Chapter 5 - The Company Richard Needed
Carter Development Group occupied six floors of a glass building overlooking the river.
Daniel had inherited forty-eight percent from his father.
Richard inherited twenty-seven.
Their mother, Eleanor, received fifteen.
The remaining ten percent belonged to a family trust created for grandchildren.
After Eleanor died, her shares were divided equally between the brothers.
Daniel now controlled fifty-five and a half percent.
Richard held thirty-four and a half.
The trust still held ten.
On paper, Daniel controlled the company.
In reality, grief had changed that.
After Clara’s death, Daniel worked three days a week.
Sometimes fewer.
He focused on Leo.
Therapy.
School.
Learning how to pack lunches without Clara reminding him which foods their son suddenly hated.
Richard handled operations.
“Just until you can breathe again,” he had promised.
Three years later, Richard approved contracts, hired executives and negotiated debt.
Daniel remained chief executive officer.
Richard functioned like one.
Rebecca downloaded public filings while Daniel reviewed the Aster Ridge materials Richard finally sent.
The packet described the transaction as a “strategic recapitalization.”
Not a sale.
Aster Ridge would inject thirty million dollars in exchange for forty percent of a newly created holding company.
Carter Development’s core assets would transfer into it.
Daniel’s effective control would collapse.
“This is a sale disguised as restructuring,” Rebecca said.
Daniel nodded.
“And my signature?”
“Not included in this draft.”
Clara sat across from them.
“But the version I photographed had it.”
“Where did you get that?” Rebecca asked.
“Aster Ridge employee.”
Daniel looked at her.
“What employee?”
“Her name is Julia Nash.”
“How do you know her?”
Clara hesitated.
“Shelter.”
Rebecca stopped typing.
“Explain.”
“Four months ago, I was staying at St. Anne’s overnight shelter.”
Daniel felt another stab of guilt imagining her there.
“A woman came in to volunteer. Julia. We talked.”
“Did you tell her who you were?”
“Not at first.”
“Then?”
“She mentioned Aster Ridge.”
Clara knew the name because she had once seen it in Richard’s files.
“I asked what she did.”
“Corporate diligence.”
Rebecca leaned forward.
“And you revealed your identity?”
“Yes.”
“That was risky.”
“I was tired of being afraid.”
Daniel understood.
“What did Julia do?”
“She thought I was lying.”
“That’s reasonable.”
Clara almost smiled.
“I showed her an old photograph from my shopping bag.”
Daniel looked toward the bag.
He had not asked what was inside.
“Where did you get a photograph?”
“I kept one.”
“Of?”
Clara reached into the bag.
She removed a worn photograph.
Daniel holding four-year-old Leo at a county fair.
Clara beside them.
All three laughing.
Daniel stared.
“You carried this for three years?”
“Yes.”
He had the same photograph framed at home.
Rebecca gently redirected them.
“Julia believed you?”
“Enough to check.”
“What did she find?”
“A draft with Daniel’s signature.”
Daniel frowned.
“She gave you confidential documents?”
“No.”
“She let me see one page.”
“And photograph it?”
“She looked away.”
Rebecca sighed.
“That may become complicated for her.”
“I know.”
“Can we contact her?”
“Yes.”
Rebecca wrote the name.
Daniel asked Clara, “Why didn’t you come straight to me then?”
She looked ashamed.
“I tried.”
His anger surfaced again.
“When?”
“Three months ago.”
“How?”
“I came to our street.”
Daniel stopped.
“You came home?”
“I stood across from the house.”
“What happened?”
“Richard walked out.”
Daniel remembered Richard coming for dinner frequently.
“Did he see you?”
“No.”
“I don’t understand.”
Clara’s eyes filled.
“You were laughing with him.”
Daniel stared.
“Leo was riding his scooter. Richard was helping him.”
“That stopped you?”
“No.”
“Then what?”
“I realized he was inside your life.”
Daniel clenched his jaw.
“He’s my brother.”
“I know.”
“So?”
“So I didn’t know what you believed anymore.”
Daniel stood.
“What does that mean?”
“Three years had passed.”
“You thought I joined him?”
“No.”
“Then say what you mean.”
Clara stood too.
“I thought maybe he had convinced you I was guilty.”
“Of what?”
“The missing money.”
“I thought you were dead.”
“I didn’t know what evidence he gave you afterward.”
Daniel stared at her.
She continued.
“I didn’t know whether coming to the door would put Leo in danger.”
“You could have called.”
“I had called before.”
“My mother.”
“And Detective Brennan.”
“Two people.”
“Two people who led Owen directly to me.”
Daniel had no answer.
Clara sat again.
“I stopped believing any route back to you was safe.”
Daniel looked at her worn coat.
Her cracked hands.
Three years of decisions he could judge easily because he had spent those years protected by the belief she was dead.
Rebecca’s phone rang.
Julia Nash.
She answered.
“Ms. Nash, Rebecca Sloan. I represent Daniel Carter.”
Pause.
“Yes.”
Another pause.
Rebecca’s eyes moved to Clara.
“I understand.”
“What?” Daniel asked.
Rebecca lifted a hand.
“Can you repeat that?”
She listened.
Then wrote something.
“We’ll meet wherever you feel safe.”
Rebecca ended the call.
Daniel asked, “What happened?”
“Julia is willing to cooperate.”
Clara exhaled.
“But?”
Rebecca looked at Daniel.
“She says Aster Ridge did not approach Richard.”
Daniel frowned.
“Then who approached them?”
Rebecca answered.
“Your mother.”
Silence consumed the room.
Daniel almost laughed because the alternative was breaking something.
“My mother died eighteen months ago.”
“Yes.”
“When did she approach them?”
“Four months before her death.”
Clara whispered, “Eleanor knew.”
Daniel looked from Clara to Rebecca.
His mother had known Clara was alive.
His mother had discussed selling part of the family company.
And she had never told Daniel either truth.
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Whatever Richard had done, Daniel was beginning to understand the conspiracy had not started with his brother alone.
It had started inside the family long before Clara disappeared.
