Chapter 14 — The Last Account
Chapter 14 — The Last Account
Six months after Charles Cole was sentenced, Nathan began to believe the nightmare was finally over.
The towers still stood, but the Cole name had been removed from them.
The board had been dismantled.
The offshore accounts had been seized.
The Reyes Foundation had taken over what remained of the legitimate businesses.
Grace and the girls had moved into a quiet house outside the city.
For the first time, Lily slept through the night.
Emma stopped hiding food beneath her pillow.
And Nathan had learned that a child's laughter could fill a house more completely than any fortune ever could.
Then Daniel called.
It was 2:13 in the morning.
"Nathan."
Nathan sat upright.
"What happened?"
"I found something."
Nathan looked toward Grace, who was sleeping beside him.
"How bad?"
Daniel was silent.
"Daniel?"
"The auditors found an account."
Nathan frowned.
"We froze hundreds."
"Not this one."
"How much?"
Another pause.
"Four hundred and eighty million dollars."
Nathan stared into the darkness.
"Whose?"
"That's the problem."
Nathan got out of bed.
"Where is it?"
"Switzerland."
"Under Charles?"
"No."
"Then Samuel?"
"No."
Nathan felt the familiar cold return to his stomach.
"Whose name?"
Daniel lowered his voice.
"Yours."
By sunrise, Nathan was sitting in Daniel's office.
The file lay between them.
It was thin.
Too thin for almost half a billion dollars.
Nathan opened it.
The account had been established twenty-nine years earlier.
Two years after his birth.
The beneficiary was listed as:
NATHAN MICHAEL REYES.
Not Nathan Cole.
Nathan Michael Reyes.
His father's name.
His real name.
He looked up.
"Why didn't Charles find this?"
"He did."
Nathan froze.
"What?"
Daniel pointed to the second page.
"Charles knew about the account."
A handwritten note appeared in the margin.
DO NOT ACTIVATE UNTIL THE FINAL HEIR IS CONFIRMED.
Nathan's brow furrowed.
"Final heir."
Daniel nodded.
"There's more."
He turned the page.
The account had been receiving deposits every year.
On the same date.
Nathan's birthday.
Twenty-nine deposits.
No withdrawals.
Until six weeks earlier.
Nathan stared.
"Someone accessed it."
"Yes."
"Who?"
Daniel slid another document across the desk.
The transaction had been authorized electronically.
The signature belonged to Charles Cole.
Nathan's face hardened.
"Charles is in prison."
"The transfer happened before his conviction."
"Where did the money go?"
Daniel looked at him.
"To an account belonging to a company called Meridian Biolabs."
Nathan's blood ran cold.
"That's the company connected to the children's research."
"Exactly."
Nathan stood.
"How much did Charles transfer?"
"Forty million."
Nathan stared at the number.
"Forty million."
"That was the last transfer."
Nathan remembered Samuel's warning.
I was part of a project.
He looked at Daniel.
"Find Meridian."
"We already did."
"And?"
Daniel handed him a photograph.
A private laboratory.
A woman stood outside.
Nathan recognized her immediately.
Grace's mother.
Margaret Bennett.
Nathan's heart stopped.
"She's alive?"
Daniel nodded.
"Apparently."
Grace didn't speak for nearly a minute after Nathan told her.
They sat at the kitchen table.
Morning sunlight came through the windows.
Lily was coloring in the living room.
Emma was building a tower from wooden blocks.
Grace stared at the photograph.
"My mother died when I was nine."
"That's what you were told."
"By whom?"
"Your father."
Grace's face went pale.
"My father said she abandoned us."
Daniel placed the file on the table.
"She didn't."
Grace's hands began shaking.
"Then where was she?"
"Working for Meridian."
Grace pushed the photograph away.
"No."
Nathan reached for her hand.
"Grace."
"My mother wouldn't do this."
"Maybe she didn't."
Grace looked at him.
"What does that mean?"
"We don't know yet."
Daniel opened another file.
"We found correspondence between Margaret and Charles."
Grace stopped breathing.
"What did they say?"
Daniel hesitated.
"Your mother was trying to get the children out."
"Which children?"
"Lily."
Grace closed her eyes.
"And Emma."
Daniel nodded.
"But there was another child."
Grace opened her eyes.
"Samuel."
"No."
Daniel shook his head.
"Someone else."
Nathan looked at him.
"Who?"
Daniel placed a birth record on the table.
The name was blacked out.
Only the date remained.
Same hospital.
Same year.
Same day.
Nathan felt a chill.
"Three children?"
Daniel nodded.
"Three."
Grace whispered:
"That's impossible."
"It wasn't."
Daniel pointed to the medical records.
"All three were part of the same genetic program."
Nathan stood.
"Where is the third child?"
Daniel looked at him.
"We don't know."
That afternoon, Nathan visited Samuel.
He was being held in protective custody under a different identity while investigators tried to establish who he really was.
Nathan sat across from him.
"Did you know about a third child?"
Samuel's face changed.
"Who told you?"
"Daniel found the records."
Samuel leaned back.
"I knew there was another."
Nathan stared.
"Who?"
"Her name was Anna."
Grace had never mentioned the name.
"Where is she?"
Samuel looked away.
"I thought she was dead."
"Thought?"
"Charles told me she died."
Nathan's voice hardened.
"Charles lied about everything."
Samuel smiled bitterly.
"That's what makes him dangerous."
Nathan placed the photograph of Margaret on the table.
Samuel looked at it.
"Where did you get this?"
"She was working for Meridian."
Samuel's face went pale.
"No."
"You know her?"
"I've seen her."
"When?"
Samuel hesitated.
"Years ago."
"Where?"
"In the facility."
Nathan leaned forward.
"What facility?"
Samuel looked directly at him.
"The one where they raised me."
Silence.
"They didn't raise me to be an heir," Samuel continued.
"They raised me to be a replacement."
Nathan frowned.
"Replacement for whom?"
Samuel's eyes filled with something close to fear.
"You."
Nathan sat back.
"What?"
"They were trying to determine which child carried the strongest genetic combination."
Nathan remembered the files.
"That's why Lily and Emma were monitored."
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because Charles believed the Reyes bloodline was worth more than the company."
Nathan's voice became cold.
"And Anna?"
Samuel whispered:
"Anna was the first successful result."
That night, Nathan couldn't sleep.
He walked into Lily's room.
She was curled beneath her blanket.
Emma slept in the bed beside her.
He watched them breathing.
Two innocent children.
Two lives that had nearly been destroyed because powerful people had decided blood was more valuable than childhood.
Nathan sat between their beds.
He remembered the first time Lily had called him Daddy.
The first time Emma had held his finger.
He realized then that he had spent months fighting to give them a safe future.
But he had never asked whether the people who created the nightmare were truly gone.
His phone buzzed.
Unknown number.
He answered.
"Hello?"
A woman's voice whispered:
"Nathan."
He froze.
"Who is this?"
"Your father loved you."
Nathan stood.
"Who are you?"
"I know where Anna is."
His heart pounded.
"Where?"
"Come to the old Reyes garage."
"Who are you?"
The line went dead.
Nathan stared at the phone.
Then he woke Grace.
The garage had been abandoned for decades.
Rust covered the doors.
Dust filled the windows.
Nathan pushed the door open.
The smell hit him immediately.
Oil.
Metal.
Old wood.
His father's world.
Grace stood beside him.
"There's nobody here."
Nathan looked around.
"Someone called us."
A light flickered in the back room.
They walked toward it.
A woman stood beside the old workbench.
She was older.
Thin.
Gray-haired.
Her face was exhausted.
Grace stopped.
Her mouth opened.
"Mom?"
The woman turned.
Grace covered her mouth.
Margaret Bennett began to cry.
"My baby."
Grace ran to her.
They collided in an embrace that carried fifteen years of grief.
Nathan stood back.
He understood that some reunions belonged only to the people who had been separated.
After several minutes, Margaret finally looked at him.
"You must be Nathan."
He nodded.
"You knew my father?"
"I knew Michael."
"Why did you disappear?"
Margaret looked at Grace.
"Because Charles gave me a choice."
"What choice?"
"Work for him or watch Grace die."
Grace pulled away.
"You could have come back."
"I tried."
"Why didn't you?"
"Because every time I got close, someone disappeared."
Nathan's jaw tightened.
"Anna?"
Margaret nodded.
"She's alive."
Grace stared.
"Where?"
Margaret looked toward the garage door.
"Not far."
Nathan's heart began racing.
"Where?"
Margaret handed him an old key.
"Under the garage."
Nathan looked at it.
"What is this?"
"Your father's last account."
He frowned.
"I already found the account."
"No."
Margaret shook her head.
"That account was never about money."
Nathan stared at her.
"Then what was in it?"
"Evidence."
She pointed toward the floor.
"Michael knew Charles would eventually destroy everything."
"He hid the truth."
"Yes."
"Why call it an account?"
"Because Charles was searching for a bank account."
Margaret smiled sadly.
"Michael knew his brother would never think to look beneath the place where he learned to work."
Nathan looked down.
The concrete floor.
The old garage.
His father's hands.
He suddenly remembered something from childhood.
Michael had once told him:
"When everyone looks at the safe, look at the floor."
Nathan knelt.
He found a small metal plate beneath the workbench.
The key fit.
A lock clicked.
A section of concrete lifted.
Inside was a steel case.
Nathan opened it.
There were passports.
Photographs.
Birth certificates.
Bank records.
And one final cassette.
On its label:
THE LAST ACCOUNT.
Nathan inserted it into the old player.
Static filled the room.
Then Michael spoke.
"My son."
Nathan closed his eyes.
"I don't know how old you'll be when you hear this."
His voice was calm.
"But if you've found the last account, then Charles has lost control."
Nathan looked at Grace.
Michael continued.
"The money in the Swiss account was never yours."
Nathan frowned.
"It belongs to the children."
Grace stared.
"All three."
Nathan's blood ran cold.
Michael continued.
"Charles believed money was power."
A pause.
"He was wrong."
"The real inheritance is the evidence."
Nathan looked through the documents.
"Everything you need to expose the program is in this case."
Michael's voice softened.
"Anna is alive."
Nathan stopped breathing.
"She is the final witness."
A door creaked somewhere behind them.
Nathan turned.
Margaret looked terrified.
"Someone followed us."
Nathan reached for his phone.
The garage lights went out.
A vehicle stopped outside.
Then another.
Grace grabbed his arm.
"Who is that?"
Nathan looked toward the doors.
"I don't know."
A man's voice came from outside.
"Mr. Reyes."
Nathan stepped in front of Grace.
"Stay behind me."
The voice continued.
"You have something that belongs to us."
Nathan looked at the steel case.
"No."
He closed it.
"Something that belongs to my children."
A gunshot shattered the window.
Grace screamed.
Nathan pulled her to the floor.
Another shot.
Then silence.
Margaret pointed toward a hidden door.
"There's another exit."
Nathan grabbed the case.
"Go."
They ran.
Behind the garage, an old tunnel led toward the river.
They emerged minutes later.
Police sirens approached in the distance.
Nathan looked back.
The garage was burning.
The last physical evidence of his father's life was disappearing into flames.
Grace grabbed his hand.
"The case."
Nathan looked down.
Still there.
Then he heard a voice behind him.
"Good."
He turned.
A young woman stood beneath the trees.
Twenty-something.
Dark hair.
Green eyes.
She looked directly at Nathan.
"I'm Anna."
Nathan stared.
The third child.
The missing witness.
The final heir.
Anna looked toward the burning garage.
"They're coming for me."
Nathan stepped closer.
"Who?"
She looked at the flames.
"The people who built the empire."
Then she looked at Grace.
"And they're not finished."
Nathan tightened his grip around the steel case.
For months, he had believed the war was over.
Charles was imprisoned.
Victoria was gone.
The company was dismantled.
The money was being recovered.
But now he understood the truth.
Charles had never been the entire machine.
He had only been one man inside it.
The last account had revealed something far worse.
The empire had survived because dozens of people had profited from the same secret.
Doctors.
Lawyers.
Bankers.
Executives.
Politicians.
And somewhere in the world, someone still controlled the money.
Someone still controlled the research.
Someone still wanted his children.
Nathan looked at Anna.
"Where do we go?"
Anna's eyes filled with tears.
"There is one place they won't search."
"Where?"
She looked at the old garage.
"Your father's house."
Nathan frowned.
"My father didn't have another house."
Anna shook her head.
"He did."
She handed him a photograph.
A small farmhouse stood beside a lake.
Nathan recognized it immediately.
He had seen it once in a childhood photograph.
His father had always told him it belonged to a friend.
Anna whispered:
"It belongs to you."
Nathan stared.
"How?"
"Michael bought it before you were born."
"Why?"
Anna's expression hardened.
"Because he knew one day you'd have to run."
She looked toward the approaching sirens.
"And that day has come."
Nathan looked at Grace.
Grace nodded.
He took her hand.
Then he looked at the girls waiting in the car.
For the first time, he wasn't running away from the past.
He was running toward the truth.
And somewhere beneath the ashes of the old empire, the last account had finally been opened.
But what Nathan found inside it was only the beginning.
Because beneath the final document was a list of names.
At the very top was one name he had never expected to see.
EVELYN COLE.
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And beside it, one handwritten sentence:
SHE WAS THE ONE WHO STARTED IT.
