Chapter 5 - GREGORY’S DEAL
By the fourth day, the poison had begun leaving my system.
My body was recovering.
My life was not.
Gregory had been charged with attempted murder, evidence tampering, fraud, and conspiracy.
Yet when Victoria arrived that morning, she carried news I didn’t expect.
“He wants to talk.”
“To me?”
“Yes.”
“No.”
“He says he has information about Paige.”
I looked at her.
“That could be a trick.”
“Almost certainly.”
“Then why should I see him?”
“Because sometimes liars tell the truth when the truth becomes useful.”
The meeting took place through secure video.
Gregory appeared wearing county jail clothing.
Without the expensive watch, tailored shirt, and careful haircut, he looked smaller.
He stared at me for several seconds.
“You look better.”
“I am.”
His mouth tightened.
“Congratulations.”
“What do you know about Paige?”
“No hello?”
“What do you know?”
He leaned back.
“Always business.”
I almost ended the call.
Then he said, “Daniel has her.”
“I know.”
That surprised him.
“You got the picture?”
“Yes.”
Gregory looked away.
“I told him not to do that.”
I laughed once.
“You tried to murder me, Gregory.”
“I know what I did.”
“Do you?”
His jaw clenched.
“Daniel said it would be painless.”
The sentence hit me like ice.
I stared at him.
He continued quickly.
“I’m not asking forgiveness.”
“Good.”
“I’m telling you how it happened.”
“I already know.”
“No.”
His eyes met mine.
“You don’t.”
According to Gregory, Daniel approached him almost a year earlier.
Gregory’s consulting business was failing.
He had hidden debt from me.
A lot of debt.
Daniel knew.
He offered a solution.
If Gregory helped force a sale of Vanguard, Northstar would pay him several million dollars.
At first, the plan was only to push me out.
Make me look unstable.
Manipulate medical records.
Pressure the board.
Then I refused Gregory’s request for ownership.
“That’s when Daniel changed the plan,” he said.
“You mean when you agreed to kill me.”
Gregory’s eyes dropped.
“Yes.”
The word hurt more than I expected.
Not because it surprised me.
Because he finally admitted it without euphemism.
“What about Paige?”
“She hated your family.”
“So you slept with her?”
“At first, she was useful.”
I stared at him.
He looked ashamed.
Then defensive.
“It became something else.”
“Love?”
“I thought so.”
“You were planning my funeral together.”
He said nothing.
“What does Daniel want now?”
“The trust.”
“He can’t get it.”
“He thinks you can transfer control.”
“I won’t.”
“Then Paige is in danger.”
I leaned closer to the screen.
“Where?”
“I don’t know.”
“Think.”
He hesitated.
“Daniel owns properties through shell companies.”
“Which ones?”
“I only know one.”
He gave us an address outside Dayton.
Police found the building empty.
But they also found Paige’s scarf and a handwritten note.
Three numbers.
4-11-89.
Nobody understood them.
I did.
April 11, 1989.
The day Robert Ellison died.
Paige wasn’t telling us where she was.
She was telling us where to look next.
The original police case.
Victoria requested the archived investigation records.
They revealed something extraordinary.
Robert Ellison had called someone twenty minutes before his death.
Thomas Avery.
My father.
And my father had recorded the conversation.
The tape had never been found.
Until now.
One of the boxes in storage unit 318 contained an old microcassette labeled 4-11-89.
We found a machine capable of playing it.
My father’s voice came first.
“Robert, calm down.”
Then another man.
“I know what Martin did.”
“What?”
“He changed the subcontractor records.”
There was breathing.
Paper moving.
“He’s stealing from us.”
“I know.”
“No. You don’t understand. He’s setting me up.”
My father swore.
Robert continued.
“If something happens to me, protect Paige.”
My hands shook.
Paige had been eight years old.
Then Robert said something that changed everything.
“Martin has a son.”
Daniel.
“He’s been helping him.”
The recording ended minutes later.
Daniel had not inherited his father’s crime.
He had participated in it.
As a teenager.
Small tasks.
Delivering documents.
Moving files.
Learning how to hide money.
For decades, father and son had lived from stolen wealth.
Northstar was simply their newest vehicle.
And Atlas was valuable enough to make them repeat the entire cycle.
Destroy one partner.
Frame another.
Take the company.
Detective Bell contacted federal investigators.
Financial crimes.
Interstate fraud.
Money laundering.
Northstar’s executives began distancing themselves from Martin Kessler immediately.
But Daniel still had Paige.
That evening, I received another message.
This one included an audio file.
Paige’s voice.
“Jacqueline, don’t give them the trust.”
Then Daniel.
“You have until tomorrow at noon.”
A pause.
“After that, I start sending pieces of the archive to the press.”
I looked at Victoria.
“What archive?”
She understood first.
“The fabricated Atlas theft evidence.”
“They’re going to accuse me publicly.”
“Yes.”
My phone rang again.
This time, the caller was Mia from Vanguard.
“Jacqueline…”
“What happened?”
“You need to turn on the news.”
I did.
The headline was already running.
VANGUARD DESIGNS ACCUSED OF STEALING PROPRIETARY TECHNOLOGY.
The story spread in minutes.
Clients began calling.
Then cancelling.
By midnight, three major projects had been suspended.
By morning, Vanguard had lost nearly thirty million dollars in contracted work.
Daniel was no longer trying to steal my company.
He was destroying it.
May you like
And he knew exactly how much time it would take.
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