Chapter 9 - The Ghost in the Family
The silence on the dock was heavier than the sea air.
“Your brother?” I whispered, the words catching in my throat. “Richard? Richard has been in Europe for ten years. He disappeared after your father’s estate was settled!”
“He didn’t disappear,” Robert said, his voice laced with venom. “He set up an offshore private lending syndicate based out of Panama and Zurich. He’s been laundering money through secondary real estate markets across Florida for half a decade. Victoria Dudley was one of his domestic fronts.”
Chloe looked between Robert and me, her face pale beneath the bruises. “Uncle Richard? But… I haven’t seen him since I was a child. Why would he target me? Why would he let them hurt me?”
“Because he hates me,” Robert said simply. “When my father died, he left eighty percent of the core holding company to me because he knew Richard was reckless, arrogant, and legally radioactive. Richard swore he would take back his birthright, piece by piece, starting with everything I loved. He didn’t just want your condo, Chloe. He wanted to break you. He wanted to show me that even with all my billions, I couldn’t protect my own daughter on her wedding night.”
Marcus closed his laptop with a sharp click. “We tracked the wire transfers. Two weeks before Lewis proposed to Chloe in Paris, an entity registered to Richard Vance transferred two hundred and fifty thousand dollars into Lewis Dudley’s personal offshore account in Grand Cayman. It was an advance payment. Lewis wasn’t just a cowardly son obeying his mother. He was Richard’s hired hand.”
Chloe stepped back, her hand flying to her mouth. A ragged sob escaped her lips.
Every memory of the past six months—the romantic strolls along the Seine, the candlelit dinners in Mayfair, the sweet promises whispered into her ear by a man she believed was her soulmate—turned to ash. It hadn’t just been an opportunistic robbery by an arrogant mother-in-law. It was a cold-blooded, meticulously orchestrated contract hit on her heart and her dignity.
“Where is he?” Chloe asked. Her voice didn’t break this time. It was sharp, cold, and razor-thin. “Where is Richard?”
“On a private compound outside Nassau,” Marcus replied. “Beyond the reach of a standard county warrant, but not beyond the reach of federal asset forfeiture if we tie him directly to the extortion and assault conspiracy.”
“We don’t wait for the feds,” Robert said coldly. “Marcus, prepare the Gulfstream. We’re going to the Bahamas.”
“No,” I stepped directly in front of Robert, my eyes blazing. “You are not going to turn this into an international gang war, Robert! Look at your daughter! Look at what your family’s endless greed and vendettas have done to her!”
Robert looked at Chloe, his chest heaving with silent fury. For a fraction of a second, the iron-clad billionaire looked vulnerable.
“Sarah… he crossed a line that can never be uncrossed,” Robert said softly. “He had his lapdogs put their hands on my child.”
“Then destroy him the way you destroy everyone else,” I said, pointing toward the bay where Victoria was being escorted off her yacht in chains. “In the light. Strip his money. Seize his accounts. Leave him with nothing but his name and an orange jumpsuit. But do not leave Chloe tonight. She needs her father, not another ghost.”
Robert looked down at his daughter.
Chloe walked over to him, reaching out with both hands, taking his large, weathered palms into hers.
“Stay with me tonight, Dad,” she whispered. “Tomorrow, we finish them together.”
A slow, deep breath left Robert’s lungs. The tension in his shoulders finally gave way, and for the first time since he had knocked on my door at three in the morning, he pulled both of us into a fierce, protective embrace.
May you like
“I’m staying,” he murmured into Chloe’s hair. “I’m not going anywhere.”
***
