Chapter 8 - Victoria Bowmont’s Warning
Victoria arrived at Clare’s office on a Monday morning without an appointment.
Clare’s assistant tried to stop her.
Victoria walked past anyway.
She entered Clare’s office, closed the door, and stood with the confidence of someone who had rarely been told she could not enter a room.
Clare looked up from her laptop.
“This seems healthy.”
Victoria frowned.
“What?”
“Showing up at your former future husband’s pregnant girlfriend’s workplace uninvited.”
Victoria’s expression tightened.
“I didn’t come to fight.”
“You had me followed.”
“Yes.”
“You tried to get me fired.”
Victoria looked away.
“Yes.”
Clare closed the laptop.
“Then you may understand why I’m skeptical.”
Victoria stepped closer.
“You need to leave Nathaniel.”
Clare almost laughed.
“Remarkably poor opening.”
“I’m serious.”
“So am I.”
Victoria’s composure cracked.
“You don’t understand what they’ll do.”
“They?”
“The Ashcrofts.”
“You’re working with them.”
“My father is.”
“That isn’t the same?”
“No.”
For the first time Clare saw genuine fear.
Victoria sat without invitation.
“I started the surveillance.”
“I know.”
“I authorized pressure on your employer.”
“I know that too.”
“I did not authorize anyone to touch you.”
Clare went still.
Victoria’s voice lowered.
“Someone changed my order.”
Clare studied her.
“You expect me to believe you?”
“I don’t care.”
Victoria’s hands trembled slightly.
“I thought if your job became unstable, if you understood what being with Nathaniel cost, you might leave.”
“That was cruel.”
“Yes.”
“And arrogant.”
“Yes.”
“And possibly criminal.”
“Yes.”
Clare stared.
Victoria laughed bitterly.
“You wanted honesty.”
“Why are you here?”
Victoria looked toward the closed door.
“Because my father met Richard Crane last night.”
Clare’s stomach tightened.
“Where?”
“Our house.”
“What about?”
“I don’t know.”
“Then why does it matter?”
“Because Richard doesn’t come to our house for business meetings.”
Victoria leaned forward.
“He comes when someone wants something handled quietly.”
Clare thought about Nathaniel’s explanation of Richard.
“Why warn me?”
Victoria’s eyes filled with anger.
“Because I wanted you gone.”
She swallowed.
“I didn’t want you dead.”
The room seemed colder.
Clare reached for her phone.
Victoria grabbed her wrist.
“Don’t call Nathaniel here.”
Clare looked at the hand.
Victoria released her.
“Why?”
“Because he’ll confront Richard.”
“Yes.”
“And if Richard is already doing something, confrontation could accelerate it.”
Clare stared.
“That sounds like something you learned from your father.”
“I learned a lot from my father.”
Victoria stood.
“Most of it I wish I hadn’t.”
She headed for the door.
Clare spoke.
“Victoria.”
She stopped.
“Do you still want to marry him?”
Victoria did not turn.
“Yes.”
The honesty surprised Clare.
Victoria continued.
“But I’m beginning to understand that the man I wanted never existed.”
She opened the door.
“He was simply Nathaniel before he learned he could say no.”
Then she left.
Clare called Nathaniel immediately.
He did exactly what Victoria predicted.
“I’m confronting Richard.”
“No.”
“Clare—”
“She specifically said that would be dangerous.”
“You’re taking strategic advice from Victoria now?”
“I’m taking useful information from someone who may be terrified.”
Nathaniel was silent.
Clare continued.
“Can Marcus watch Richard?”
“Yes.”
“Then watch.”
Nathaniel hated waiting.
But he agreed.
For four days Richard behaved normally.
Office.
Club.
Home.
One dinner with Douglas.
Two calls to Harrison Bowmont.
Then on Friday evening Richard drove to a private warehouse in Queens.
Marcus followed.
Nathaniel watched through a secure feed.
Richard met a man named Paul Kersey.
Former Ashcroft security.
Dismissed by Nathaniel three years earlier for excessive force.
Nathaniel’s expression changed.
“Why is he back?”
Marcus shook his head.
“He isn’t on payroll.”
“Then who’s paying him?”
They soon learned.
A Bowmont shell account.
Clare watched from beside Nathaniel.
“What did Kersey do?”
Nathaniel did not answer immediately.
“Nathaniel.”
“He solved problems.”
“Specific.”
Nathaniel looked at her.
“He hurt people.”
Clare’s face paled.
Nathaniel immediately called Marcus.
“Bring Richard in.”
Clare grabbed his arm.
“Wait.”
“No.”
“We need evidence.”
“I have enough.”
“To fire him. Not to prove what he intended.”
“I don’t care about proving it.”
“I do.”
Nathaniel stared at her.
“Why?”
“Because when this comes apart, your family will say you imagined it.”
“They can say whatever they want.”
“And investigators?”
Nathaniel stopped.
Clare pointed at the feed.
“Let him lead us to evidence.”
It was the policy analyst speaking now.
The woman who understood systems.
Nathaniel hated that she was right.
So they waited.
Richard met Kersey for twenty-two minutes.
Afterward Marcus’s team retrieved discarded papers from the warehouse trash.
Most were meaningless.
One was not.
It contained a floor plan.
The Ashcroft Westchester estate.
Specific routes highlighted.
Service entrance.
Security camera positions.
Main staircase.
Clare looked at the diagram.
A chill ran across her arms.
“Why does he need a floor plan of his own sister’s house?”
Nathaniel said nothing.
At the bottom of the page was a date.
December 24.
Christmas Eve.
The Ashcrofts’ largest private event of the year.
Three hundred guests.
Bowmont family attending.
Nathaniel stared at the paper.
Clare’s pregnancy would be nearly six months along.
“Cancel Christmas,” he said.
Marcus nodded.
But the decision was not Nathaniel’s to make.
Douglas refused.
“It would cause speculation.”
Nathaniel nearly broke the phone.
“I don’t care.”
“I do.”
“There is a security threat.”
“Then increase security.”
“Richard is the threat.”
Douglas went silent.
Nathaniel continued.
“I want him removed.”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because you have circumstantial evidence and a personal grievance.”
Nathaniel’s voice became deadly.
“You are protecting him.”
“I am protecting this family from your paranoia.”
Nathaniel ended the call.
Clare found him ten minutes later standing alone in his office.
“We’re not going.”
Nathaniel looked at her.
“Correct.”
Clare nodded.
She had no desire to enter that house again.
Then two weeks before Christmas, a courier delivered another package.
Inside was Clare’s battered leather notebook.
The one she had lost after the pharmaceutical conference in October.
She stared at it.
Nathaniel opened the cover.
Every page had been photocopied.
At the back, someone had written:
You were never supposed to matter.
Clare felt suddenly sick.
Nathaniel closed the book.
Something in his face changed.
“We’re done hiding.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means I’m ending this.”
“How?”
Nathaniel looked toward the city.
“By taking away the thing they’re protecting.”
“The company?”
“The dynasty.”
And over the next ten days, Nathaniel quietly transferred documents to federal investigators, froze several discretionary family accounts, removed three security contractors, and began preparing a board challenge that could strip Douglas of executive authority.
Someone noticed.
On December 22, Eleanor Ashcroft called.
Her voice shook.
“Come Christmas Eve.”
Nathaniel almost hung up.
“No.”
“You need to.”
“Why?”
“There are documents your grandfather left.”
Nathaniel stopped.
“What documents?”
“Proof.”
“Of what?”
Eleanor whispered:
“Richard has been doing more than following Clare.”
Nathaniel looked toward Clare.
“What?”
“He has been protecting your father’s secrets for thirty years.”
Eleanor took a breath.
“And I think Douglas finally realizes Richard may be willing to protect them from you.”
Nathaniel’s blood ran cold.
“Then leave the house.”
“I can’t.”
“Mother—”
“Come Christmas Eve.”
“No.”
“Nathaniel.”
Her voice broke.
“For once in your life, trust me.”
He closed his eyes.
It was the one request Eleanor Ashcroft had never earned the right to make.
And yet two nights later, Nathaniel and Clare entered the mansion together.
May you like
Neither knew someone had already disabled one of the staircase cameras.
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