Chapter 75 Verification
Marcus arrived at seven the next morning with a forensic accountant and a lawyer Ariella had never met.
“I’ve been up all night,” Marcus said, “We need to talk. Now.”
They sat at the kitchen table,
“The documents are real,” Marcus said without preamble.
Ariella felt the floor drop beneath her.
“You’re sure?” Aiden’s voice was barely audible.
“The forensic team verified them. The signatures match Richard’s handwriting. The bank records correspond with actual transactions we can trace. The emails…” Marcus pulled out his laptop. “The emails came from Richard’s private server. Not the one we turned over to the FBI. A secondary server we didn’t know existed.”
“How did Winters get access to it?” Ariella asked.
“Because Richard sent him copies. As insurance. If either of them tried to expose the other, they’d both go down.” Marcus looked sick. “It was mutually assured destruction. Until Richard got terminal cancer and decided to change the game.”
Aiden stood abruptly, walked to the window. “So my father was a criminal.”
“Yes.”
“And we sent Winters to prison for crimes they committed together.”
“It’s more complicated than that…”
“Is it?” Aiden turned, face anguished. “We had evidence of embezzlement. We assumed it was all Winters. But half of it was my father, Maybe more than half. And we never questioned it because we trusted him.”
“We had good reason to trust him,” the lawyer, a woman named Sarah Park interjected. “Richard presented himself as the victim. As the investigator. He was convincing.”
“He was a liar,” Aiden said flatly.
“He was both,” Marcus said quietly. “He loved you. He wanted to protect you. But he also committed crimes and needed someone to take the fall.”
Ariella’s phone buzzed. Claire: Is everything okay? You didn’t call last night.
She couldn’t answer that because Nothing was okay.
“What do we do?” she asked. “Legally, Morally, What do we do with this information?”
Sarah Park pulled out documents. “You have several options. One: you do nothing. Winters sent this unsolicited. You’re not obligated to act on it.”
“That’s not an option,” Aiden said immediately.
“Two: you turn it over to the FBI. They reopen the investigation. Potentially charge Richard’s estate with conspiracy. Potentially reduce Winters’ sentence based on new evidence.”
“Reduce his sentence,” Ariella repeated numbly. “The man who might have killed my brother.”
“The man who definitely embezzled alongside your father-in-law,” Sarah corrected. “The murder charges were never filed. We only have circumstantial evidence there.”
“What about the BMW?” Aiden demanded. “The witness who saw Ethan forced off the road? That car was registered to Winters’ shell company.”
“Also registered to your father,” Marcus said quietly. “They shared access to those assets. Either of them could have ordered it.”
The room spun.
“You’re saying my father-in-law might have killed Ethan?” Ariella’s voice was ice.
“I’m saying we don’t know who ordered what. The drunk drivers are dead. The witnesses recanted. We have money trails and shell companies but no clear line to who made which calls.”
“This is insane,” Aiden said. “We spent a year fighting for justice and we don’t even know who we were fighting.”
Elena cried from the bedroom and Ariella stood automatically, grateful for the interruption.
In Elena’s room, she picked up her daughter, changed her, held her close while Elena nursed. This simple, pure thing. This person who had nothing to do with any of the ugliness her family had created.
“I’m sorry,” Ariella whispered. “I’m sorry you’re born into this mess.”
When she came back out, Aiden was reading through more documents Marcus had brought.
“There’s more,” he said, voice hollow. “My father paid off witnesses. The drunk driver who hit my mom? There’s a transfer to his account two weeks before the accident, Fifty thousand dollars.”
“That doesn’t mean…”
“It means my father might have paid someone to kill my mother.” Aiden looked up, eyes devastated. “To kill his own wife. Why? Was she going to expose him? Did she find out about the embezzlement?”
“We don’t know that’s what the payment was for,” Sarah said carefully.
“Then what was it for? A fifty-thousand-dollar coincidence two weeks before she died?”
Marcus pulled out another file. “Catherine’s investigation. The one Richard said she was conducting into Winters? She was actually investigating both of them. Her notes indicate she’d found evidence of partnership between Richard and Winters. She was going to the FBI with it.”
“So he killed her,” Aiden said numbly. “My father killed my mother to protect his crimes.”
“We don’t have proof…”
“We have fifty thousand dollars and a dead wife!” Aiden slammed his hand on the table. Elena startled, started crying. “Sorry. I’m sorry.”
He took Elena from Ariella, walked her around, trying to calm her and himself simultaneously.
“Options three,” Sarah continued, “is partial disclosure. You inform the FBI of the new evidence regarding the embezzlement. Request a review of Winters’ sentence. But you keep the information about Catherine and Ethan private. No criminal charges against Richard’s estate. No public revelation of his involvement in the deaths.”
“That’s not justice,” Ariella said.
“That’s pragmatism. Richard is dead. Charging his estate doesn’t bring anyone back. It just destroys his reputation and potentially impacts Frost Industries, which employs ten thousand people.”
“I don’t care about Frost Industries!” Aiden’s voice broke. “I care about the truth! About my mother getting justice! About Ethan…” He looked at Ariella. “Your brother deserves better than us covering up who might have killed him.”
“I know,” Ariella said quietly. “But Sarah’s right about one thing. Richard is dead. Winters is alive. In prison. If we expose this, we might get Winters released.”
“He might deserve to be released.”
“Or he might have ordered those hits and is using your father as a scapegoat now that Richard can’t defend himself.”
They stared at each other across an impossible chasm.
“I don’t know what’s true anymore,” Aiden whispered. “I don’t know who to trust or what to believe or how to…” He looked at Elena. “How to explain this to her someday.”
Marcus cleared his throat. “You have time to decide. Winters isn’t going anywhere. The evidence isn’t time-sensitive. Take a few days and Talk to each other, Maybe talk to a therapist. Then decide.”
After they left, Ariella and Aiden sat in silence.
“My father might have killed your brother,” Aiden said finally.
“We don’t know that.”
“But we might never know. And that’s…” His voice broke completely. “I’m so sorry, Ari. For all of it. For bringing you into this mess. For…”
“Stop. This isn’t your fault.”
“Isn’t it? I’m the one who believed him. Who built the case against Winters. Who convinced you to fight.”
“We convinced each other. We chose this together.”
“Did we? Or did I manipulate you the same way my father manipulated me?”
“Don’t do that. Don’t question everything we’ve built because your father was a liar.”
But she could see him doing it anyway, See him questioning their relationship, their choices, their entire foundation.
“I need air,” he said, handing Elena back to her. “I’m sorry. I just… I need to think.”
“Aiden…”
But he was already grabbing his jacket, heading for the door.
“Where are you going?”
“I don’t know. Just away, I need to be away from this for a minute.”
The door closed behind him.