Chapter 3 - The Account With His Name
Nathan found Maya near the lower deck service stairs.
“Maya.”
She turned.
Her expression immediately hardened.
“You saw my email.”
“Where did you get those logs?”
“Transaction portal audit history.”
“Who else has them?”
“IT.”
“Maya.”
“What?”
“Who else?”
She folded her arms.
“Why are you asking like that?”
Nathan lowered his voice.
“Because my account is on a forged property document.”
“You knew there was something wrong with that file.”
“I knew nothing.”
Maya stared at him.
“May twenty-eighth.”
Nathan frowned.
“What?”
“I emailed you May twenty-eighth. The PDF creation date was newer than the signature date printed on the page.”
Nathan remembered something vague.
A long message buried among hundreds of transaction emails.
He had been preparing for Monaco.
“You sent me a metadata complaint.”
“I sent you a warning.”
“And I told you legal cleared it.”
“You told me, ‘Stop slowing down the deal.’”
Nathan rubbed his forehead.
Maya’s voice dropped.
“I kept the email.”
He looked at her.
For the first time that evening, Nathan felt truly afraid.
“You think I forged it?”
“I think you didn’t want to know.”
“That is not the same thing.”
“No,” Maya said. “But maybe that distinction matters more to you than it does to investigators.”
Nathan stepped closer.
“You work for me.”
“Not when you say it like that.”
“Maya—”
“You slapped a sixty-three-year-old man because you thought he was beneath you.”
Nathan’s face tightened.
“Stay out of that.”
“It’s already everywhere.”
She showed him her phone.
Someone had recorded the aftermath.
Not the slap itself, but Nathan pointing at the scattered supplies.
Clean this up and stay away from the guests.
The video had been sent through marina employee group chats.
Nathan felt sick.
“Delete that.”
Maya actually laughed.
“I didn’t record it.”
“Then don’t spread it.”
“You should be more worried about page seventeen.”
Nathan grabbed her elbow.
It was not violent.
But it was enough.
Maya looked down at his hand.
Nathan released her immediately.
Her eyes had changed.
“Don’t touch me.”
“I’m sorry.”
“You keep becoming sorry after you think there might be consequences.”
She walked away.
Nathan wanted to follow.
Instead he heard Victor behind him.
“Stop creating witnesses.”
Nathan turned.
Victor stood in the corridor.
“What does that mean?”
“It means you are visibly panicking.”
“My account uploaded the document.”
Victor’s expression barely moved.
“Then maybe you uploaded it.”
Nathan stared at him.
“I was home.”
“Can you prove it?”
“My daughter was there.”
“Wonderful. Drag your sixteen-year-old into corporate fraud.”
Nathan’s fists tightened.
Victor stepped closer.
“Do not accuse anyone until we understand the data.”
“You said transaction team handled the document.”
“They did.”
“Who?”
“Several people.”
“Names.”
Victor smiled coldly.
“You’re forgetting your position.”
Nathan’s anger flared.
“My position? Samuel Reed could have me fired tomorrow.”
“Samuel can do much worse than that.”
“What does that mean?”
Victor did not answer.
Nathan grabbed his phone.
“I’m calling IT.”
Victor stopped him.
“No.”
Nathan looked at his hand.
Victor removed it.
“Why not?”
“Because internal IT reports to finance, and finance reports to people who will protect Aurelia before they protect you.”
Nathan stared at his mentor.
“That sounds like a warning.”
“It is.”
“From whom?”
Victor’s face softened.
“I brought you into this company when you were selling forty-foot cruisers to dentists. I put you in rooms you couldn’t enter. I got your name into Monaco, Palm Beach, Cannes.”
“You’re changing the subject.”
“I am reminding you who has stood beside you.”
Nathan looked toward the salon.
Samuel was speaking quietly with Olivia.
“Did you know Samuel worked around the marina dressed like that?”
“Yes.”
Nathan turned sharply.
Victor sighed.
“He does it sometimes.”
“You knew?”
“I knew he likes appearing unannounced.”
“You let me call him a maintenance guy.”
“I didn’t see him until after you told me.”
Nathan didn’t believe that answer completely.
Victor walked past him.
“Go home.”
“I’m not leaving.”
“You’re emotional.”
Nathan nearly smiled at the irony.
Victor continued.
“Preserve your files. Say nothing. Tomorrow we manage this.”
Manage.
It was Victor’s favorite word.
For years Nathan had admired that quality.
Now it sounded sinister.
Nathan left the marina shortly after midnight.
His apartment occupied the twenty-third floor of a waterfront building he could barely afford after his divorce.
He removed his designer jacket and poured bourbon.
Then he opened his laptop.
June 14.
He searched his calendar.
AVA — BIRTHDAY DINNER 7:00.
He remembered everything.
Ava had eaten chocolate cake on his balcony.
She had made him promise not to answer work messages during dinner.
At 11:30 she had gone to the guest bedroom.
Nathan had fallen asleep on the sofa.
Had he opened his laptop later?
Maybe.
He checked his browser history.
Nothing.
Then he found something stranger.
An email sent from his account at 1:47 a.m.
To Victor Hale.
SUBJECT: READY.
The body contained only four words.
Everything is uploaded. Proceed.
Nathan stared at it.
He had no memory of sending it.
He checked his deleted messages.
Empty.
His phone rang.
Dad.
Nathan almost ignored it.
Richard Pierce was seventy, retired, and living in a small house forty minutes inland.
Their relationship had been strained for years.
Nathan answered.
“What?”
His father sounded tired.
“I saw the marina video.”
Nathan closed his eyes.
“Of course you did.”
“Did you hit Samuel Reed?”
Nathan went still.
“You know him?”
A long silence.
Then Richard said something Nathan had never expected.
“I’ve known Samuel for thirty-two years.”
Nathan sat straighter.
“How?”
“Nathan, there are things about Reed Harbor I should have told you a long time ago.”
“What things?”
Richard breathed slowly.
“The story I gave you about why I lost my job there…”
Nathan’s pulse quickened.
“What about it?”
May you like
“It wasn’t true.”
And for the second time that night, someone reached into Nathan’s past and pulled out a lie with his name attached to it.
