Chapter 79 SEVENTY-NINE
After Cole's question, Jake nodded, wiping his eyes with the back of his hand. "The gambling debts. I was in deep, owed people who don't mess around. I was terrified, desperate. Then this guy approached me at a casino."
"Victor."
"I didn't know his name then. He just said he represented interested parties, that they'd pay off all my debts plus fifty thousand extra if I did one simple job." Jake's voice cracked. "Steal money from Morrison and Chen and make it look like you did it."
"How much did he pay you total?"
"Hundred thousand. Fifty up front, fifty after I completed the job and disappeared for six months." He set the coffee cup down, his hands shaking too badly to hold it anymore. Coffee sloshed over the rim. "He had everything planned out. Which accounts to access, how to make the digital trail point to you, exactly what to say when they questioned me. All I had to do was follow his script."
Cole had his phone out, recording. "Tell us about the approach. Where did he find you?"
"Casino in Atlantic City. I'd been going there a lot, burning through money I didn't have trying to win enough to pay off what I owed." Jake rubbed his face, the motion agitated. "He sat down at my table, played a few hands, didn't say much at first. Then he asked if I wanted to talk somewhere private about my financial situation."
"And you went with him?"
"I was desperate. When someone approaches you offering help when you're drowning, you don't ask a lot of questions. You just grab on." He swallowed hard. "We went to the bar. He bought me a drink and told me he knew everything about me. My debts, my relationship with Lennox, where we lived, where she worked. He'd been watching us for weeks, maybe longer, he had fucking pictures on his phone of us together."
Lennox's stomach turned. Victor had been watching them, studying their lives, looking for the perfect pressure point.
"What exactly did he say?" Cole asked.
"That he had a business proposition. That his clients needed someone with inside access to Morrison and Chen, and I could provide that access through Lennox." Jake's voice dropped to barely above a whisper. "He said it would be quick, that Lennox would be fine, that the charges probably wouldn't even stick because she had a clean record. He made it sound like, like it wasn't that big a deal. Just a temporary inconvenience that would get sorted out."
"But you knew it would destroy her life."
"I knew. God, I knew and I did it anyway because I'm a coward and I was more scared of the guys I owed money to than I was of hurting her." Tears were streaming down his face now, his shoulders shaking. "I told myself it would be okay, that she'd figure it out somehow. That she was smart and capable and would land on her feet. But I knew. Deep down I knew I was ruining everything for her and I did it anyway."
Lennox felt hollowed out watching him cry. She'd imagined this conversation a thousand times, what she'd say if she ever saw Jake again. Imagined screaming at him, demanding answers, making him feel even a fraction of what she'd felt. But now that he was here, broken and guilty and drowning in regret, the anger she'd been carrying felt pointless.
"Tell us about the theft," Cole said. "Step by step. Everything you remember."
Jake wiped his eyes with the back of his hand, tried to steady his breathing. "He gave me Lennox's login credentials. I still don't know how he got them but he had them written down on a piece of paper. Told me exactly which accounts to access, how much to transfer, where to send it. He'd mapped out every click, every screen I'd see. The whole thing took maybe twenty minutes once I actually sat down to do it."
"And the frame job?"
"He set that up too. Had me send emails from her account, move files around on her computer to make it look like she'd been planning it for weeks. Created this whole false trail of evidence." His hands clenched into fists against his thighs. "Then when the investigation started, he called me. Told me exactly what to say to the investigators, how to act confused and shocked, how to point them toward Lennox as the obvious suspect. He even coached me on body language, told me to seem reluctant to blame her so it would look more believable."
"And you followed his instructions."
"I followed them perfectly. Watched them arrest her and charge her and I just, I kept telling myself it would be fine. That she'd get a good lawyer, that the truth would come out eventually. But I was selfish and disgusted with myself, we loved each other and I took advantage of her."
Cole leaned forward. "What happened after the theft? After you'd done what he wanted?"
"He paid me the second half of the money and told me to disappear. Said to stay away from New York, don't contact Lennox, don't talk to anyone about what really happened. He gave me specific instructions, cities to avoid, told me to use cash as much as possible so I'd be harder to track." Jake's voice was hollow now. "Said if I kept my mouth shut, everything would be fine. But if I talked, if I tried to help Lennox or go to the police, he'd make sure I ended up in prison instead of her. That he had evidence placing me at gambling rings with known criminals, money laundering connections, enough to bury me."
"So you ran."
"I ran. Went to Florida first, crashed with some guys I knew from college. Then California, then Vegas for a while. Bouncing around trying to outrun the guilt but I couldn't." He looked at Lennox, his eyes red and swollen. "Every day I thought about what I'd done to you. Wondered if you were in jail or bankrupt or dead. I was too scared to check, too much of a coward to face what I'd caused."
"I married Callum Westbrook," Lennox said quietly. Her voice sounded strange to her own ears, distant. "The man who set you up, Victor, he works for the Westbrooks. He's on their board. He arranged the whole thing so I'd be desperate enough to accept a marriage contract with Callum."
Jake's face went white, all the blood draining out of it. "What?"
"Victor identified me as a hacker who was investigating corporate fraud at Westbrook Industries. He needed a way to control me, to put me somewhere he could watch me and neutralize the threat I posed. So he used you to destroy my life, made sure I had no options left. Then he arranged for Callum's lawyers to offer me the marriage contract as a way out." She leaned forward, held his gaze. "You weren't just stealing money, Jake. You were part of a conspiracy… a scheme to destroy the Westbrook empire from the inside."
"Oh god." His voice came out strangled. He bent forward, head in his hands. "I didn't know, I swear to god I didn't know it was that big. He said it was just about the money, just a one-time thing to help his clients with some business dispute. I thought, I don't know what I thought. I’m so so sorry Leni."
"He lied to you. Used you as a tool and threw you away when he was done."
"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I'll do anything, tell anyone, testify in court, whatever you need. I'll spend the rest of my life trying to make this right." He looked up, his face wet with tears. "I know it won't fix anything but I'll try. I swear I'll try."
Cole stopped the recording. "We need you to repeat all of that on camera. Clear statement of everything Victor did, every conversation you had with him, every detail of how he planned and executed the frame job. Can you do that?"
"I'll do it. Right now. Whatever you need."
They set up the camera, positioned Jake in front of it with better lighting. Cole asked questions and Jake answered, his voice shaking but clear enough to be understood. He described the casino meeting, the money, the specific instructions Victor had given him about accessing the accounts and creating the false evidence trail. Explained how he'd stolen the funds and framed Lennox, how Victor had threatened him into silence and paid him to disappear.
The whole confession took forty minutes. By the end Jake was crying again, his words coming out in broken bursts between sobs.
"I was weak and desperate and I destroyed her life for money. I've been living with the guilt ever since." He looked directly at the camera, his face a mess of tears and regret. "Lennox Rivers is innocent of everything I did. I stole the money, I framed her for it, and I did it all because Victor Harding paid me to. Everything that happened to her was my fault and his. Nobody else's."
Cole stopped the recording. "That's good. That's everything we need."
Jake looked at Lennox. "Will you ever be able to forgive me?"
She thought about it. About the months of terror and desperation, the criminal charges hanging over her head, the impossible choice between prison and marrying a stranger. About how Victor had used Jake's weakness and desperation to set all of this in motion.
"I don't know," she said honestly. "Maybe someday. But not today."
"That's fair. That's more than fair." He stood, his movements unsteady like his legs might give out. "What happens now?"
"Now you stay in New York where we can reach you. My investigators have a safe place set up." Cole picked up the camera. "And you don't talk to anyone about this. Not friends, not family, nobody. Victor has people watching, and if he finds out you're cooperating with us, you become a liability he'll want to eliminate."
Jake's face went even paler. "You think he'd actually..."
"I know he would. Don't give him a reason."
Cole's investigators took Jake to the place they'd arranged, somewhere outside the city where Victor's network wouldn't think to look. After they left, Cole and Lennox sat in the quiet apartment with the weight of what they'd just recorded settling over them.
"So what now?" Lennox asked.
"Victor doesn't know that I know the full truth. Doesn't know we have Jake's confession or all the evidence we've compiled." Cole's expression was grim but determined. "I'm going to request an emergency board meeting. Say I've uncovered serious financial irregularities that need immediate attention. Make it sound urgent enough that they can't delay."
"When?"
"Two days from now. That gives us time to prepare everything, make sure all our evidence is organized and airtight." He looked at her. "And right before the meeting, we tell Callum. Show him everything, give him time to process it before we expose Victor in front of the entire board."
Two days. She had two days left before Callum learned the truth.