Chapter 9 - The Night Nathan LeftMelanie stopped cooperating.
At least for six hours.
Then investigators showed her the toll image.
She asked for Brandon.
He refused.
She asked again.
Finally Melissa said, “You may want to hear this.”
Brandon entered the interview room.
Melanie looked smaller than before.
“You followed Nathan.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“He called me.”
“You said you hadn’t spoken to him before he disappeared.”
“I lied.”
Brandon laughed bitterly.
“Of course.”
“He was scared.”
“Of Harrison?”
“And Grant.”
“What did he want?”
“A ride.”
“Then why was his car found at the lake?”
“Because we left it there.”
Brandon stared.
“You helped stage his disappearance.”
“Yes.”
“With Rachel?”
Melanie shook her head.
“Rachel knew he needed to disappear. She didn’t know exactly how.”
“What happened?”
Melanie looked at her hands.
“I met Nathan at Lake Mercer. He left his car. I drove him to a bus station two counties away.”
“Then?”
“I gave him cash.”
“From Rachel?”
“Partly.”
“And where did he go?”
“He wouldn’t tell me.”
“Did you ever see him again?”
“No.”
“Why hide all of this?”
“Because I could have been charged with obstruction if police believed a crime occurred.”
“You were protecting yourself.”
“Yes.”
At least she no longer called it protection.
Brandon continued.
“Why did Nathan send that message warning us about you?”
Melanie’s expression changed.
“I don’t know.”
“Think.”
“I am.”
Parker’s school file had taught Brandon something.
A person could tell the truth about one thing and still build another lie beside it.
“What did you do that Nathan wouldn’t forgive?”
Melanie began crying.
“He asked me to take evidence to the SEC.”
“And?”
“I didn’t.”
“Why?”
“Grant found me first.”
Brandon went still.
“When?”
“Two days after Nathan left.”
“What did Grant say?”
“He knew I helped Nathan.”
“How?”
“I don’t know.”
“What did he want?”
“The evidence.”
“Did you give it to him?”
Melanie nodded.
Brandon felt disgust rise.
“You betrayed your brother.”
“I was twenty-nine. Grant told me I could go to prison.”
“So you handed him the evidence.”
“Yes.”
“And Nathan?”
“When he learned, he cut me off.”
Brandon finally understood.
Melanie had not married him only to investigate Grant.
She had married him carrying guilt.
Trying to repair an old betrayal by committing new ones.
“You keep hurting the next person to fix what you did to the last.”
Melanie flinched.
“That’s fair.”
“No. It isn’t fair. Parker paid for something he had nothing to do with.”
“I know.”
“Stop saying that.”
She closed her eyes.
Brandon stood to leave.
Melanie said:
“I know where Grant is going.”
He stopped.
“Where?”
“If Nathan is alive, Grant will look for the original account.”
“What account?”
“The Lake Mercer escrow.”
Brandon frowned.
Melanie explained.
Before disappearing, Nathan created an escrow account with a law firm in Seattle.
If he failed to check in annually, records were supposed to be released.
“He kept checking in,” Brandon said.
“Apparently.”
“Why Seattle?”
“His college roommate became an attorney there.”
“Name?”
“Jacob Wren.”
Investigators contacted Wren.
He initially refused to discuss privileged matters.
Then he learned Rachel had died and Harrison remained chairman.
He agreed to meet federal agents.
The result was explosive.
Nathan had deposited a sealed archive containing transaction logs, recorded calls, and a handwritten journal.
But the release condition had recently changed.
At Nathan’s request.
The archive could now be released only to one person.
Not Melanie.
Not Evelyn.
Not Brandon.
Parker Hawthorne.
Melissa stared at the document.
“Why would Nathan name an eight-year-old?”
Wren answered through the speakerphone.
“He didn’t.”
Brandon frowned.
“What?”
“When Nathan created the instruction, Parker was three.”
“Then why him?”
“Because Nathan said Rachel was the only person at Hawthorne who tried to protect him.”
Wren paused.
“And if Rachel was gone, her son should decide what happened to the truth.”
Brandon looked at Parker.
The responsibility was absurd.
Unfair.
Nathan had apparently recognized that too.
Wren continued.
“The archive cannot actually be released to a minor. It goes to Parker’s legal representative under court supervision.”
“Me.”
“Ordinarily.”
Melissa caught the hesitation.
“What’s the problem?”
Wren said:
“Nathan added one restriction.”
Brandon’s stomach tightened.
“What?”
“The representative cannot be anyone who approved the 2019 Lake Mercer refinancing.”
Brandon froze.
He had signed it.
Which meant he was disqualified.
May you like
And the next eligible fiduciary named in Rachel’s old estate documents was—
Harrison Voss.
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