Chapter 10 - THE SILENT PARTNER
The office was dark,
save for the glow of the monitors on my desk.
It was 2:00 AM,
and the adrenaline of the gala had faded into a cold,
sharp focus.
I was looking at the transfer logs for Everest Holdings.
Something was wrong.
There was a series of small,
encrypted deposits coming from an offshore account in the Cayman Islands.
They had been happening for months.
Before the acquisition.
Before I even made the move on Hollister Industries.
“Nate?”
I called out.
He appeared in the doorway,
his sleeves rolled up,
his eyes tired.
“Yeah,
Cate?”
“Who is 'Alpha-Omega'?”
I asked,
pointing to the screen.
“They’ve been seeding our capital for nearly a year.
I thought we were self-funded through our consulting fees.”
Nate walked over,
looking at the screen with a strange expression.
“We were,”
he said.
“But we needed a bridge loan for the final fifty million.
I told you we secured it through a private consortium.”
“Which consortium?”
I asked,
my suspicion rising.
Nate didn't answer right away.
He looked at the floor,
then at the window.
“Nate,”
I said,
my voice dropping.
“Who gave us the money?”
“It wasn't a consortium,”
he finally admitted,
looking back at me.
“It was your mother.”
I froze.
“My mother is dead,
Nate.
She’s been dead for twenty years.”
“Her estate wasn't,”
he said,
reaching into his pocket and pulling out a small,
black flash drive.
“She set up a blind trust before she died.
She knew what Victor was doing.
She knew he would try to destroy you.”
I took the drive,
my hands shaking.
“She left it for me?”
“She left it for the daughter who would eventually fight back,”
Nate said.
“The instructions were clear.
The money could only be released if you attempted to take back the company.
If you had stayed away,
the money would have gone to charity.”
I plugged the drive into my computer.
A single video file appeared.
I clicked play.
The screen filled with the face of a woman I barely remembered.
She looked tired,
but her eyes were bright,
filled with a fierce,
burning intelligence.
“Catherine,”
she said,
her voice a whisper from the grave.
“If you are seeing this,
it means you have chosen the hard path.
It means you have realized that the Hollister name is a curse.”
I felt a tear slip down my cheek.
“Your father thinks he is a king,”
she continued.
“But he is a thief.
He stole my family’s legacy to build his own.
The money in this trust is what remains of the Vane-Hollister merger.
It is your birthright.
Use it to finish what I couldn't.”
The video ended,
leaving the room in a heavy,
pregnant silence.
“The Vane-Hollister merger?”
I whispered.
“My mother was a Vane?”
Nate nodded.
“Julian Vane is your cousin,
Cate.
His branch of the family stole the company from your mother.
Your father helped them.
The marriage proposal ten years ago?
It was an attempt to keep the bloodline pure and the secrets buried.”
I sat back,
the world spinning around me.
I wasn't just fighting my father.
I was fighting a war that had been going on since before I was born.
I was the product of two families who had destroyed each other for power.
And now,
I was the only one left standing.
“So Julian knows,”
I said,
the pieces finally falling into place.
“He knows I’m a Vane.
He knows I have a better claim to his fortune than he does.”
“That’s why he’s backing your father,”
Nate said.
“If you win,
he loses everything.
Not just the company.
His entire identity.”
I looked at the black drive in my hand.
I had thought I was the architect of an invisible empire.
But I was just a pawn in a game that was much bigger than I ever imagined.
I stood up,
walking to the window.
The city looked different now.
It didn't look like a prize.
It looked like a battlefield.
“Nate,”
I said,
my voice cold and hard.
“Call the forensic team.
Tell them 'Project Exorcism' just got a lot bigger.”
“What are we doing?”
he asked.
I looked at the reflection of the girl in the glass.
The girl who had been fired,
humiliated,
and exiled.
She was gone.
In her place was someone new.
Someone who wasn't just a Hollister or a Vane.
May you like
“We’re going to take it all,”
I said.
