Chapter 16 - Hannah's Last Warning
Elena spread Hannah's notebooks across the dining room table.
They contained years of careful accounting, notes from meetings, and a list of shell companies linked to Miles's failed mill purchase.
Tucked into the back cover was an envelope marked FOR DANIEL, IF THEY COME BACK.
My hands shook as I opened it.
Hannah wrote that she had investigated a suspicious redevelopment financing scheme before becoming ill. She'd found signs of false appraisals and invoices used to pressure property owners.
She couldn't establish who ordered the fire, and she was careful not to accuse anyone without proof.
But she feared Miles would try again through a different company.
Her final paragraph wasn't about money.
You have a good heart, Daniel, she wrote. You see who people could become. Oliver needs you to see who they are right now. Believe him when he tells you he's afraid.
I pressed the letter against my chest.
For two years I'd convinced myself that loving Oliver meant keeping every sorrow away from him. Instead, I'd invited someone into our home who taught him to hide his tears.
Elena placed Hannah's old flash drive beside the letter.
On it were scans of property records and a contact list identifying the owners of several companies Miles used.
One name appeared again and again: Vincent Cole, an attorney who had resigned from Miles's firm after a dispute.
Nina located him that afternoon.
He agreed to review the records, then called back within an hour.
"I know the loan you're fighting," he said. "Whitehaven isn't financing the Vaughns. Whitehaven belongs to an investor who wants the mill."
"Who?"
May you like
Vincent hesitated.
"Daniel, the people behind it have someone inside your company. Someone who still has access to your office."
