Chapter 4 - THEY TOOK HER
Grace fought until Nathan had to hold her back.
“Don’t let them take her!”
Lily screamed as a female social worker lifted her into the back seat of the county vehicle.
“Daddy!”
Nathan’s chest tightened.
“I’m right here, sweetheart.”
“I want Mommy!”
“I know.”
Grace collapsed against Nathan.
The car disappeared through the gates.
For five full seconds, Nathan could not move.
Then he turned.
“Richard.”
His attorney looked at him.
“I want every document.”
“Nathan—”
“Every bank transfer, trust amendment, court filing, email, phone record.”
Richard nodded.
“And cancel my wedding.”
“That part is already done?”
Nathan looked toward Victoria, who was standing beyond the gate beside her mother.
She had arrived with reporters.
Grace saw them too.
“She called the press.”
Nathan’s expression hardened.
Helena Ashford stepped toward the cameras.
“We are deeply concerned for the child’s safety.”
Nathan crossed the driveway.
Victoria saw him coming.
“Nathan.”
He ignored her.
Helena smiled for the reporters.
“This is a private family matter.”
Nathan stopped directly in front of her.
“Then why are there six cameras here?”
Helena’s smile tightened.
“Nathan, emotions are high.”
“You forged records.”
Her eyes turned cold.
“Careful.”
Nathan leaned closer.
“You threatened Grace five years ago.”
“I did no such thing.”
“I’m going to prove it.”
Helena whispered, “Your father tried that once.”
Nathan paused.
Helena saw his reaction.
A tiny smile appeared.
“You really don’t know anything, do you?”
Victoria grabbed her mother’s arm.
“Mom.”
But Helena was enjoying herself.
“Charles spent his final year trying to undo mistakes he no longer had the courage to admit.”
Nathan’s pulse quickened.
“What mistakes?”
Helena stepped back.
“Ask your lawyer about the private safe.”
Nathan turned sharply toward Richard.
Richard looked away.
Nathan walked back into the mansion.
“Study.”
Richard followed.
Grace came behind them.
Nathan slammed the door.
“What safe?”
Richard exhaled.
“Your father had a private safe inside the old office downtown.”
“And?”
“He instructed me never to open it.”
Nathan stared at him.
“Why?”
“Because he said opening it at the wrong time would destroy the company.”
Nathan laughed in disbelief.
“My daughter was just taken from her mother.”
He grabbed his coat.
“The company can burn.”
The old Cole headquarters had been abandoned after Charles’s death.
Nathan unlocked his father’s office just after midnight.
Dust covered the desk.
Richard moved toward a framed photograph on the wall.
Behind it was a keypad.
He entered six numbers.
The safe clicked.
Inside were company records.
Three old phones.
A flash drive.
And one sealed envelope.
Nathan’s name was written across the front.
Richard looked at him.
“He told me to give you this if someone ever challenged the identity of your firstborn child.”
Nathan stared at him.
“You knew this existed?”
“I knew the envelope existed.”
“And you waited?”
“Your father made me swear.”
Nathan ripped it open.
Inside was one sheet of paper.
Four handwritten words were centered near the top.
Nathan read them.
His face changed.
Grace whispered, “What does it say?”
Nathan read the words aloud.
“Protect Grace and Lily.”
Richard closed his eyes.
Nathan flipped the page.
Below those four words were account numbers.
Dates.
Names.
A confession.
And one paragraph that made Nathan sit down.
Grace stepped closer.
“What is it?”
Nathan looked up.
“My father didn’t create the plan to get rid of you.”
Grace frowned.
“Then who did?”
Nathan looked at the final signature attached to the original agreement.
Helena Ashford.
But directly beneath her name was another signature.
Victoria Ashford.
Dated five years earlier.
May you like
Victoria had not merely known.
She had helped arrange Grace’s disappearance before Lily was even born.
