Chapter 7 - The Man Named EThe name “E” should have meant nothing.
But to Marcus Thorne, it meant everything.
There had only been one person in his father’s life who used that initial.
Elliot Graves.
Edward Thorne’s former chief financial officer.
The man who had vanished from public life six weeks after Edward died.
The official story was retirement.
Marcus had never believed it.
Elliot had been loyal to Edward for twenty years. He knew every account, every signature system, every hidden partnership. After Edward’s death, Marcus tried to contact him several times, but Elliot disappeared behind lawyers, private security, and silence.
Now his initial had appeared in Vincent Rossi’s video.
Marcus stood in Adrian’s office at two in the morning, staring at a frozen image from Isabella’s phone.
Vincent’s face filled the screen.
His voice played again.
“If Marcus finds out the approvals were forged through Edward’s old access keys, everything collapses. Handle the wife. Quietly.”
Adrian paused the video.
Khloe sat in a wheelchair beside Marcus, wrapped in a hospital blanket despite his protests that she should rest. She had refused to stay upstairs while men discussed the secret she had risked everything to uncover.
“I want to hear all of it,” she had said.
Marcus had not argued.
Detective Cole stood across from them.
“We need to locate Elliot Graves,” she said. “Do you know where he is?”
Marcus shook his head. “No. But someone does.”
Khloe looked at him. “Celeste.”
Marcus’s mother had never liked Elliot. She claimed he knew too much and smiled too little. But after Edward’s funeral, Khloe had once seen Celeste speaking to Elliot in the garden behind the Thorne estate.
Celeste had looked furious.
Elliot had looked afraid.
Marcus called his mother.
She answered on the second ring.
“Is Khloe safe?”
“For now.”
Celeste exhaled. “Thank God.”
“Mother,” Marcus said, “where is Elliot Graves?”
Silence.
That silence told him she knew.
“Why?” Celeste asked.
“Because Vincent Rossi mentioned him in evidence recovered from Isabella’s phone.”
Celeste’s voice changed. “Do not go near Elliot without me.”
“Where is he?”
“Marcus—”
“Where?”
Celeste sighed.
“Your father put him in a private care facility outside Greenwich.”
Marcus froze. “Care facility?”
“He had a stroke three years ago.”
Marcus turned away from the others.
“You told me Elliot retired.”
“Edward told you Elliot retired.”
Khloe’s eyes narrowed.
Marcus looked at the phone. “What else did my father lie about?”
Celeste did not answer.
That was answer enough.
By dawn, Marcus, Khloe, Adrian, and Detective Cole were on their way to Greenwich.
Isabella had created evidence.
Vincent had exposed a conspiracy.
But Elliot Graves might reveal the truth that tied all of them together.
The truth about Edward Thorne.
May you like
The truth about the forged approvals.
And the truth about why Khloe had been targeted before her baby was even born.
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