Chapter 4 - THE MAN WHO CALLED HIMSELF FAMILY
Martin Shaw sat in Nathaniel’s library as though he owned it.
Gray suit.
Silver tie.
Perfect posture.
At sixty-one, he had the kind of face people trusted automatically.
I had trusted him.
He brought Sophia chocolates.
He once held Eli while Nathaniel took an emergency call.
Now I wanted to rip him away from every memory involving the children.
Two lawyers sat beside him.
Three Reed Global board members stood near the fireplace.
Nathaniel entered first.
I followed.
Martin smiled.
“Nathaniel.”
“Get out.”
One lawyer stood.
“Mr. Reed, this concerns corporate governance.”
“I said get out.”
Martin’s smile disappeared.
“The board received troubling information about your behavior.”
“What behavior?”
“Locking down the estate. Suspending executives without process. Removing access to corporate systems.”
“You mean yours.”
Martin leaned back.
“Exactly this.”
Nathaniel stepped closer.
“You forged my signature.”
One of the board members stiffened.
Martin laughed softly.
“Excuse me?”
“My wife found the transfers.”
That changed him.
Only for a second.
But I saw it.
So did Nathaniel.
“Evelyn?”
Martin recovered.
“Nathaniel, Evelyn is dead.”
“She left records.”
The room went silent.
Martin looked toward me.
There.
Recognition.
Not curiosity.
Recognition.
He knew who I was.
“You,” he said.
My skin crawled.
Nathaniel moved slightly between us.
“Careful.”
Martin looked at him.
“You let domestic staff into corporate matters now?”
“My domestic staff apparently has better instincts than my CFO.”
One board member almost smiled.
Martin stood.
“This woman is manipulating you.”
I laughed.
“Sir, I clean bathrooms for a living. If manipulation were my specialty, I chose the wrong career.”
His eyes hardened.
“You don’t belong here.”
“That part is true.”
I stepped closer.
“But neither do you.”
Nathaniel placed the photograph of Martin and Mateo on the table.
Martin froze.
My late husband looked young in the picture.
Healthy.
Before the drugs.
Before fear hollowed him out.
“Remember him?” Nathaniel asked.
Martin stared at the photograph.
“Contractor.”
“My husband,” I said.
His eyes lifted.
“I didn’t know.”
“Lie.”
The word came from me before I could stop it.
Martin’s jaw tightened.
“You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Then why did a woman working for Evelyn spend years tracking my daughter?”
The board members began exchanging looks.
Martin turned to Nathaniel.
“This is exactly why we’re here. You are grieving again. Becoming paranoid.”
Nathaniel went still.
Martin continued.
“Evelyn’s death nearly broke you. Now an employee finds an old recording, and suddenly everyone is part of a conspiracy.”
The cruelty of it was surgical.
Nathaniel’s weakest wound.
Used like evidence.
I looked at him.
His face had gone blank.
That scared me.
Martin knew what he was doing.
“Nathaniel,” I said.
He didn’t look at me.
Martin continued.
“The board has authority to request a temporary medical evaluation before you make decisions that could affect billions in shareholder value.”
One lawyer slid forward a document.
Nathaniel didn’t touch it.
“What happens if I refuse?”
“The board may seek emergency removal.”
Martin smiled.
“Temporarily.”
There it was.
A coup.
Nathaniel understood.
So did I.
“If Nathaniel is removed,” I asked, “who becomes interim CEO?”
Everyone looked at me.
Martin answered reluctantly.
“The CFO traditionally assumes operational control.”
Him.
Of course.
Nathaniel almost laughed.
“You should have waited another week.”
Martin frowned.
“For what?”
“For me to be stupid enough not to understand.”
Nathaniel picked up his phone.
“Bring him in.”
The library doors opened.
Aaron entered.
With Teresa Bell.
Martin’s face changed.
Teresa looked terrified.
“Hello, Martin.”
He stared.
“I don’t know this woman.”
She laughed bitterly.
“You paid me for four years.”
The board members stiffened.
Martin looked toward the attorneys.
“Do not answer anything,” one said.
Teresa continued anyway.
“You paid me to monitor Clara and Sophia.”
My stomach tightened even though I already knew.
Nathaniel’s voice stayed calm.
“Why?”
Teresa looked at Martin.
“He wanted to know whether Mateo left Clara evidence.”
Martin turned.
“This is absurd.”
“Then why did your private company send payments to her?” Nathaniel asked.
He placed bank records beside the photograph.
Aaron had found them during the drive back.
Martin stopped talking.
Nathaniel looked toward the board.
“Anyone still want to discuss my mental fitness?”
Nobody answered.
One board member stood.
“Martin, we need to suspend you pending investigation.”
Martin looked around.
“You’re making a mistake.”
“No.”
Nathaniel’s voice lowered.
“The mistake was letting you near my family.”
Martin’s mask cracked.
“You would have nothing without me.”
Nathaniel stared.
“My father hired you.”
“I built Reed Global while you played heir.”
Nathaniel moved closer.
“And apparently decided that made it yours.”
Martin’s face went red.
“You don’t deserve what you inherited.”
There.
Truth, finally.
“You think Eli does?”
Martin’s expression changed.
Too late.
Nathaniel saw it.
“You need Eli.”
Martin laughed.
“You sound insane.”
“No.”
Nathaniel’s voice became almost quiet.
“You need his trust.”
He stepped closer.
“If I’m removed as guardian, if something happens to me, you become alternate.”
Martin looked toward the lawyers.
Nathaniel continued.
“Evelyn figured it out.”
For the first time, Martin looked afraid.
“And that’s why she died.”
Martin lunged.
Not at Nathaniel.
At the table.
At the photograph.
Aaron intercepted him.
The room exploded into shouting.
Martin shoved one board member.
A security officer pinned him against the wall.
Then Martin looked directly at me.
“You have no idea what Mateo did.”
My heart stopped.
“What?”
“He didn’t discover Orion.”
Martin laughed.
“He created it.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
I stared.
“Mateo built the transfer system.”
My stomach turned.
“He was a contractor.”
“He was a criminal.”
“Shut up.”
“He stole from Reed first.”
“No.”
“He came to Evelyn because he got scared after I caught him.”
My hands shook.
Nathaniel stepped between us.
“Enough.”
But I needed to know.
“Is that true?”
Martin smiled.
“He took three million dollars.”
I remembered the year before Mateo’s death.
Unexplained cash.
A nicer apartment he said came from a contract bonus.
Then debts.
Then terror.
Maybe Mateo had not been innocent.
Maybe the man I loved had done terrible things.
Martin saw the doubt.
“He helped me build Orion.”
“Why would he betray you?”
“Because he grew a conscience.”
Martin spat the word.
“Men always become moral once they realize someone might punish them.”
Aaron dragged him toward the door.
Martin shouted over his shoulder.
“Ask where Mateo hid the money!”
I stood frozen.
Nathaniel looked at me.
“Clara.”
“I need air.”
I walked out.
Not toward my room.
Toward the ballroom.
The only place large enough for the truth suddenly crushing me.
Mateo.
My husband.
The father of my daughter.
A thief?
I sat on the floor beside the piano.
Sophia found me twenty minutes later.
She climbed into my lap.
“Mommy sad?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
I kissed her hair.
“Because sometimes we find out people made bad choices.”
“Daddy?”
The word startled me.
She meant Mateo.
She barely remembered him.
“Yes.”
She thought.
“Did he love me?”
My throat closed.
“Yes.”
That answer I believed.
She nodded.
“Then okay.”
Children make impossible things simple.
Not forgiven.
Not erased.
Just separated.
Bad choices.
Real love.
Both could exist.
Nathaniel stood in the doorway.
I wiped my face.
“How long have you been there?”
“Long enough.”
“That’s rude.”
“Probably.”
Sophia ran toward him.
“Nathaniel.”
He caught her automatically.
She had stopped calling him Mr. Reed weeks ago without permission.
He no longer corrected her.
“Eli sleeping?”
“Yes.”
“Can I see?”
“Tomorrow.”
She sighed dramatically.
“Fine.”
I almost smiled.
Then Aaron appeared behind Nathaniel.
His face was grim.
“We searched Martin’s office.”
Nathaniel turned.
“And?”
“We found copies of Evelyn’s medical records.”
His face changed.
“What kind?”
“Pregnancy records.”
Silence.
Nathaniel stared.
“Why?”
Aaron looked at Eli’s father.
Then at me.
“There’s a genetic test.”
My stomach tightened.
Nathaniel’s voice lowered.
“For Eli?”
“Yes.”
“What does it say?”
Aaron hesitated.
“That Martin Shaw has a ninety-nine-point-eight percent probability of being genetically related to Eli.”
Nathaniel went completely still.
I stood.
“What does that mean?”
Aaron swallowed.
“It doesn’t say father.”
Nathaniel looked at him.
“Then what?”
May you like
“Grandfather.”
And suddenly the entire conspiracy became something far more personal.
