Chapter 10 - THE MAN I BURIED
Sophie’s father was named Nathan Cole.
He had been a financial analyst at Carter Hospitality.
We met when I was twenty-six.
He was kind, patient, and completely unimpressed by my family’s wealth.
My parents hated him.
After Sophie was born, Nathan began questioning company transactions.
Seven months later, police told me his car had gone through a guardrail during a storm.
The vehicle was recovered from the lake.
Nathan’s body was never found.
My father said the water had carried him away.
My mother arranged a funeral.
Preston stood beside me and promised to protect Sophie.
Now he was claiming Nathan had not died.
Detective Brooks reopened the accident file.
The original investigating officer had retired.
Several photographs were missing.
The car’s brake system had never been properly examined.
Marcus searched Grandmother’s records.
One ledger contained Nathan’s initials beside a transfer of four million dollars.
Next to it, Grandmother had written:
N.C. discovered shell accounts.
Threatened by C.C. and P.C.
My father and Preston.
That evening, I confronted my father in his office.
He looked smaller without the boardroom behind him.
“Is Nathan alive?”
He closed his eyes.
“I don’t know.”
“That is not an answer.”
“He came to me before the accident.”
“What did he say?”
“He had copied company records.”
My father poured himself a drink.
“He threatened to report Preston.”
“And you threatened him.”
“I told him to think about you and Sophie.”
“What happened to his car?”
“I did not cause the crash.”
“Did Preston?”
My father’s hand trembled around the glass.
“I never asked.”
The truth was worse than a confession.
He had suspected his son and chosen silence.
Before I left, he spoke again.
“There was a witness.”
I turned.
“A tollbooth camera recorded Nathan’s car after the reported crash.”
My heart stopped.
“Why wasn’t that investigated?”
“The footage disappeared.”
“Who removed it?”
My father looked toward Preston’s empty office.
The answer was obvious.
Detective Brooks searched border and passport records.
Nathan Cole had not used his identity after the accident.
But a man matching his age and description had entered Canada two days later under the name Nicholas Carter.
The passport application listed an emergency contact.
May you like
Eleanor Carter.
My grandmother had helped him disappear.
