Chapter 13 - Paige Had Paid Evan for a Different ReasonPaige did not deny the payment.
Again, the honesty came too late to feel reassuring.
“Yes.”
Carter stared across her kitchen table.
“You sent Evan Rourke two hundred fifty thousand dollars.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“To get something back.”
“What?”
“A video.”
Daniel looked at his wife.
“What video?”
Paige closed her eyes.
“Claire.”
Daniel stood so quickly his chair fell.
“What about our daughter?”
“Nothing happened to her.”
“What video?”
Paige began crying.
“Marshall had someone film her outside school.”
“We knew about the photographs.”
“Not that.”
Paige looked toward Carter.
“They filmed me too.”
“Doing what?”
“Meeting Tessa.”
Carter froze.
“When?”
“Two months ago.”
Sloane’s face changed.
“You met my sister?”
“Yes.”
“After Dad died?” Carter asked.
“Three days before.”
Silence.
Elias had apparently reunited Tessa with multiple people.
“What happened?”
Paige explained Tessa contacted her using a message only they would understand from the old Washington meeting.
They met at a hotel café.
Tessa told Paige she was preparing to come forward.
She needed Paige’s testimony about Richard Crane following her years earlier.
“Did you agree?”
“Yes.”
“Then?”
“Evan appeared outside my office the next day.”
“He showed you video.”
“Yes.”
“And threatened Claire.”
“Indirectly.”
“What did he say?”
“He said children shouldn't suffer because mothers revisit old mistakes.”
Daniel covered his mouth.
Paige continued.
“He demanded money.”
“You paid.”
“Yes.”
“Why from company funds?”
“I panicked.”
Carter’s anger sharpened.
“You had personal money.”
“The amount was large.”
“So you committed financial fraud to hide blackmail from your husband.”
Paige flinched.
“Yes.”
Daniel stared at her.
“I would have given you the money.”
“I know.”
“Then why?”
“Because you already spent years paying Marshall.”
Daniel went silent.
Paige laughed through tears.
“I thought if I told you, you'd do something reckless.”
There it was.
She had protected Daniel by making a reckless decision herself.
Sloane leaned back.
“This family is exhausting.”
No one disagreed.
“What did Evan give you?”
“The video.”
“Only copy?”
“He claimed.”
“Did you believe him?”
“No.”
“Then why pay?”
“Because fear doesn't always make sense.”
For once, someone admitted it plainly.
Federal investigators confirmed Paige’s transfer.
It was illegal corporate misuse but potentially explainable as extortion payment.
Still serious.
Paige agreed to cooperate fully.
The video itself contained something valuable.
In the background of the hotel café, Tessa and Paige could be seen.
At another table sat Elias.
And beside him—
Marshall Dane.
Carter stared.
“What?”
Paige had not noticed at the time.
Elias was meeting Marshall in the same hotel.
Tessa was nearby.
Maybe intentional.
Maybe surveillance.
The video timestamp showed Marshall leaving first.
Elias joined Tessa ten minutes later.
“What did Dad tell her?”
Carter asked.
Sloane contacted Tessa.
Tessa remembered.
Elias had arranged the hotel specifically because he wanted Marshall to believe he was considering another deal.
While Marshall sat downstairs, Tessa met Paige upstairs.
Elias was creating a distraction.
Carter almost admired it.
Then hated that he admired another secret plan.
“What deal did Marshall think Dad wanted?”
“To trade the new ledger for silence.”
“Did Dad intend to?”
“No.”
“What did he intend?”
“To record Marshall admitting Lucas’s death.”
Carter’s pulse accelerated.
“Did he?”
Tessa hesitated.
“Partly.”
Elias wore a recording device during the meeting.
Where was it?
Tessa thought Elias gave it to someone after leaving.
“Who?”
She wasn't sure.
Then Paige remembered Elias had visited Daniel’s office that afternoon.
Daniel stared.
“He gave me an envelope.”
Everyone turned.
“What?”
“I forgot.”
Carter nearly lost patience.
“What was in it?”
“I never opened it.”
“Why?”
“Dad told me to put it in my private safe and not open unless Carter asked after his death.”
Carter stared.
“And I asked about his files three weeks ago.”
“You didn't ask for an envelope.”
Carter stood.
“Daniel.”
“I know.”
They drove to Daniel’s office.
His private safe had been emptied.
Not everything.
Only one envelope missing.
Security logs showed access the night Elias died.
Authorized code:
Paige.
She shook her head.
“I was at the hospital with Dad.”
Someone knew her code.
Daniel did.
His assistant did.
The firm’s CFO systems officer did.
And—
Evan had installed their security network through a contractor linked to Marshall.
Marshall had gotten there first.
The recording was gone.
Or so they thought.
A cleaning employee remembered finding a tiny memory card beneath the safe weeks later.
She placed it in lost property.
Still there.
Digital technicians recovered one audio file.
Elias and Marshall.
Hotel café.
Marshall:
“You should have accepted Lucas made a mistake.”
Elias:
“You hit him.”
Silence.
Marshall:
“Lower your voice.”
Elias:
“You hit my son with your vehicle.”
Marshall:
“I stopped a police officer from leaving with stolen evidence.”
Carter stopped breathing.
Not a full confession to intent.
But an admission to contact.
Elias:
“You murdered him.”
Marshall:
“I didn't wake up planning to kill Lucas.”
Silence.
Then:
“But he chose not to stop.”
Mina whispered:
“That’s enough to hurt him.”
The recording continued.
Elias:
“And Tessa?”
Marshall:
“Still alive because I allowed it.”
Sloane’s eyes hardened.
Then Elias asked:
“Why send Evan after Paige?”
Marshall laughed.
“Because you people only understand consequences when children are involved.”
Carter felt rage.
Elias:
“You stay away from my family.”
Marshall:
“You don't have much family left that isn't already mine.”
Carter froze.
“What does that mean?”
The recording ended minutes later.
Already mine.
Marshall considered someone in the Briggs family loyal to him.
Paige?
Daniel?
Helen?
No.
Then Carter remembered.
His father’s estate executor.
His cousin Jonathan Briggs.
A Richmond attorney.
Carter had barely considered him.
Jonathan had handled Elias’s will.
The motorcycle transfer.
The storage payments.
And—
the envelope containing the anonymous photograph could only have included Lucas’s original key if someone had access to Elias’s estate.
Jonathan had access.
Carter felt cold.
He called.
No answer.
Federal agents went to Jonathan’s office.
Empty.
On his desk was a signed consulting agreement.
Marshall Dane Strategic Services.
Dated twelve years earlier.
Carter stared.
Marshall had not merely infiltrated the family through marriage.
He had purchased loyalty from inside the Briggs bloodline.
And Jonathan had controlled Elias’s estate after death.
The trap on River Road suddenly made sense.
Jonathan knew exactly when Carter received Lucas’s motorcycle.
Exactly where the old key was.
Exactly which files Elias left.
May you like
And perhaps—
exactly which ones he had already handed to Marshall.
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