Chapter 6 - The Unraveling Lie
While Nathaniel spent his mornings in Philadelphia building block towers with his children, his private intelligence network in Manhattan was dismantling Arthur Cross’s life piece by piece.
Inside a high-tech mobile command unit parked three blocks from Juliet’s apartment, Gabe Mercer handed Nathaniel a thick digital dossier.
“It’s worse than we thought, Mr. Cross,” Gabe said, adjusting his earpiece. “Arthur wasn't just skimming from Cross Holdings to cover his private gambling debts in Macau. Five years ago, when Mrs. Cross disappeared, Arthur used a forged power of attorney to redirect three private offshore accounts registered under her maiden name.”
Nathaniel’s eyes turned cold as he swiped through the encrypted financial logs on the tablet. “He stole her personal inheritance?”
“And he used it to bribe Dr. Jonathan Vance—the chief of medicine at Manhattan General who originally confirmed Mrs. Cross’s pregnancy five years ago,” Gabe continued. “We picked up Dr. Vance two hours ago in Queens. He cracked during the first ten minutes of questioning.”
Nathaniel looked up from the tablet, his voice dropping an octave into pure malice. “What did Vance say?”
“Arthur didn't just threaten Mrs. Cross,” Gabe revealed softly. “After Mrs. Cross fled New York, Arthur had Dr. Vance construct a falsified medical file showing that Juliet had suffered a miscarried pregnancy and subsequently fled the country out of shame. Arthur handed that falsified file to your private investigators five years ago, Mr. Cross. That’s why your search teams stopped looking in domestic medical registries.”
Nathaniel felt an icy shock wave hit his chest.
Five years ago, when his private investigators had reported that Juliet had left the country and that there was no record of a child, Nathaniel had believed she had wiped the slate clean and wanted nothing to do with him. Arthur had crafted an airtight web of deception—making Nathaniel believe Juliet was a heartless woman who abandoned him, while making Juliet believe Nathaniel’s family would murder her children if she ever returned.
Arthur had played them both like chess pieces to keep Nathaniel isolated, grieving, and focused entirely on building corporate wealth that Arthur could secretly siphon away.
“Where is Arthur right now?” Nathaniel asked, his knuckles turning white as he gripped the edge of the desk.
“He just called an emergency board meeting for tomorrow afternoon at the Manhattan headquarters,” Gabe replied. “He noticed the frozen lines of credit and thinks he can force a vote of no confidence against you while you’re out of the state.”
A slow, terrifying smile spread across Nathaniel’s face. It contained no joy—only the absolute certainty of retribution.
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“Good,” Nathaniel said smoothly. “Let him call the meeting. Prepare the helicopter for tomorrow morning. And tell our legal team to draft forty-eight separate criminal indictments.”
He stood up, walking toward the door of the command unit. “It’s time to go home and clear the trash out of my house.”
