Chapter 8 - The Last Argument
Nathan listened alone.
Margaret had advised against it.
Grace offered to stay.
Lucas offered to stop the audio if needed.
Nathan refused everyone.
He sat inside the yacht’s private office after midnight and placed headphones over his ears.
The recovered recording began with silence.
Then Claire’s voice.
“You’re recording?”
“Yes,” Nathan heard himself answer.
His own voice from two years ago sounded confident.
Impatient.
“I want us both to hear this tomorrow and realize how ridiculous we’re being.”
Nathan closed his eyes.
He remembered now.
Claire had activated an audio diary on the bedroom system after arguments because pregnancy insomnia made her fear she was remembering things incorrectly.
She said, “Richard is stealing from you.”
Nathan’s recorded voice answered, “Richard is keeping the company financed.”
“I have records.”
“You have suspicions.”
“I showed you invoices.”
“You showed me companies with similar addresses.”
“Because you wouldn’t look longer than thirty seconds.”
Present-day Nathan covered his mouth.
Claire continued.
“Vanessa gave him access.”
“Vanessa is your friend.”
“She was.”
“She has been helping you while I’m traveling.”
“That’s the problem.”
Nathan’s younger voice became sharper.
“Claire, every person who tries to help us becomes someone you distrust.”
A long silence followed.
Then Claire whispered, “Do you hear yourself?”
Nathan remembered her face.
He had not.
The argument escalated.
Claire told him she had changed Mia’s future trust documents.
Nathan accused her of making financial decisions without him.
She answered, “Because you stopped making decisions. You sign what Richard puts in front of you.”
“That’s not true.”
“Do you know what Harbor Vale is?”
“No.”
“Exactly.”
Nathan paused the recording.
He removed the headphones.
For several minutes, he could not move.
He had spent nineteen months remembering himself as Claire’s devoted husband.
He had been devoted.
He had also been absent, arrogant, impatient, and defensive.
Love had not erased those things.
He forced himself to continue.
Claire’s voice returned.
“I need you to promise me something.”
“What?”
“If I become too sick to fight about this, don’t let Vanessa manage my papers.”
“Why would she?”
“Promise me.”
“You’re catastrophizing.”
“Nathan.”
His old voice sighed.
“Fine. I promise.”
Claire began crying.
Not loudly.
Nathan heard himself soften.
“I’m sorry.”
“You always say that after.”
“I’ll look tomorrow.”
“You said that yesterday.”
“I have a lender call at seven.”
“Nathan.”
“What?”
“If I’m wrong, I’ll apologize for the rest of my life.”
A pause.
“But if I’m right, you’re giving the people hurting us more power every day.”
The recording ended.
Nathan sat in darkness.
Someone knocked.
Grace entered when he didn’t answer.
She saw his face.
“I believed them,” he said.
Grace remained silent.
“I believed Richard because he made problems disappear.”
His eyes filled.
“I believed Vanessa because she made grief easier after Claire died.”
Grace sat across from him.
“You also believed what was easier for you.”
Nathan nodded.
“Yes.”
It was the hardest truth.
Vanessa had not created all of his blindness.
She had used blindness that already existed.
Grace said, “What will you do with that?”
“Not waste it.”
His phone rang.
Susan Bell.
Nathan answered.
“The special committee found something,” she said.
“What?”
“Vale Strategic Capital received approximately twelve million dollars in fees from entities connected to the Atlantic Dynamics acquisition.”
“Claire found eighteen-point-four.”
“We haven’t traced everything.”
“Is Richard implicated?”
“Directly.”
Nathan stood.
Susan continued.
“But you have a problem.”
“Of course I do.”
“Your signature appears on three authorization chains.”
Nathan closed his eyes.
“Real signatures?”
“So far, yes.”
He felt the blow.
Richard had not forged everything.
He had mixed fraud with Nathan’s genuine negligence.
That was smarter.
And much more dangerous.
Susan said, “Richard is arguing that you approved the payment structure and are now blaming him to protect yourself.”
“I didn’t know the recipients were his.”
“Can you prove that?”
Nathan looked at Claire’s recovered audio file.
“Maybe.”
The next morning, DCF investigator Dana Ruiz arrived.
She interviewed Grace.
Lucas.
Nathan.
She observed Mia eating breakfast.
Vanessa’s attorney appeared remotely and supplied photographs of Nathan traveling without Mia.
A schedule showing eighty-seven nights away during the prior year.
Nathan could not deny it.
Dana asked, “Who was the primary caregiver during those nights?”
“Professional nannies. Grace when aboard.”
“Ms. Vale?”
“Sometimes.”
“How often?”
Nathan realized he did not know.
Dana saw it.
That hurt worse than any accusation.
After the interview, she said, “I am not removing Mia from your care today.”
Nathan exhaled.
“But I am keeping the investigation open.”
Vanessa had not won.
Nathan had not won either.
As Dana left, Grace approached with the forensic report.
“We recovered another video.”
Nathan looked at the timestamp.
The morning after his final argument with Claire.
Onscreen, Vanessa entered Claire’s bedroom while Claire was at a medical appointment.
Vanessa opened the desk.
Removed a sealed envelope.
Photographed every page.
Then placed it back.
Richard appeared ten minutes later through the private elevator.
Nathan watched him examine the photographs.
One page was visible to the camera.
Margaret recognized it immediately.
“The trust restriction.”
Nathan stared.
Vanessa and Richard had known exactly what Claire prohibited.
For two years.
Then, on the video, Richard said something the microphone barely captured.
Lucas amplified it.
May you like
Richard’s voice emerged.
“If she won’t change it, we wait until Nathan does.”
