Chapter 13 - Natalie’s Missing Presentation
Emily arrived at Elliot’s apartment at midnight.
She looked exhausted.
“No lawyers,” she said.
“No lawyers,” Elliot agreed.
Natalie sat at the kitchen island.
Thomas joined by video call.
Margaret refused to come.
“I can’t do another confession tonight,” she had said.
Nobody blamed her.
Emily held a cup of coffee she never drank.
“I restored the cameras.”
“Why?”
“Because Dad told me to.”
Elliot frowned.
“When?”
“Earlier that night.”
“Why?”
“He suspected someone was accessing security systems.”
“Did he tell you who?”
“No.”
“Why use my code?”
Emily shook her head.
“I didn’t.”
“The shutdown did.”
“I know.”
“Then how?”
Emily looked at him.
“Dad had copies of everything.”
Elliot went still.
“Copies of my biometric credentials?”
“He created the executive system.”
Mason, who stood near the door, nodded reluctantly.
“Older security architecture could theoretically use stored templates.”
Elliot looked disgusted.
“So Dad could impersonate me.”
“Possibly.”
“Why?”
Emily looked at Natalie.
“Because he wanted Richard to think Elliot disabled the cameras.”
Everyone stared.
“What?” Elliot asked.
“Dad was setting a trap.”
Emily explained.
Arthur suspected Richard had been monitoring his movements.
If Richard believed Elliot had disabled security because he was drunk or angry, he would feel safer entering the suite without leaving a visual record.
Arthur planned to record the meeting separately.
“Where?” Mason asked.
Emily looked toward the television.
“Presentation system.”
Natalie sat up.
“What?”
“The suite had an internal conference recorder.”
“Audio?”
“Audio and screen capture.”
Mason immediately began searching old hotel technology records.
The system backed up to a server used for executive presentations.
Retired three years earlier.
Where did the old equipment go?
Mercer & Rowe.
Natalie laughed in disbelief.
Elliot looked at her.
“What?”
“Hawthorne.”
She stood.
“The redevelopment presentation.”
“What about it?”
“Vale transferred the old hotel presentation archive to Mercer & Rowe when the agency began the brand project.”
Mason checked.
Correct.
Thousands of legacy media files had been supplied for historical research.
Natalie had reviewed many herself.
Then the realization hit.
Her missing twenty-one slides.
Not random.
“What if someone wasn’t deleting my presentation?”
Elliot stood.
“They were looking for something inside the project files.”
“Yes.”
The Hawthorne folder contained old Vale archive assets.
Calvin knew.
Chloe accessed Natalie’s account because her credentials allowed access to historical brand material.
“What date?” Natalie asked.
Mason gave Arthur’s final night.
They drove to Mercer & Rowe at one in the morning.
Federal investigators had already imaged the servers.
With authorization, the IT team searched archived assets.
Date.
Hotel.
Executive suite.
One hidden backup file.
Corrupted.
But not completely.
Video first.
Black screen.
Then Arthur appeared.
The camera angle came from the presentation monitor.
Time stamp: 10:38 p.m.
Arthur adjusted something.
Then said:
“Emily, if you ever see this, I’m sorry I asked you to carry another secret.”
Emily covered her mouth.
Arthur continued.
“Elliot, I used your credentials to shut down the security feed. You had no part in this.”
Elliot exhaled.
Natalie reached for his hand.
This time without thinking.
Arthur looked toward the door.
Richard entered.
Then Calvin.
The audio distorted.
Still understandable.
Richard: “You’ve lost your mind.”
Arthur: “No. I found what was left of it.”
Calvin remained near the door.
Arthur held up documents.
“I’m signing everything tonight.”
Richard: “And destroying Elliot?”
Arthur: “Stop using my son as an excuse.”
Elliot’s eyes closed.
Arthur continued.
“What I did to that boy was worse than anything the courts can do to me.”
Richard: “You confess and Vale becomes carrion.”
Arthur: “Then let it.”
Richard laughed.
“You always were dramatic when guilty.”
Arthur: “And you were always brave when someone else paid the price.”
Silence.
Then Arthur put one hand against his chest.
Natalie felt Elliot tense.
Richard noticed too.
“Arthur?”
Arthur waved him off.
Calvin: “Should I call someone?”
Arthur: “Not yet.”
Important.
The first chest pain had begun before the ambulance call.
Arthur sat.
They argued for several minutes.
Richard threatened exposure of financial documents signed by Elliot.
Arthur dismissed it.
“You forged his consent.”
Richard stopped talking.
Elliot stared at the screen.
There.
A new crime.
Arthur knew.
That was why Richard was desperate.
At 10:41, Arthur reached for the phone.
“I need medical help.”
Calvin stepped forward.
Richard said, “Wait.”
Arthur ignored him.
Called.
Gave his symptoms.
Address.
Then Richard picked up another phone.
“Cancel it.”
Arthur stared.
“You wouldn’t.”
Richard said, “There’s a doctor downstairs.”
Calvin looked confused.
No doctor existed.
Arthur tried standing.
Collapsed into the chair.
The screen glitched.
For thirty seconds, video disappeared.
Audio remained.
Arthur breathing heavily.
Calvin: “Richard, call them back.”
Richard: “Give him a minute.”
Arthur: “Get… out.”
Richard: “Sign the old confirmation first.”
Elliot stood so violently his chair fell.
Natalie caught his arm.
“Keep watching.”
“I’ve seen enough.”
“No.”
He looked at her.
“If you stop now, you’ll fill in the missing parts with the worst version forever.”
He hated that she was right.
He sat.
Arthur eventually improved slightly.
At 10:53, someone knocked.
Samuel Price.
The lawyer.
He entered.
Saw Arthur.
Immediately called emergency services.
Richard grabbed the phone.
A struggle.
Not violent.
But enough.
Samuel shouted.
“You’re killing him!”
Richard said, “He’s having a panic attack.”
Samuel: “He has a cardiac history!”
At 10:56, Arthur looked toward the camera.
His eyes fixed on it.
He knew it was recording.
“Elliot.”
Everyone in the room became still.
Arthur spoke through pain.
“Daniel was never yours to carry.”
Elliot covered his mouth.
Arthur continued.
“I was wrong.”
Then the video glitched again.
When picture returned, Samuel was gone.
Caroline entered.
Then Thomas.
Their timelines overlapped differently from what each remembered because fear had blurred minutes.
Arthur handed documents to Price before he left.
Caroline left with one envelope.
Thomas gave Arthur the maintenance records.
At 11:08, Emily entered.
At 11:11, she left crying.
At 11:12, Richard ordered Calvin to remove several documents.
At 11:14, Calvin called emergency services again.
At 11:15, Arthur collapsed fully.
At 11:17, Emily restored the security system from another terminal, exactly as Arthur had instructed earlier.
Paramedics arrived at 11:21.
Four minutes.
Four minutes that might or might not have changed everything.
The video did not prove murder in a simple cinematic way.
It proved something uglier.
Delay.
Coercion.
Forgery.
Evidence tampering.
A brother caring more about control than urgency.
Arthur had been dying.
Richard had chosen business first.
Natalie looked at Elliot.
His face was wet.
He had not noticed.
Emily crossed the room and sat beside him.
For a moment neither spoke.
Then Elliot said, “I’m sorry.”
Emily looked confused.
“For what?”
“For making you carry this alone.”
She began crying.
“I thought you hated me.”
“I didn’t know enough to hate you.”
“I thought Dad chose you even when he was hurting you.”
“He didn’t choose either of us very well.”
Emily laughed through tears.
“No.”
Elliot reached for her.
Brother and sister held each other.
Natalie turned away.
Some moments did not need witnesses.
Her missing presentation had led them to the recording.
The sabotage meant to keep the truth buried had done the opposite.
Again.
A mistake.
Small.
Technical.
Twenty-one missing slides.
A hidden archive.
A dead man finally speaking.
Later, as dawn began whitening the Chicago sky, Elliot stood beside Natalie.
“You could still walk away.”
“Why do you keep offering?”
“Because I keep giving you reasons.”
Natalie looked at him.
“Maybe I’m staying for one.”
He became very still.
“What reason?”
She smiled faintly.
May you like
“You still don’t know how to tie your own tie.”
And for the first time since Daniel’s name returned to his life, Elliot laughed without guilt.
