Chapter 14 - The Missing Folder
The emergency trust hearing lasted four hours.
Miles’s attorneys argued that Olivia’s suspension remained valid because the trust required rapid action when beneficiary assets were endangered.
Priya argued that no conviction, formal finding, or valid notice had ever occurred.
The judge refused to decide final control on an emergency record.
But she issued a temporary restriction.
Emma’s thirty-one-percent voting block could not be used to approve the Northstar sale until a fuller hearing.
Nathan nearly smiled.
Miles did not.
Outside court, Miles approached Nathan for the first time without Rebecca nearby.
Priya stepped between them.
Miles raised both hands.
“I only want thirty seconds.”
Nathan said, “You used all your seconds.”
Miles smiled faintly.
“You think Olivia came back because she forgave you?”
Nathan did not answer.
“She came back because she needs you as a witness.”
“Against you.”
“Against everyone if necessary.”
Priya said, “Walk away.”
Miles looked directly at Nathan.
“You have always confused people needing you with people loving you.”
Then he left.
The insult worked because part of Nathan feared it was true.
At Hawthorne, Grace discovered that the greenhouse camera’s original backup server was not inside the security room.
Eleanor had insisted on a redundant recorder years earlier.
It remained hidden in a climate-control cabinet inside the potting room wall.
The archive contained footage Rebecca had believed deleted.
One clip showed Rebecca entering the potting room six nights before the mud incident.
She searched shelves for twenty-three minutes.
Another showed Miles arriving two nights later.
Rebecca let him inside.
They argued.
No sound.
Then Rebecca shoved a folder against his chest.
Miles tore pages from it.
He kept some.
Rebecca kept others.
Olivia watched the footage.
“The missing folder.”
Nathan nodded.
“So neither of them has all of it.”
Grace pointed at the screen.
“Watch her.”
Rebecca returned after Miles left.
She knelt beside the old potting bench.
Her hands disappeared beneath a shelf.
Then she stood and walked out without the pages she had kept.
They searched.
Nothing.
Emma wandered into the doorway.
“She put them in Grandma’s rain thing.”
Nathan turned.
“What?”
Emma pointed toward an old brass rain gauge mounted outside the greenhouse.
Grace unscrewed the base.
Inside was a rolled waterproof sleeve.
The missing pages.
Rebecca had hidden them from Miles.
Nathan understood immediately.
“She didn’t trust him.”
Olivia opened the sleeve.
The papers were worse than expected.
One was a draft agreement between Miles and Northstar.
Another outlined payments to Rebecca after the hospitality sale.
But the most explosive document was handwritten.
A division of proceeds.
Miles: $17 million projected.
Rebecca: $8 million.
Reserve/legal: $3 million.
At the bottom Rebecca had written:
What about Nathan’s shares after divorce?
Miles’s response:
Pressure, settlement, or incapacity. Do not assume marriage guarantees ownership.
Nathan felt a chill.
Olivia said, “She married you believing she would eventually get access to your shares.”
“She couldn’t under the prenup.”
“Then Miles intended to make you surrender them.”
Priya photographed every page.
A car approached the estate.
It was Rebecca.
She stepped from the vehicle with her attorney.
Nathan’s entire body stiffened.
“You can’t be here.”
Her lawyer raised a hand.
“We are collecting personal property pursuant to the temporary agreement.”
Rebecca looked through the greenhouse glass.
She saw the rain gauge open.
Then she saw the papers.
Her expression collapsed.
Miles had not known where she hid them.
Now Nathan did.
Rebecca walked closer despite her attorney trying to stop her.
“Nathan.”
Priya warned, “Do not speak directly.”
Rebecca ignored her.
“You have no idea what Miles will do if he knows you found those.”
Nathan finally understood the fear in her face.
It was not fear of exposure.
It was fear of Miles.
Rebecca had helped create the conspiracy.
But she had also secretly prepared evidence against her partner.
May you like
The alliance at the center of Nathan’s destruction was beginning to collapse.
And desperate conspirators were more dangerous than united ones.
