Chapter 4 - THE MAN AT THE PIERNathan had spent twenty years learning that enormous fortunes rarely attracted ordinary enemies.
Money changed the scale of betrayal.
The more valuable the prize, the more patient people became.
At eleven-thirty that night, Nathan told Martin he was going home.
Instead, he drove toward Pier 41.
Alone.
Or at least he tried to.
At the second traffic light, he noticed headlights in his mirror.
Maria sat behind the wheel of a borrowed staff sedan.
Nathan pulled over.
She pulled over behind him.
He got out.
“What are you doing?”
Maria lowered her window.
“Following you.”
“I can see that.”
“Good.”
“You're going back.”
“No.”
“Maria.”
“Mr. Cole, someone poisoned your father, framed me for stealing, set fire to your house, and apparently convinced your fiancée to help. You're meeting someone connected to all of that in the middle of the night.”
“You heard the call?”
“Your speaker volume is very loud.”
Nathan stared at her.
She stared back.
For a man surrounded most of his life by people who obeyed him instantly, Maria's refusal was strangely reassuring.
“You stay in the car,” he said.
“No promises.”
Nathan sighed.
“Fine.”
At midnight, the pier was almost deserted.
Wind rolled across the dark water.
Nathan parked beneath a dead streetlight.
Shaw waited near a railing.
He looked nothing like the confident doctor who attended Arthur's appointments.
His hair was disheveled.
One sleeve was torn.
He kept checking behind him.
Nathan approached.
“Talk.”
Shaw looked toward Maria.
“I said alone.”
“She stays.”
“You don't understand.”
“Then help me.”
Shaw swallowed.
“Vanessa isn't doing this for money.”
Nathan almost laughed.
“Everyone does something for money.”
“Not her.”
“Then what?”
“Her brother.”
Eric Langley.
Nathan remembered Vanessa's younger brother standing outside the bedroom earlier.
Thirty-two.
Charming.
Constantly unemployed.
A gambler according to rumors Vanessa dismissed as gossip.
“What about Eric?”
“He owes money.”
“To whom?”
Shaw glanced toward the parking lot.
“People you don't want to owe.”
Nathan's impatience sharpened.
“How much?”
“Nearly two million.”
Maria whispered, “Jesus.”
“Vanessa tried paying it. Her family doesn't have the liquidity.”
“So she targets my father?”
“That's not how it started.”
Shaw rubbed his mouth.
“Vanessa needed access to money quickly. Someone approached her with another option.”
“Who?”
“I never met him directly.”
Nathan stepped closer.
“You're lying.”
“I communicated through a lawyer.”
“Name.”
Shaw hesitated.
“Richard Vale.”
Nathan froze.
Maria noticed.
“You know him?”
Nathan's voice changed.
“Richard is my uncle.”
Arthur's younger half-brother.
A man Nathan hadn't spoken to in twelve years.
Richard Vale had once been an executive at the original Cole construction company.
He and Arthur built it together.
Then came accusations.
Missing funds.
Fraudulent invoices.
Secret loans.
Arthur forced Richard out.
Richard claimed he had been framed.
The brothers never reconciled.
Nathan thought Richard had moved to Florida.
Apparently not.
Shaw continued.
“The plan was simple.”
“Poison my father?”
“No. Make him look incompetent.”
“That's poisoning.”
“I adjusted medications.”
“You nearly killed him.”
Shaw looked sick.
“I know.”
Nathan stepped forward.
Maria caught his arm before anger overcame him.
Shaw spoke quickly.
“Richard believes half the company belongs to him.”
“It doesn't.”
“He says Arthur stole it.”
“And Vanessa?”
“She would marry you, help declare Arthur incompetent, then influence the board during the guardianship dispute.”
Nathan stared at the river.
“The board wouldn't hand her control.”
“Not directly.”
Shaw took a document from his coat.
“Look.”
Nathan unfolded it.
It was a draft shareholder agreement.
Several board members were listed.
Two signatures were already present.
Nathan recognized them.
His stomach turned.
Members of his own board.
The plan suddenly became much larger.
Force Arthur into incompetency.
Create a legal battle over his shares.
Destabilize Nathan.
Use Vanessa's position as Nathan's wife to gain access.
Then exploit board support to force a restructuring.
“They want Cole Meridian.”
Shaw nodded.
Maria asked, “Why frame me?”
Shaw looked ashamed.
“Because Arthur trusted you.”
Maria's face tightened.
“He talked to you when he wouldn't talk to others. You noticed medication changes. Vanessa told Richard you were becoming dangerous.”
“So you put the safe in my room.”
“Yes.”
“And the prescriptions.”
“Yes.”
Maria fought tears.
“You were going to send me to prison.”
Shaw looked away.
Nathan asked, “Why confess now?”
“Because the plan changed.”
“How?”
“Richard decided Arthur was taking too long to deteriorate.”
Silence.
Nathan understood.
“No.”
Shaw nodded.
“He wants him dead.”
Maria's hand flew to her mouth.
Nathan grabbed Shaw by the coat.
“When?”
“I don't know.”
“WHEN?”
“Soon!”
Shaw gasped.
“They were going to make it look natural. Heart failure. Arthur already has cardiovascular problems.”
Nathan released him.
“My father is in a hospital surrounded by security.”
Shaw's eyes filled with terror.
“You think Richard doesn't know which hospital?”
Nathan called Martin instantly.
No answer.
Again.
Nothing.
He called the hospital.
A nurse answered.
“This is Nathan Cole. Connect me to security on my father's floor.”
“Mr. Cole, one moment.”
The pause felt endless.
Then:
“Sir?”
“Yes?”
“Your father was transferred.”
Nathan's heart stopped.
“To where?”
“It says the transfer was authorized by family.”
“I authorized nothing.”
“I have paperwork signed by—”
The line suddenly disconnected.
Nathan ran for his car.
Maria followed.
Behind them Shaw shouted:
“Wait!”
A vehicle appeared at the end of the pier.
Headlights off.
Then suddenly on.
The SUV accelerated.
Directly toward Shaw.
Maria screamed.
Nathan turned.
Shaw jumped toward the railing.
The SUV struck him.
His body rolled across the hood and slammed onto the pavement.
The vehicle never stopped.
Nathan caught only part of the license plate.
Maria called 911.
Nathan knelt beside Shaw.
Blood ran from the doctor's forehead.
His eyes fluttered.
“Who authorized Dad's transfer?” Nathan demanded.
Shaw struggled to speak.
“Check... marriage... license.”
“What?”
“Marriage...”
His eyes closed.
Sirens sounded in the distance.
Nathan stared at him.
Maria whispered, “What does that mean?”
Nathan didn't know.
But twenty-three minutes later, while racing toward the hospital, Martin finally called.
“Sir, we've got a problem.”
“My father was transferred.”
“I know.”
“Where?”
“We're tracing the ambulance.”
“How was this allowed?”
Silence.
“Martin.”
“Someone presented legal paperwork claiming they were immediate family.”
“Who?”
“You need to prepare yourself.”
Nathan tightened his grip on the steering wheel.
“Who?”
Martin answered.
“According to the document submitted to the hospital, Vanessa Langley isn't your fiancée anymore.”
Nathan's blood went cold.
“She filed a marriage certificate this afternoon.”
Maria stared at him.
Martin continued.
“And it says you married her three days ago.”
Nathan nearly drove off the road.
“That is impossible.”
“I know.”
“I never signed a marriage certificate.”
“There's a signature on it.”
Nathan's.
Perfectly copied.
Martin's voice became grim.
“And there's something else.”
“What?”
“The certificate was notarized by Arthur Cole.”
Nathan glanced at Maria.
Arthur had barely known what day it was.
But legally?
A notarized statement from him might be enough to create chaos before anyone disproved it.
Nathan finally understood the strategy.
They didn't need the fake marriage to survive forever.
Only long enough.
Long enough for Vanessa to claim spousal authority.
Long enough to move Arthur.
Long enough to finish what they'd started.
Nathan pushed the accelerator down.
Then Maria's phone rang.
Unknown number.
She answered.
“Hello?”
Nobody spoke.
Then Arthur's voice came through.
Weak.
Confused.
“Maria?”
She went pale.
“Mr. Cole? Where are you?”
“I don't know.”
A man's voice spoke in the background.
“Hurry.”
Arthur whispered:
“They said Nathan doesn't want me anymore.”
Maria's eyes filled.
“No. Don't believe that.”
“Maria?”
“Yes?”
“Tell my boy...”
The connection crackled.
“Tell him I remembered.”
“Remembered what?”
Arthur's next words were barely audible.
“Where I hid the real will.”
The call ended.
Nathan and Maria stared at each other.
May you like
And suddenly the fight was no longer simply about saving Arthur's life.
Somewhere in the Cole estate existed a document someone was willing to kill for.
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