Chapter 9 - Nathan’s Impossible Choice
Nathan drove back in silence.
Hannah let him.
Some discoveries didn't need immediate conversation.
At a rest stop halfway home, Nathan finally pulled over.
He shut off the engine.
“My father.”
Hannah waited.
“I spent years believing he knew more about Jonathan than he admitted.”
“Maybe he did.”
Nathan looked at her.
“You think he could still be involved?”
“I think evidence matters more than what we want to be true.”
He nodded.
“That was irritating.”
“What?”
“That answer.”
“You asked an accountant.”
“I should've asked my mother.”
“She'd probably say the same thing.”
“Unfortunately.”
The following morning, they met outside counsel.
Ethan agreed to provide copies of Jonathan's notes and a sworn statement.
The evidence changed the investigation.
But it created another problem.
If Martin had been running fraudulent vendor schemes for nearly two decades, Paige was not his only accomplice.
He would need banking contacts.
System access.
Legal structures.
People who looked away.
Nathan wanted Martin suspended immediately.
Outside counsel refused.
“If we move now, he destroys whatever remains.”
“He already stole records.”
“Digital copies exist.”
“He threatened Hannah.”
“We can't prove he sent it.”
Nathan slammed his hand against the table.
Hannah flinched.
Nathan instantly regretted it.
“Sorry.”
Counsel continued.
“We need him to believe he still has control.”
Nathan looked at Hannah.
“He nearly framed her.”
“I know.”
“And your strategy is to let him keep working.”
“Our strategy is to let him make another mistake.”
Nathan hated it.
Hannah understood.
It was the same reason she hated accepting security.
Waiting felt like helplessness.
But it wasn't.
Sometimes waiting was strategy.
The board meeting that afternoon became a battlefield.
Richard demanded answers.
Martin arrived with perfect composure.
Nathan had to sit across from him knowing what Ethan had revealed.
He couldn't react.
That might have been the hardest thing he'd ever done.
Martin addressed the board.
“Given the concerns surrounding Ms. Prescott and Nathan's personal involvement, I recommend an external review of all findings generated by the temporary audit team.”
Nathan said, “We already have external counsel.”
Martin smiled.
“Counsel retained by your office.”
Richard looked between them.
“Enough.”
Martin continued.
“There is another matter.”
Nathan's stomach tightened.
Martin distributed folders.
Inside were photographs.
Nathan outside Hannah's home.
Nathan and Hannah entering Carol's house.
Nathan's vehicle at Ethan's repair shop.
“A senior executive privately meeting with a suspended employee under investigation,” Martin said.
Hannah wasn't in the room.
Nathan wished she were.
She would have seen through this instantly.
Martin continued.
“This is no longer merely an optics problem.”
Nathan closed the folder.
“You had me followed.”
“Corporate security documented possible interference.”
“Under whose authorization?”
“Mine.”
“You're CFO.”
“And a board officer.”
Richard interrupted.
“Why were you at Hannah's home?”
Nathan looked at his father.
“Checking on an employee who had been threatened.”
“And Northbridge?”
Nathan couldn't reveal Ethan without jeopardizing the investigation.
“Personal.”
Martin leaned back.
“Exactly.”
Nathan understood the trap.
If he told the truth, Martin learned they had Ethan.
If he refused, the board believed there was a personal relationship.
Richard asked, “Are you romantically involved with Ms. Prescott?”
“No.”
It was true.
But something inside Nathan complicated the answer.
He cared about Hannah.
More than he should.
More than he'd planned.
He admired the way she challenged him.
The way she refused pity.
The way her mind found patterns other people missed.
But she was his employee.
Suspended.
Under investigation.
Whatever he felt was irrelevant.
“No,” Nathan repeated.
Martin said, “Then explain Northbridge.”
“I can't.”
Richard's disappointment was visible.
“Can't or won't?”
“Both.”
The board voted.
Seven to four.
Nathan was temporarily removed from operational authority over finance and internal audit.
He remained COO in title.
But Martin had effectively cut him out.
Afterward, Richard stopped him.
“I defended you.”
Nathan laughed bitterly.
“You voted against me.”
“I defended you for weeks.”
“You know Martin is manipulating this.”
“I know you've behaved recklessly.”
“By helping Hannah?”
“By allowing your judgment to become personal.”
Nathan stepped closer.
“Did you know about Jonathan's vendor investigation?”
Richard froze.
“What?”
There it was.
Fear.
Not guilt.
Nathan could tell the difference now.
“You knew.”
Richard lowered his voice.
“Where did you hear that?”
“Answer.”
“Yes.”
Nathan's chest tightened.
“How much?”
“Jonathan came to me two days before he died.”
Everything stopped.
“What did he say?”
“That he believed someone in finance was stealing.”
“Who?”
“He didn't know.”
“Martin?”
“He trusted Martin.”
Nathan's anger surged.
“Why didn't you tell police?”
“I did.”
“And?”
“They found no evidence.”
“You knew he didn't drink.”
Richard looked away.
“I knew.”
“Yet you let the accident report stand.”
“I had a wife. Children. A company collapsing. Your mother was terrified.”
“So everybody chose silence.”
Richard turned sharply.
“Do not judge decisions you didn't have to make at eighteen.”
Nathan stared.
“My mother got a photograph of me.”
Richard went pale.
“She told you?”
“Yes.”
“I got one too.”
Nathan stopped.
“What?”
“Photograph of you and your sister leaving school.”
“Who sent it?”
“I never knew.”
“And you did nothing?”
“I hired security. Quietly.”
“You never investigated Martin?”
“I did.”
“And?”
“Nothing connected him.”
Nathan thought of Jonathan's note.
Martin knew how to build distance.
Richard's voice softened.
“I've carried this eighteen years.”
Nathan looked at his father.
“Then help me end it.”
Richard hesitated.
And that hesitation changed everything.
“What?” Nathan asked.
“There is something you should know.”
“What?”
“After Jonathan died, I found a ledger.”
Nathan's heartbeat jumped.
“What ledger?”
“Vendor payments.”
“Where is it?”
“I destroyed it.”
Nathan stared.
“You what?”
“I believed it could destroy the company.”
“It could have exposed Martin!”
“I didn't know that.”
“You destroyed evidence?”
Richard closed his eyes.
“Yes.”
Nathan stepped away as if his father had struck him.
“Why?”
“Because the company was weeks from insolvency. Thousands of jobs—”
“You protected the company.”
“Yes.”
“Over Jonathan.”
Richard's face crumpled.
“I thought Jonathan was already gone.”
Nathan whispered, “And that made the truth disposable?”
Richard had no answer.
That night Nathan called Hannah.
She answered immediately.
“How bad?”
He told her.
The board.
His father.
The ledger.
For a long time she said nothing.
Then:
“You still there?”
“Yes.”
“What are you thinking?”
“That every person in my family chose the company.”
“And you?”
Nathan looked through the glass wall of his office at the Hawthorne name etched into the building.
“I don't know anymore.”
Hannah's voice softened.
“Then maybe that's the choice.”
“What is?”
“Deciding whether Hawthorne is just the name on the building…”
She paused.
“…or the kind of man you want to be.”
Nathan closed his eyes.
For the first time in years, his next move became completely clear.
He called an emergency press conference for the following morning.
May you like
And before anyone on the board could stop him, Nathan Hawthorne prepared to publicly reveal that his own company was under investigation.
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