Chapter 12 - What Charles Hid on SnowThe microSD card contained seventy-three files.
Most were photographs.
Company records.
Screenshots of bank transfers.
Scanned letters.
Charles had built a private archive.
Maybe he knew his office was compromised.
Maybe he trusted Snow more than his own family.
Then they found the videos.
Charles sitting in the boathouse.
Speaking directly into the camera.
“If this card is found, I hope Snow is still with Sophie.”
Helen cried before he said anything else.
Charles smiled faintly.
“She loves that dog more than anything.”
Snow raised his head at the sound of Charles’s voice.
Sophie reached for him.
The video continued.
“I have spent my life believing money could protect my family.”
Charles shook his head.
“I was wrong.”
He described Margaret.
Not as a monster.
That would have been easier.
As a woman whose fear of losing control had consumed everything around her.
He spoke of Sarah.
The daughter Margaret removed.
The lies told to Nathan.
The threats.
“By the time I understood what Margaret had done to our children, Nathan already believed his sister was dead.”
Nathan covered his face.
Charles continued.
“I should have told him.”
“Why didn’t you?” Nathan whispered at the screen.
Charles answered almost as if he heard him.
“Because I was afraid telling him would destroy what little relationship he still had with his mother.”
Nathan started crying.
Helen understood the parallel.
Charles had kept a terrible secret to “protect” Nathan.
Nathan had ignored Margaret’s behavior to “protect” himself.
Silence had infected the family through generations.
Then Charles spoke about Raymond Cross.
“Raymond is not Sarah’s father.”
Nathan exhaled.
“He helped Margaret take her. Later he regretted it. By then, he had committed enough crimes to be controlled too.”
So the support payments were not fatherhood.
They were leverage and hush money.
Charles said Raymond had eventually begun feeding him information.
A secret informant.
R.C. in the ledger was not always a co-conspirator.
Sometimes Charles used the initials to track money Margaret sent him.
Then Charles said:
“There is another person.”
Helen leaned forward.
“One I have not identified.”
His face became grave.
“Someone has been accessing trust files remotely.”
The unknown partner.
“The logins come from inside Whitmore Coastal, but the user is masking their identity.”
Charles had nicknamed the person:
THE FOURTH.
Helen’s skin prickled.
Charles continued.
“The Fourth knows about Sophie.”
Sophie looked at her mother.
Helen reached for her hand.
Charles:
“I believe whoever this is understands that Sophie’s controlling shares prevent liquidation of the company.”
Nathan whispered, “Who?”
Charles shook his head on the recording.
“I don’t know.”
The next files contained login records.
IP addresses.
Employee access codes.
One code appeared repeatedly.
NWH-04.
Nathan recognized it.
“That’s executive access.”
“Whose?”
“Mine.”
Helen stared.
Nathan looked horrified.
“I didn’t do this.”
Again.
But this time digital records might prove it.
Forensic investigators checked.
The login sessions occurred while Nathan was verifiably elsewhere.
One during a flight.
One while he was hospitalized for appendicitis.
Someone had cloned his credentials.
Likely someone with IT access.
Police obtained Whitmore Coastal employee lists.
Five administrators could do it.
One name jumped out.
Evan Cross.
Raymond’s son.
Sarah’s adoptive brother.
Thirty-four.
Director of Information Systems at Whitmore Coastal.
Nathan stared.
“I hired him.”
Helen looked at Sarah’s family tree.
Raymond had raised Sarah and later had a biological son, Evan.
Evan grew up knowing Sarah as his sister.
He knew the Whitmores had abandoned her.
What had Raymond told him?
Police located Evan’s apartment.
Empty.
His company badge on the kitchen counter.
Laptop missing.
Then Sarah called Helen directly.
“I think I know what Evan is doing.”
“What?”
“He hates your family.”
Helen glanced at Nathan.
“Why?”
“Because he thinks Charles destroyed Raymond’s life.”
“Did Raymond tell him that?”
“Since childhood.”
Sarah’s voice shook.
“Evan believes everything Raymond did for the Whitmores ruined our family.”
“Did he know Margaret took you?”
“Yes.”
“Does he know she abused Sophie?”
“I don’t know.”
Helen looked at the message sent to Nathan.
THE OLD MAN HAD MORE THAN TWO PARTNERS.
Maybe Evan wasn’t warning them as an ally.
Maybe he was announcing himself.
Sarah continued.
“There’s something else.”
“What?”
“Evan called me yesterday.”
Helen’s pulse jumped.
“What did he say?”
“He asked whether Sophie still sleeps with Snow beside her bed.”
Helen stood.
“Why?”
“I asked him the same thing.”
“What did he say?”
Sarah’s voice cracked.
“He said, ‘Because the dog is carrying the only copy Charles left behind.’”
Helen looked at the microSD card.
Evan knew about it.
Then:
“Where are you right now?”
“At the safe hotel.”
“Leave.”
Helen stared.
“Why?”
“Because Evan works in security systems.”
Helen’s blood went cold.
“He could find the hotel.”
“Yes.”
As if answering the fear, Snow suddenly stood.
His ears lifted.
A sound came from the hallway.
The electronic lock beeped.
Once.
Twice.
May you like
Then unlocked.
Someone outside had just overridden the door.
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