Chapter 5 - THE GODFATHER
Daniel drove to Marcus Reed’s apartment just after midnight.
Emily had ordered him not to go.
He went anyway.
“This is exactly what you always do,” she had said from the hospital bed. “You decide alone, and everyone else pays for it.”
Daniel had no defense.
She was right.
But Marcus had disappeared.
Calls went unanswered.
His office computer had been wiped.
And company security footage showed him leaving Carter Development at 3:10 p.m.
Daniel reached Marcus’s building and took the elevator to the fourteenth floor.
The door to apartment 1408 was open.
“Marcus?”
Nothing.
Daniel entered.
A lamp had been knocked over.
A dining chair lay broken.
Blood marked the edge of a white rug.
Daniel’s stomach dropped.
“Marcus!”
A groan came from the bedroom.
Daniel ran.
Marcus lay on the floor beside the bed, one hand pressed to a cut on his forehead.
“Jesus.”
Daniel dropped beside him.
Marcus opened one eye.
“You shouldn’t be here.”
“Who did this?”
Marcus laughed weakly.
“Take a guess.”
“Vivian?”
“No.”
Daniel froze.
“Who?”
Marcus grabbed his wrist.
“You need to get Emily out of the hospital.”
“What are you talking about?”
“They know she survived.”
“Who is they?”
Marcus struggled upright.
“Vivian didn’t come into your life by accident.”
Daniel stared.
“What?”
“She targeted the company.”
“Why?”
“Because of your father.”
Daniel felt the room tilt.
His father, Richard Carter, had died five years earlier.
Heart attack.
At least that was what the family had always believed.
Marcus continued.
“Twenty-two years ago, Richard and two partners bought land outside Austin.”
“I know.”
“You don’t know how.”
Daniel’s jaw tightened.
Marcus handed him a flash drive.
“Everything is there.”
“Everything what?”
“Payments. Shell companies. Lawsuits. Settlements.”
“You were involved?”
“My father was.”
Daniel stepped back.
Marcus looked ashamed.
“Vivian’s father owned part of that land.”
Daniel stared at him.
“Her father?”
“Thomas Cross.”
The name meant nothing.
Marcus continued.
“Richard forced him out. Thomas lost everything. He died broke.”
“And Vivian blames my family?”
“She doesn’t just blame you.”
Marcus wiped blood from his mouth.
“She’s spent years building a case that the Carter fortune was created through fraud.”
“Then why sleep with me?”
“To get access.”
Daniel felt physically ill.
Marcus gave him a bitter look.
“And because you made it easy.”
Daniel absorbed the deserved insult.
“Why forge Emily’s insurance?”
Marcus shook his head.
“I didn’t.”
“You had access.”
“I forged the home consent.”
Daniel’s fists clenched.
“You what?”
“I thought it was leverage. Vivian told me she wanted to force a settlement.”
“You forged my wife’s signature?”
“Yes.”
Daniel hit him.
Marcus crashed sideways into the dresser.
Daniel grabbed his shirt.
“My son could’ve watched his mother die!”
“I didn’t know!”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“No.”
Marcus coughed.
“But you need to believe one thing.”
Daniel released him.
“What?”
Marcus looked toward the hallway.
“The person who beat me wasn’t Vivian.”
A floorboard creaked outside the bedroom.
Both men went silent.
May you like
Then the lights went out.
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