, deliberately shifting my weight to block Lily completely with my broad frame. "Security cameras cover the driveway, the front door, the foyer. The private security patrol does a sweep every twenty minutes. You can't spin this."
"Oh, sweetie," Victoria sneered, tilting her head. "Who do you think hired the security firm? Who do you think manages the encrypted off-site cloud server for the estate's footage? The cameras looped twenty minutes ago. As far as the police will be concerned, a disgruntled former employee broke into the master bedroom, attacked you with a hockey stick, and I had to use lethal force to defend my husband."
"And the kid?" I ground out. "What’s your story for a dead four-year-old?"
"Collateral damage during the break-in," she said without missing a beat. "Tragic. Heartbreaking. The papers will weep for us. And then your grandfather’s inheritance clause will finally clear, because Hayes Logistics won't have an illegitimate heir muddying the waters."
My breath caught. Grandfather’s inheritance clause.
Old Man Hayes had died three years ago, leaving behind a five-hundred-million-dollar empire and a will so labyrinthine it required a dedicated team of probate lawyers just to decipher the quarterly dividend allocations. The bulk of the voting shares were locked in an irrevocable trust until I produced a biological heir. If I died without one, or reached age thirty-five without children, sixty percent of the controlling stake defaulted to the board—a board chaired by Victoria’s father.
I was turning thirty-five in three weeks.
"You knew," I whispered, the realization burning through me like acid. "You knew Grace was pregnant when she left Hayes Logistics five years ago."
"I made sure she left," Victoria said, her smile turning venomous. "I offered her five hundred grand to terminate it and leave the state. But the little saint took the bus to upstate New York instead, didn't touch the money, and thought she could hide in plain sight."
"I never wanted your money!" Grace cried out from behind me, her voice breaking into a ragged sob. She pulled Lily tighter against her chest, her whole body trembling against my back. "I told you I'd never tell him! I never asked Nathan for a single cent! I only took this cleaning job because Lily needed a bone marrow compatibility screen and Medicaid wouldn't cover the specialist—"
"And you brought her right to his doorstep!" Victoria shouted, her composure cracking for a fraction of a second, her index finger tightening visibly on the trigger. "You got greedy, Grace! You thought if Nathan saw her, if he noticed those disgusting Hayes eyes, you’d become the lady of the manor!"
"She didn't tell me," I said, raising both hands slowly, stepping an inch forward. "Grace never said a word to me. Victoria, look at me. Put the gun down. We can talk about this."
"There’s nothing to talk about, Nathan. You’re too soft. You always have been."
Victoria leveled the barrel straight at my eyes.
"I’m really sorry it has to be this way, Nathan. But my father and I have invested too much time and too much debt into your company to let a bastard child strip our board seats away. If you won't step aside, I’ll just have to be a grieving widow."
My ears picked up the faint, rhythmic beep-beep of the estate’s automated service gate opening down the long driveway.
Victoria heard it too. Her eyes flicked toward the front foyer for a microsecond.
It was all the opening I needed.
I threw myself forward over the kitchen island, grabbing the heavy marble fruit bowl off the counter and hurling it with everything I had.
The bowl smashed into Victoria's wrist with a sickening crunch. The gun went off—the gunshot deafening in the enclosed kitchen, shattering the high transoms above the French doors into a shower of diamond-sharp glass.
Victoria shrieked, clutching her broken wrist as the revolver spun across the floor toward the walk-in pantry.
I vaulted the counter, tackling her to the ground before she could scramble after the weapon. She fought like a cornered animal, scratching at my eyes, her manicured nails ripping into the flesh of my cheek, screaming obscenities that would have made a sailor blush. I pinned her wrists to the marble floor, driving my knee into her ribs until the fight drained out of her and she lay there, panting, spitting blood onto her ruined ivory dress.
"It’s over," I panted, my face throbbing where her nails had torn through the skin.
"It’s not over, Nathan," she hissed, her eyes wild, blood vessels burst in the whites of her eyes. "You think I’m working alone? You think my father doesn't know where I am right now? Check your phone, you idiot. Check the markets."
Right on cue, the custom ringtone for my chief financial officer began blaring from my briefcase in the foyer. A moment later, my private cell in my jacket pocket began vibrating non-stop.
Grace crawled toward me, cradling Lily against her good shoulder, her face ghost-white. "Nathan... the gate. Who opened the service gate?"
I froze. I hadn't triggered the gate. Victoria hadn't touched a remote.
Through the broken kitchen windows, the deep, menacing rumble of three heavy diesel SUVs pulling up the gravel driveway vibrated through the foundation of the house.
May you like
Heavy doors slammed in unison. The unmistakable sound of tactical boots hit the front porch.
Victoria began to laugh—a low, bloodcurdling sound from the floor beneath me. "Daddy’s private security detail is here to clean house, Nathan. And they aren't leaving any witnesses."
