Chapter 7 - The Man Waiting Outside Apartment 3B
Nathaniel had expected a trap.
He hadn't expected to walk into the small apartment where his daughter had spent eight years without him.
Harper Court stood between a laundromat and a discount grocery store.
The brick was cracked.
The lobby light flickered.
One elevator was permanently broken.
Nathaniel had owned dozens of buildings.
He had never truly looked at one like this.
Claire unlocked apartment 3B.
Nathaniel stepped inside.
He stopped.
The living room was small.
A secondhand couch sat beneath a window.
A stack of library books occupied the coffee table.
Ruby's drawings covered the refrigerator.
One showed Claire and Ruby beneath a giant yellow sun.
Another showed a dog labeled SOMEDAY.
Nathaniel stared.
This was her world.
No bodyguards.
No marble.
No private schools.
Just a child who colored suns too large and wanted a dog.
Claire watched him.
“What?”
Nathaniel shook his head.
“Nothing.”
“You look shocked.”
“I imagined where you lived.”
“And?”
“Not this.”
Claire's expression hardened.
“Sorry to disappoint you.”
“That isn't what I meant.”
Nathaniel moved toward the refrigerator.
A school photograph was held by a magnet.
Ruby smiling with two missing front teeth.
“How old?”
“Six.”
Nathaniel touched the edge of the photograph.
Claire looked away.
He noticed a jar on the counter marked RENT.
Inside: eleven dollars and some coins.
His throat tightened.
Nine hundred dollars could have saved them.
Ruby returned it anyway.
Nathaniel looked at Claire.
“How bad was it?”
“What?”
“The money.”
Claire folded her arms.
“We managed.”
“You were being evicted.”
“We were going to manage that too.”
“How?”
“I hadn't figured it out.”
Nathaniel pulled the folded hundred-dollar bill from his pocket.
The one he'd picked up after Ruby disappeared.
“She gave this back.”
Claire looked at it.
“She would.”
“She knew about the notice.”
Claire's face changed.
“What?”
“She had it in her backpack.”
Claire closed her eyes.
“I hid that.”
“Apparently not well.”
Claire sat.
Nathaniel noticed the exhaustion in her face.
“How many jobs?”
“Two.”
“Hospital?”
“And a bakery on weekends.”
Nathaniel clenched his jaw.
Claire saw it.
“Don't.”
“Don't what?”
“Turn my life into evidence against yourself.”
“I didn't say anything.”
“You're thinking it loudly.”
Nathaniel put the money away.
“You shouldn't have had to do this alone.”
Claire looked at him.
“I wasn't alone.”
“You know what I mean.”
“I had Ruby.”
“And she had you.”
Claire nodded.
Nathaniel's voice softened.
“She should keep having you.”
Claire's eyes flickered.
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“That I'm not here to take her.”
For the first time, Claire truly believed him.
A sound came from the hallway.
Nathaniel immediately drew his weapon.
Claire stared.
“You said Dominic told you to come alone.”
“I lied.”
She almost smiled.
A knock.
Three slow taps.
Nathaniel approached the door.
“Who?”
A voice answered.
“Someone who wishes he'd made different choices.”
Nathaniel recognized it.
Samuel Pike.
He opened the door partially.
Samuel stood outside.
Seventy years old.
Gray suit.
Gold ring.
No visible weapon.
Nathaniel grabbed him and pulled him inside.
Claire gasped.
“Where's Ruby?”
Samuel straightened his jacket.
“I told you, Dominic has her.”
“You forged that video.”
“I didn't.”
“The ring.”
Samuel looked at his hand.
“My ring was copied.”
“Convenient.”
Samuel sighed.
“Nathaniel, if I wanted Ruby dead, she would never have reached age eight.”
Nathaniel raised his weapon.
Claire stepped between them.
“Both of you stop.”
Nathaniel looked at her.
“Move.”
“No.”
“Claire.”
“Ruby needs information, not another corpse.”
Samuel looked almost approving.
“Still the smartest person in the room.”
Claire glared.
“Don't.”
Nathaniel lowered the weapon slightly.
Samuel sat at the kitchen table.
He looked around.
“So this is where Evelyn hid you.”
Claire stared.
“She didn't choose it.”
“No. I did.”
Nathaniel's eyes narrowed.
“What?”
Samuel looked toward him.
“Harper Court belonged to a shell company no Graves account publicly connected to your family.”
Claire whispered, “You arranged the lease?”
“Yes.”
“You said you didn't know where we were.”
“I lied.”
Nathaniel grabbed him again.
Samuel didn't resist.
“Why?”
“To keep you from finding them.”
Nathaniel shoved him against the wall.
“You watched me bury an empty coffin.”
“Yes.”
“You watched my mother grieve.”
“She wasn't grieving Claire.”
Nathaniel froze.
Samuel's expression softened.
“She was grieving you.”
Nathaniel let go.
Samuel adjusted his collar.
“Evelyn believed losing Claire would either destroy you or force you to become better.”
“It did neither.”
“No.”
Samuel looked at him.
“You became Malcolm with better manners.”
Claire winced.
Nathaniel said quietly, “Careful.”
Samuel laughed.
“You're proving my point.”
Nathaniel turned away.
“Why is Dominic involved?”
Samuel's humor vanished.
“Because Victor made a mistake.”
Victor, waiting in a vehicle downstairs despite Nathaniel's supposed agreement to come alone, was listening through an earpiece.
Nathaniel asked, “What mistake?”
“Three months ago, Victor accessed an old Graves account looking for surveillance funds.”
Daniel's voice came through Nathaniel's earpiece.
“Checking.”
Samuel continued.
“The account had been monitored by Dominic's people.”
“Why?”
“Because it once financed the operation that destroyed him.”
Nathaniel understood.
“Victor led Dominic toward Claire.”
“Yes.”
Nathaniel cursed.
Samuel said, “The eviction notice was mine.”
Claire stared.
“You admitted it.”
“I needed you to leave.”
“Without warning?”
“I tried warning you.”
“When?”
“The phone calls you kept hanging up on.”
Claire's eyes widened.
Unknown calls.
For months.
“You could have said who you were.”
“And if someone monitored the line?”
Nathaniel paced.
“Why not tell me?”
Samuel looked at him.
“Because I didn't know whether you would protect Ruby or claim her.”
“I wouldn't hurt her.”
“No. But eight years ago, you would have put her inside Graves Tower, surrounded by armed men, and called that safety.”
Nathaniel thought about what had happened today.
He had done exactly that.
And Ruby had been taken.
Samuel continued.
“Evelyn's instructions were clear. Ruby remained invisible until you proved your empire no longer controlled you.”
Nathaniel laughed bitterly.
“How exactly was I supposed to prove something I didn't know was being tested?”
“You weren't.”
Nathaniel glared.
Samuel added, “Life rarely gives advance notice.”
Claire sat opposite Samuel.
“How do we get Ruby back?”
Samuel placed a phone on the table.
“Dominic doesn't want money.”
“What does he want?”
“Nathaniel.”
Claire's face tightened.
Samuel continued.
“Six years ago, Nathaniel dismantled the Serpents.”
“I know.”
“What you don't know is that Dominic's younger brother died during the collapse.”
Nathaniel stared.
“I didn't order that.”
“No.”
Samuel looked toward him.
“But your father did.”
Nathaniel frowned.
“Malcolm was already dead.”
“Not when the order was created.”
Samuel opened a file.
“Malcolm left instructions to eliminate anyone who exposed certain accounts after his death.”
Nathaniel took the paper.
“Who carried them out?”
Samuel hesitated.
Nathaniel looked up.
“Who?”
Samuel's eyes moved toward the window.
Nathaniel understood before he answered.
“Someone still inside your organization.”
Daniel's voice came through the earpiece.
“We've got movement downstairs.”
Nathaniel touched his ear.
“What?”
“A man just entered the building.”
“Description?”
Daniel answered.
“Late forties. Scar across left cheek.”
Samuel went pale.
“Dominic.”
Claire stood.
Nathaniel moved her behind him.
The hallway light outside went dark.
Footsteps climbed the stairs.
Slowly.
One floor.
Then another.
Nathaniel raised his weapon.
The footsteps stopped outside apartment 3B.
Three knocks.
Claire covered her mouth.
Nathaniel approached.
A child's voice came through the door.
“Mom?”
Claire nearly screamed.
“Ruby!”
Nathaniel grabbed her before she could open it.
“Wait.”
“That's her!”
“I know.”
Ruby knocked again.
“Mom?”
Nathaniel looked through the peephole.
Ruby stood outside.
Alone.
He opened the door.
Claire pulled her inside and collapsed around her.
Ruby cried for the first time since the kidnapping.
Nathaniel searched the corridor.
Empty.
No Dominic.
No gunmen.
Nothing.
Then Ruby held out an envelope.
“The man told me to give this to you.”
Nathaniel took it.
Inside was a photograph.
Nathaniel at age seventeen.
Standing beside Malcolm.
On the back:
ASK YOUR FATHER'S LAWYER WHO REALLY KILLED MY BROTHER.
Nathaniel slowly turned toward Samuel.
Samuel's face had gone white.
Ruby clung to Claire.
Nathaniel stepped toward the old attorney.
“Who?”
Samuel said nothing.
Nathaniel's voice dropped.
“Who killed Dominic's brother?”
Samuel finally looked up.
“You did.”
Nathaniel stopped.
Claire stared.
May you like
Samuel continued.
“You just don't remember it the way it happened.”
