Chapter 4 - The Letters
Ava Carter arrived before noon.
She entered Nathaniel’s bedroom carrying a cardboard box.
No dramatic embrace was possible.
Nathaniel could not lift his arms around her.
So Ava bent carefully beside him and pressed her forehead against his.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered.
Nathaniel closed his eyes.
“You didn’t do anything.”
“I believed her.”
“So did I.”
Ava pulled a chair beside the bed.
She looked older than Nathaniel remembered, though only eight months had passed since he last saw her.
Then she opened the box.
Inside were six envelopes.
Each bore Nathaniel’s name.
His supposed signature.
Ava handed the first to Elena.
The letter was brutal.
Ava,
Your visits disrupt my recovery. I do not need guilt, arguments about the company, or your constant suspicion of my wife. Respect my decision and stay away.
Nathaniel felt sick.
“I never wrote that.”
Ava nodded.
“The second one was worse.”
Elena read silently.
Then looked at Victoria, who stood in the doorway.
Victoria crossed her arms.
“Those were dictated.”
“No,” Nathaniel said.
“You were heavily medicated.”
“No.”
“You don’t remember half of those weeks.”
“I remember enough.”
Victoria took one step forward.
“You told me you were tired of Ava making everything about business.”
Nathaniel remembered saying something similar once.
During a difficult rehabilitation session, Ava had asked whether the board needed temporary voting instructions.
Nathaniel had snapped at her.
He had been exhausted.
Humiliated.
Terrified.
But he had never banished her.
Victoria had taken one moment of anger and built a prison around it.
Ava produced another document.
“This is why I finally called Claire.”
It was an email allegedly sent from Nathaniel’s private account ten days earlier.
Do not contact me again.
Ava had noticed something Victoria missed.
Nathaniel always signed messages to his sister with one letter.
N.
The email ended:
Nathaniel Carter.
“It didn’t sound like you,” Ava said.
Nathaniel stared at Victoria.
“How long?”
Victoria gave him a weary look.
“How long what?”
“How long have you been speaking for me?”
“I have been protecting you.”
“From my sister?”
“From stress.”
“From lawyers?”
“From people who see weakness and come running.”
Ava stood.
“The only person who ran toward his weakness was you.”
Victoria’s eyes flashed.
“You think you know what I’ve done for him?”
“I know you forged letters.”
“You know nothing.”
Elena interrupted.
“Victoria, stop talking.”
Victoria laughed.
“Is that legal advice?”
“No. It is the advice I would give any person making admissions in front of three witnesses.”
The humor disappeared from Victoria’s face.
Elena began cataloguing the letters.
Metadata on the printed email might eventually lead to account access logs.
The handwritten signatures could be compared with the disputed power-of-attorney amendment.
Ava turned toward Nathaniel.
“There’s more.”
He almost laughed from exhaustion.
“Of course.”
Ava opened her phone.
“After the accident, Victoria told the board you wanted her included in executive briefings.”
“I didn’t.”
“I know that now.”
“How many?”
“Twenty-three.”
Nathaniel stared.
Twenty-three confidential meetings.
“What did she receive?”
“Forecasts. Acquisition targets. Debt schedules. Compensation plans.”
Elena swore under her breath.
Nathaniel thought of Malcolm Reed’s consulting company.
“What about vendors?”
Ava’s expression changed.
“That’s where things get ugly.”
Two months after Victoria began attending meetings, Carter Meridian approved an outside risk-consulting contract.
M.R. Strategic Holdings.
Malcolm’s company.
Nathaniel closed his eyes.
“How much?”
“The original contract was eight hundred thousand.”
“And now?”
Ava hesitated.
“Three point six million.”
Claire stopped adjusting the blanket.
Nathaniel opened his eyes.
“Three point six?”
Ava nodded.
“Most of the increase was approved through emergency amendments.”
“Signed by?”
Ava looked at him.
“You.”
The room became very quiet.
Victoria finally spoke.
“You’re all forgetting something.”
Nathaniel looked at her.
“Malcolm’s company did actual work.”
“Did he?”
“Yes.”
“What kind?”
“Security assessments.”
Ava laughed sharply.
“He rented an office six months ago.”
Victoria ignored her.
“Nathaniel was incapacitated. Decisions had to be made.”
Nathaniel’s voice lowered.
“I was paralyzed.”
“Yes.”
“Not dead.”
For the first time Victoria flinched.
Nathaniel looked at Ava.
“Can the board freeze the contract?”
“We need evidence.”
Nathaniel shifted his gaze to Elena.
“Do we have enough?”
“Enough to demand preservation of records. Enough to seek an injunction against further transfers if we can establish immediate risk.”
Claire suddenly turned toward the tablet.
A notification had appeared.
REMOTE ADMINISTRATOR REQUEST.
Someone was attempting to access Nathaniel’s device.
Claire disconnected it from the household network.
“Who has administrator credentials?”
Nathaniel asked.
Claire looked at Victoria.
“Mrs. Carter was given emergency access when I was hired.”
Victoria took out her phone.
“I was checking his schedule.”
Claire shook her head.
“The request was for stored files.”
Elena stood.
“Do not touch that phone.”
Victoria laughed nervously.
“You cannot confiscate my property.”
“No,” Elena said. “But you may want to stop giving us reasons to preserve it through a court order.”
Victoria’s eyes went to the tablet.
The recording.
Nathaniel saw exactly what frightened her.
Not the kiss.
Not the humiliation.
Something else inside the file.
He looked at Claire.
“Play the first thirty seconds again.”
She did.
Footsteps.
The door opening.
Malcolm whispering about Friday.
Then another sound beneath Victoria’s voice.
A sentence almost lost beneath the rustle of her dress.
Victoria’s voice.
“Once the court signs it, we move the trust money before Ava can stop us.”
Nobody spoke.
Victoria’s face drained of color.
Nathaniel looked at his wife.
“What trust money?”
Ava answered before Victoria could.
“The Carter Foundation reserve.”
Nathaniel stared at her.
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Ava’s next words hurt more than the affair.
“Dad’s money.”
