Chapter 5 - Natalie Quinn
James went gray.
“I haven’t spoken to Natalie in six years.”
Ethan wanted to leave.
Every new fact made his family look less like people and more like a puzzle designed to punish him.
“Why would Victoria send your ex-mistress money?”
“I don’t know.”
Ethan laughed bitterly.
“That answer is getting old.”
“It’s still the truth.”
Marissa explained the timeline.
The London condominium was purchased four years earlier.
The money came through multiple accounts.
Alpine Vista was one source.
Another came from a private investment company.
The controlling member of that company was Lucas Hale.
Victoria’s son.
Sarah asked, “Could Natalie be working with them?”
“Possibly.”
Ethan stood.
“I need air.”
James started to follow.
Ethan turned.
“No.”
He walked outside alone.
The cold hit hard.
Silver Pines Lodge sat farther up the mountain, but from James’s townhouse Ethan could see the distant lights.
His mother loved that place.
Had she known it was being robbed?
Had she known Natalie’s name?
Had discovering it reopened the wound of James’s affair?
The thought made Ethan furious on her behalf.
His phone rang.
Unknown number.
He almost ignored it.
Then answered.
“Ethan?”
A woman.
British background noise behind her.
“Yes?”
“My name is Natalie Quinn.”
He stopped walking.
“How did you get this number?”
“Your mother gave it to me.”
Everything inside him tightened.
“My mother?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Two months ago.”
“Why?”
“She said if anything happened to her, I was to contact you only if Victoria started blaming James.”
Ethan gripped the phone.
“What do you want?”
“To tell you the London flat is not mine.”
“Your name is on it.”
“I know.”
“Then whose is it?”
“Victoria’s.”
Ethan stared at the snow.
“Why would she put it in your name?”
“To make James look connected.”
Natalie’s voice shook.
“And because she knew Claire would recognize my name immediately.”
Ethan’s anger became something colder.
“You helped her?”
“No.”
“How did your name get on title documents?”
“I signed papers.”
“Then you helped.”
“I thought they were related to an investment vehicle.”
“That doesn’t make sense.”
“I know.”
“Did Victoria pay you?”
Silence.
Ethan’s stomach dropped.
“How much?”
“Twenty thousand dollars.”
He closed his eyes.
“For what?”
“To serve as nominee director on a company structure.”
“So yes.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“I was in debt.”
Ethan laughed without humor.
Everyone had a reason.
Money.
Fear.
Approval.
Protection.
Debt.
Nobody simply said: I wanted something and chose wrong.
Natalie continued.
“When Claire contacted me, I told her everything.”
“You spoke to Mom?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Six weeks before she died.”
Ethan stopped.
Claire had been investigating longer than he knew.
“What did she say about Dad?”
Natalie hesitated.
“That she hated him for years.”
Ethan swallowed.
“And?”
“That she stopped.”
He looked toward the mountains.
Natalie continued.
“She said, ‘James did something unforgivable to our marriage. That does not mean he did every bad thing that happens afterward.’”
That sounded exactly like Claire.
Ethan’s eyes filled.
“What did she want from you?”
“Documents.”
“Did you give them?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“Her lawyer has copies.”
“Then why is your name still on the flat?”
“Because changing it would have warned Victoria.”
Ethan felt suddenly exhausted.
“Why call me instead of Daniel?”
“I already spoke to him.”
“Then why call me?”
A pause.
“Because your mother asked me to tell you one thing directly if this happened.”
Ethan almost hung up.
He did not want another dead-person message arriving through strangers.
“What?”
Natalie’s voice softened.
“She said, ‘Tell Ethan his father’s worst mistake does not have to become Ethan’s definition of him.’”
Ethan’s throat closed.
He could not speak.
Natalie continued.
“I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“For being part of what hurt your mother.”
Ethan looked at his boots.
“Are you sorry because you got caught?”
“No.”
“How do I know?”
“You don’t.”
At least that answer was honest.
He ended the call.
Back inside, James was waiting but did not ask questions.
Ethan sat across from him.
“Mom talked to Natalie.”
James’s face tightened.
“When?”
“Six weeks before she died.”
James looked down.
“She told Natalie she stopped hating you.”
For the first time since Claire died, James cried.
Quietly.
No dramatic collapse.
He covered his face.
Ethan watched.
Part of him wanted to comfort his father.
Another part still wanted to punish him.
Both were true.
Later, Daniel called with another development.
The court had granted Sarah authority to secure Victoria’s room at the lodge because estate documents were believed to be missing.
With Victoria’s lawyer present, they conducted an inventory.
They found the cardboard box.
Empty.
No land-transfer originals.
No audit backups.
But inside Victoria’s desk was something else.
A signed purchase agreement.
Silver Pines’ west ridge.
The land Claire intended to protect from development.
The proposed buyer was Alpine Vista Development Partners.
Ethan felt cold.
Victoria had not only been taking money from the lodge.
She was preparing to sell Claire’s protected land to a company connected to her own son.
May you like
And the agreement had a closing date.
Nine days away.
