Chapter 7 - THE MAN BEHIND COLUMBUS
Nobody spoke after the voice disappeared.
Daniel stood beneath the emergency speaker.
His face was pale.
“My uncle is alive.”
Martin nodded.
“I suspected.”
“You knew?”
“I suspected.”
Daniel turned on him.
“For how long?”
“Years.”
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Because I couldn't prove it.”
Daniel laughed bitterly.
“So everyone knew something except me.”
I understood the feeling.
For eight years, I had lived inside it.
Eleanor sat down.
“I thought Charles was dead.”
Martin looked at her.
“So did your husband.”
“Then how did he know about the girls?”
No one answered.
That question frightened me more than anything else.
Because Charles couldn't have known about Betty and Mia unless someone had told him.
Daniel looked at me.
“Who knew?”
I started counting.
“Eleanor.”
“Your doctor.”
“Maybe Greg.”
“Maybe.”
I thought.
“My obstetrician.”
“Anyone else?”
I shook my head.
Then I remembered.
The ultrasound clinic.
The nurse.
The paperwork.
The hospital.
A cold feeling moved through me.
“Birth records.”
Daniel understood.
“Someone accessed them.”
Martin nodded.
“We'll check.”
“No,” I said.
Everyone looked at me.
“If Charles has people inside the system, they'll know we're checking.”
Daniel's expression changed.
“You're thinking like an analyst again.”
“I never stopped.”
For the first time that night, he smiled.
Then the smile disappeared.
“What does he want?”
I looked at the bracelet.
“Something connected to the girls.”
Eleanor stood.
“There is something you need to know.”
Daniel looked at her.
“What?”
“Your father left another instruction.”
“Where?”
“In the house.”
“What house?”
“The one in Aspen.”
Daniel frowned.
“The estate?”
“No.”
Eleanor shook her head.
“The old family house.”
I had never heard of it.
Daniel hadn't either.
“You told me the family house was sold.”
“It was.”
“When?”
“After your father died.”
Martin interrupted.
“Not all of it.”
Daniel stared.
“Where is it?”
Eleanor answered.
“Outside Boulder.”
We drove there before dawn.
The house sat behind a line of pine trees.
It was smaller than the Aspen estate.
Older.
Quiet.
Daniel unlocked the door.
Inside were family photographs.
A piano.
Books.
A fireplace.
And a grandfather clock.
Mia would have loved it.
Instead, the girls were still with security in Aspen.
I hated being away from them.
Daniel knew.
“We won't be long.”
I nodded.
Eleanor walked toward the study.
“Your father kept everything here.”
She opened a cabinet.
Inside were ledgers.
Photographs.
Old letters.
And a child's wooden horse.
Daniel picked it up.
“That was mine.”
His voice softened.
I watched him hold it.
For a moment, the billionaire disappeared.
He was just a son remembering his father.
Then he found an envelope.
His name was written on it.
Daniel opened it.
Inside was a letter.
His father's handwriting.
My husband was dying when he wrote it.
He explained Charles had financed the company secretly.
When Daniel's father tried to cut him out, Charles threatened Eleanor.
Then he threatened Daniel.
Finally, he threatened anyone Daniel loved.
His father had created Columbus to trap Charles financially.
But he failed.
Charles remained hidden.
The letter ended with one instruction:
IF RACHEL EVER RETURNS, TRUST HER MEMORY BEFORE YOUR OWN.
Daniel looked at me.
I couldn't speak.
He handed me the letter.
Then I saw something.
A second page.
I read it.
My breath caught.
“What?”
Daniel asked.
“There was another person.”
“Who?”
I pointed to the name.
Laura Harden.
His father's first wife.
The woman everyone believed had disappeared.
Daniel stared.
“She helped your father build Columbus.”
Martin nodded.
“And she survived.”
I looked up.
“Where is she?”
Eleanor whispered,
“I don't know.”
Daniel turned to her.
“You said she died.”
“I thought she did.”
Martin walked to the photograph.
“There is an address on the back.”
It led to a small town in Colorado.
We found Laura that afternoon.
She was seventy-two.
She lived alone.
When she opened the door, she looked at Daniel.
Then at Eleanor.
Her expression changed.
“I wondered when you would come.”
Daniel froze.
“You knew?”
Laura nodded.
“Your father told me.”
“About what?”
“About Rachel.”
I felt my throat tighten.
“Why?”
Laura looked at me.
“Because he knew one day you'd have to finish what he couldn't.”
Inside her house, she showed us a box.
There were old financial records.
Letters.
Photographs.
And one cassette tape.
Daniel stared.
“What is this?”
“Your father's final meeting with Charles.”
Martin's face went pale.
“You kept it?”
“I was afraid to destroy it.”
Daniel looked at me.
“Can we hear it?”
Laura nodded.
They played the tape.
Daniel's father's voice came first.
Then another man.
Charles.
The conversation revealed something shocking.
Charles had not wanted money.
He wanted control of Harden Systems.
But Daniel's father had refused.
The final argument ended with Charles saying:
“If you won't give me the company, I'll take your son.”
Daniel's father answered:
“You'll never touch him.”
Then the recording stopped.
Daniel looked devastated.
“That's why he kept me away.”
Laura nodded.
“Your father sent you to boarding school.”
“And my mother?”
“She knew.”
Daniel sat down.
I touched his shoulder.
He looked at me.
For once, neither of us pretended everything was okay.
Then Laura handed me a photograph.
It showed me.
Pregnant.
Standing outside my old Chicago apartment.
My blood turned cold.
“When was this taken?”
“Eight years ago.”
“Who took it?”
Laura shook her head.
“I don't know.”
Daniel examined it.
The photograph had been taken from across the street.
Again.
Someone had been watching me.
But there was something else.
In the background stood a man.
Blurred.
Yet recognizable.
Daniel stared.
“Greg.”
Greg had been there.
But Greg had told us he was protecting me.
I looked at him.
“Why was he watching me?”
Daniel didn't answer.
Then Laura said,
“Because Greg wasn't the only person assigned to protect you.”
She opened another folder.
Inside was a list.
Security names.
Dates.
Payments.
And one line that made Daniel stop breathing.
RACHEL MERCER — PROTECTIVE DETAIL.
ASSIGNED: CHARLES HARDEN.
I stared.
“Charles was protecting me?”
Laura nodded.
“Not from himself.”
“Then from whom?”
She looked at Daniel.
“Your mother.”
The room went silent.
Eleanor stood in the doorway.
She looked devastated.
Laura continued.
“Charles wanted the Columbus records.”
“But why protect Rachel?”
“Because Rachel had something he needed.”
“What?”
Laura looked at me.
“The original ledger.”
I shook my head.
“I never had it.”
Laura smiled sadly.
“You did.”
“No.”
“You just didn't know.”
Daniel looked at me.
“What ledger?”
Laura pointed toward me.
“The file Eleanor gave you.”
My heart stopped.
“The leather folder?”
Laura nodded.
“Your father hid the original ledger inside the investigation file.”
I remembered.
The documents.
The accusation.
The pages.
I had thrown them away years ago.
Or so I thought.
Then something clicked.
“I didn't throw them away.”
Daniel stared.
“Where are they?”
“I kept one thing.”
“What?”
“The envelope.”
My voice trembled.
“The one Eleanor used.”
I had saved it because it contained my old employment records.
It had been stored in a box in my apartment.
And suddenly I understood.
Charles had never needed to find me.
He needed me to remember where I put it.
Daniel's phone rang.
This time it was security.
“Mr. Harden.”
“What?”
“The girls are safe.”
Daniel exhaled.
“Good.”
A pause.
“There's one problem.”
“What?”
“They're not at the estate.”
Daniel froze.
“Where are they?”
The guard's voice shook.
“They're with Eleanor.”
I looked at her.
May you like
She had gone pale.
Then the line went dead.
