Chapter 7 - NATHAN’S FIRST CONFESSIONNathan Ashford lasted eleven hours in custody before requesting me.
Agent Keene advised against it.
My father ordered against it.
My body begged against it.
So naturally, I went.
The federal holding facility smelled like old coffee, cold metal, and men realizing money could not soften every chair. Nathan sat behind thick glass in an interview room, wearing the same torn dignity he had left Blackthorn Manor with.
When he saw me, something like relief crossed his face.
It disgusted me.
He still believed I was the softest exit.
I sat across from him. Agent Keene stood behind me. My father watched from another room because I had forbidden him to enter.
Nathan lifted the phone.
I did the same.
“Lena,” he said.
I waited.
“You have to understand. I didn’t know at first.”
“About Aurora?”
His eyelid twitched.
There it was.
The name meant something to him.
“You named her?” I asked.
He looked down.
My stomach turned.
“You knew her name before I did.”
“I found out after we were married.”
“Lie better.”
His jaw tightened.
“You think I wanted this?”
“You ordered two hundred lashes because your mistress miscounted.”
He flinched.
Good.
“Did Vivian send you to marry me?”
Nathan looked toward the camera in the corner.
Agent Keene leaned forward slightly.
Finally, Nathan whispered, “Yes.”
The word did not surprise me.
It still cut.
“When?”
“Six years ago. Before the charity auction. Celeste introduced us, but Vivian selected me.”
“Why?”
“Access to Elias. Access to Vale Dominion. Vivian knew your father would never trust an outsider, but he might tolerate a son-in-law if you loved him.”
I smiled without warmth.
“I did love you.”
For one second, shame appeared on Nathan’s face.
Then self-pity swallowed it.
“I was supposed to monitor you. That was all.”
“But then you discovered my money.”
“Our money,” he snapped automatically.
I leaned closer.
Nathan remembered the glass between us and sat back.
“Aurora,” I said. “Where is she?”
“At the academy, last I knew.”
“What does Vivian want with her?”
Nathan’s eyes darkened.
“She’s training her.”
“For what?”
“To replace Elias.”
My breath caught.
He continued, faster now, as if confession had become a leak he could not plug.
“Vivian believes bloodlines matter. Not sentimentally. Strategically. She thinks Aurora has your empathy and Elias’s pattern recognition. She says that makes her dangerous if uncontrolled.”
“And Lucien?”
Nathan looked away.
“Say his name,” I demanded.
He swallowed. “Lucien Marchand.”
“Did you kill him?”
“No.”
“Did my mother?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did you profit from his death?”
Silence.
That was answer enough.
My fingers tightened around the phone.
Nathan leaned forward suddenly.
“Listen to me. Vivian is not just hiding in Europe. She has people inside banks, ports, courts, media. She can erase documents before federal agents know they exist. She can make witnesses recant. She can turn your daughter against you before you ever reach her.”
“Is that what you came to tell me?”
“No,” he said.
His voice lowered.
“There is a second child.”
Everything inside me stopped.
Agent Keene moved.
I could barely hear my own voice. “What?”
Nathan’s eyes filled—not with remorse, but with the terror of a man spending his last valuable secret.
“After the crash, the doctors delivered twins.”
The phone slipped slightly in my hand.
“No.”
“One girl went with Vivian.”
“And the other?”
Nathan looked directly at me.
“The boy stayed with Lucien’s family. Hidden. Protected. Vivian has been looking for him ever since.”
The room blurred at the edges.
Aurora.
A daughter.
And now a son.
I pressed the phone hard against my ear.
“Where is he?”
Nathan’s voice broke.
“I don’t know his real name. But I know who does.”
“Who?”
He looked past me, toward the mirrored observation glass where my father stood unseen.
May you like
Then he said the name that shattered whatever was left of my childhood.
“Your godfather. Malcolm Pierce.”
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