Chapter 3
CHAPTER 3 — The Brother's Warning
FCI Danbury was a minimum-security facility, but a cage is still a cage.
I sat in the visitation courtyard.
The air was brisk, and the sky was a bruised shade of violet.
Grant walked out of the double doors.
He looked entirely different from the arrogant man who had laughed at me at the ballroom.
He had lost weight. The expensive tailored suits were replaced by drab prison issue.
His posture was defeated.
When he saw me sitting at the metal picnic table, he hesitated.
I didn't smile. I didn't wave. I just waited.
He slowly approached and sat across from me.
"Evelyn," he said. His voice was quiet. Broken.
"Grant."
He looked down at his hands. "I didn't think you would ever come to see me."
"I didn't come for a family reunion."
He flinched, but he didn't argue.
"I guess I deserve that," he muttered.
"You deserve exactly what you got," I said flatly. "You helped him hide the money. You helped him hide the abuse."
Grant looked up, his eyes swimming with unshed tears.
"I was terrified of him, Evelyn. I was a coward."
"Yes. You were."
"I'm sorry. I know it doesn't mean anything now, but I am sorry."
I stared at him.
Part of me wanted to scream at him, to demand back the years of silent suffering.
But forensic accounting had taught me that emotion clouded the data.
And I needed pure data right now.
"Victor is executing a hostile takeover from Allenwood," I said.
Grant blinked, wiping his eyes. "What? How? His assets were seized."
"Not all of them. He had a secondary shadow fund in Zurich."
Grant's face drained of color.
"The Lazarus Account," he whispered.
"You know about it?"
Grant nodded rapidly. "He only mentioned it once, when he was drunk. He said it was his resurrection fund."
"Who has access to it, Grant? Who is his proxy?"
Grant looked around the courtyard, paranoia creeping into his posture.
"Evelyn, if he finds out I told you..."
"He is in a cell, Grant. He can't touch you."
"His people can! The people he paid off."
I leaned across the table.
"If Victor takes back the company, he will liquidate it. He will destroy Mom's legacy."
"And when he is done with me, he will come for you for testifying against him."
Grant swallowed hard.
"Help me bury him permanently, Grant. Give me the name."
He closed his eyes, taking a shuddering breath.
"It's not an executive," Grant said softly. "It's a fixer. Someone who cleans up the messes."
"Give me the name."
"Julian Vance."
I froze.
Julian Vance was the lead partner at the external auditing firm Mercer Industries used to use.
He was the man who had signed off on all the falsified reports.
He had escaped indictment because he claimed Victor had duped him.
"Vance," I repeated. "He's buying the shares through his shell companies."
"Vance hates you, Evelyn," Grant said. "You ruined his reputation in the financial sector. He wants revenge just as much as Dad does."
"Thank you, Grant."
I stood up to leave.
"Evelyn, wait," Grant pleaded, reaching out but not daring to touch me.
I paused.
"Is there... is there any chance for us? When I get out?"
I looked at my half-brother.
I saw the boy who used to play in the garden with me before Victor's poison infected him.
But I also saw the man who had laughed when I was slapped.
"Actions leave an audit trail, Grant," I said softly.
"You can serve your time. You can become a better man."
"But you can never balance the ledger between us."
I turned and walked away.
I left him sitting at the metal table in his prison uniform.
I pulled out my phone as soon as I cleared the gates.
"Naomi," I said.
"Did you get it?" she asked instantly.
"Julian Vance. He is the proxy."
"Vance? That snake? He walked away clean from the federal probe!"
"Not for long," I said, a grim determination settling into my bones.
"I want a full forensic dive into every micro-LLC connected to Vance's firm."
"I want every wire transfer traced back to the Lazarus Account in Zurich."
"You have three weeks, Naomi. We are going to build a trap."
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"And when he steps into it?"
"We drop the guillotine."
