Chapter 8 - The Betrayal Before the Betrayal
Rebecca Sloan had vanished from Nathan’s life three months before their wedding.
At least that was what Nathan had believed.
She left a letter.
I can’t live inside your family’s grief.
Nathan had never chased her.
He had buried himself in surgery.
Now his father’s recording told another story.
Rebecca had worked briefly inside Pierce Biomedical before Nathan proposed.
She had access to internal files.
She had discovered Charles Vale’s illegal program.
Instead of reporting it, she sold him information.
Nathan’s father found out.
He demanded Rebecca leave Nathan before he exposed her.
Rebecca complied.
But she did not disappear.
She went to work for Vale indirectly.
Her brothers later joined Nathan’s foundation.
Peter handling finances.
Thomas moving between security jobs.
Nathan sat at the cabin table, stunned.
“I hired them.”
Sarah shook her head.
“You didn’t know.”
“I hired Peter because Rebecca recommended him before she left.”
“Exactly.”
Nathan looked toward Daniel.
“They planted someone beside me eleven years ago.”
Daniel nodded.
“Looks that way.”
“And Sarah?”
Sarah answered.
“Marcus was the second plan.”
Nathan stood.
His entire adult life suddenly looked engineered.
Not completely.
But enough.
Anger with Sarah had made him vulnerable.
Isolation had made her vulnerable.
Vale never needed to overpower either sibling.
He merely pushed them apart.
Daniel’s deputies began cataloging the hidden files.
The evidence was devastating.
Payment records.
Internal emails.
Patient reports.
Offshore transfers.
Signed instructions from Charles Vale.
And a series of communications involving William Crowe.
Crowe had forged estate documents.
Peter Sloan had moved money.
Marcus had accessed Sarah.
Margaret had coordinated intimidation.
Rebecca had designed the original strategy.
Nathan asked the obvious question.
“Where is Rebecca?”
Daniel checked.
“No official address in Washington.”
“Last known?”
“Arizona.”
Sarah shook her head.
“No.”
“What?”
“She’s here.”
Nathan stared.
“How do you know?”
“Marcus mentioned ‘Rebecca’ twice this year.”
Nathan’s pulse accelerated.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I didn’t know who she was.”
Daniel’s radio crackled.
A deputy outside spoke.
“Vehicle approaching.”
Everyone became still.
Daniel moved toward the window.
Black sedan.
No plates.
The vehicle stopped fifty yards from the cabin.
A woman stepped out.
Nathan recognized her immediately.
Eleven years vanished.
Rebecca Sloan was fifty now.
Dark hair streaked with silver.
Same posture.
Same calm face.
She raised both empty hands.
Daniel ordered deputies outside.
Rebecca did not resist.
She looked toward the cabin window.
Directly at Nathan.
Then she said:
“I came to make a deal.”
Nathan almost laughed.
Daniel brought her inside in handcuffs.
Rebecca saw Sarah.
Her expression shifted.
“So you survived.”
Sarah stared at her.
“You sound disappointed.”
“No.”
Rebecca looked tired.
“Relieved.”
Nathan stood across from the woman he once planned to spend his life with.
“Why?”
Rebecca met his eyes.
“Because Charles is going to kill everyone who can testify.”
“Including you?”
“Especially me.”
Nathan folded his arms.
“Why should I believe anything you say?”
“You shouldn’t.”
Rebecca looked toward Daniel.
“But you should verify it.”
She gave him an address.
“Vale is at a private lodge eighteen miles east.”
Daniel immediately dispatched units.
Rebecca continued.
“He’ll be gone before they arrive.”
“Then why give us the address?”
“Because there’s a server.”
Nathan frowned.
“Containing?”
“Everything he never trusted anyone else to keep.”
Daniel asked, “Why turn on him now?”
Rebecca smiled sadly.
“Because Charles changed.”
Sarah laughed bitterly.
“He sent a man to abuse me for seven years.”
Rebecca flinched.
“I didn’t know what Marcus became.”
“You introduced him.”
“Yes.”
“You gave him my name.”
“Yes.”
Sarah stepped closer.
Nathan instinctively moved but stopped.
Sarah did not need protection from this conversation.
“You destroyed my life.”
Rebecca lowered her head.
“I helped.”
“Why?”
Rebecca looked at Nathan.
“Because I hated your family.”
Nathan blinked.
“My father discovered you were stealing.”
“Your father destroyed my father.”
Nathan frowned.
Rebecca continued.
“Peter, Thomas, and I grew up watching our father lose everything after Pierce Biomedical sued his company.”
Nathan remembered a contractor accused of falsifying safety certifications.
“Sloan Manufacturing.”
Rebecca nodded.
“He killed himself two years later.”
Nathan’s anger cooled into something more complicated.
“My father didn’t falsify those records.”
“I know that now.”
Silence.
“Charles did.”
Rebecca’s voice broke slightly.
“He framed my father because he refused to participate in Meridian.”
Nathan stared.
“And you spent years helping the man who destroyed him.”
“I thought your father did it.”
“When did you learn?”
“Three years ago.”
Sarah stepped forward.
“And you kept helping.”
Rebecca closed her eyes.
“Yes.”
“Then save your guilt.”
Rebecca accepted it.
“I’m not asking forgiveness.”
She looked toward Lily, who was asleep upstairs under a deputy’s protection.
“I’m asking for enough time to stop Charles before another child pays for what we did.”
Nathan hated that sentence because it sounded sincere.
Daniel asked:
“What is Vale planning?”
Rebecca looked at Nathan.
“He knows the cabin evidence exists.”
“He can’t destroy it now.”
“He doesn’t need to.”
“Why?”
“He has people inside federal evidence processing.”
Daniel’s expression changed.
Rebecca continued.
“Charles has spent twenty years buying protection.”
Nathan looked toward the shelves.
“Then we copy everything.”
“He’ll challenge authenticity.”
“We have Dad’s recording.”
“He’ll call it manipulated.”
Sarah asked:
“What can’t he challenge?”
Rebecca looked at her.
“The original Meridian patient registry.”
Nathan remembered the paper Sarah stole.
“Where is it?”
Rebecca looked toward Nathan.
“Your hospital.”
Nathan stared.
“Where?”
“Cardiac archive. Sublevel three.”
Nathan’s mind raced.
His hospital had acquired records from several dissolved research programs over the years.
“Vale hid it in my institution?”
“He thought it was the safest place.”
Nathan almost admired the arrogance.
Rebecca continued.
“You ordered an archive digitization six weeks ago.”
“Yes.”
“Once those files are scanned, someone will notice Meridian.”
Nathan understood.
“That’s why they suddenly became aggressive.”
Rebecca nodded.
“Your audit and digitization happened at the same time.”
Sarah whispered:
“They were running out of time.”
Rebecca looked at her.
“Exactly.”
Nathan grabbed his phone.
He called the hospital.
No answer from archive security.
Again.
Nothing.
Then an emergency alert appeared.
FIRE ALARM — SOUTH RESEARCH WING.
Nathan looked at Rebecca.
She whispered:
“Charles.”
They drove back immediately.
Smoke rose above the hospital before they reached town.
Fire crews filled the south entrance.
Nathan ran toward the archive level.
A firefighter stopped him.
“You can’t go down there.”
“I own the building.”
“Fire doesn’t care.”
Nathan forced himself to stop.
Daniel coordinated with fire command.
The blaze was contained after forty minutes.
Sublevel three suffered heavy smoke damage.
But the fire had not started in the archives.
It started in an electrical room beside them.
A diversion.
Someone had entered during the evacuation.
Nathan raced downstairs once cleared.
The Meridian file cabinet stood open.
Empty.
He punched the wall.
“They took it.”
Then Sarah noticed something.
“Wait.”
She pointed toward the floor.
A child’s sticker.
A small yellow star.
Nathan recognized it.
Lily had been given a sheet of them by a nurse.
“What is that doing here?”
Sarah picked it up.
On the back, in purple crayon, was a letter.
R.
Nathan stared.
“Lily hasn’t been here.”
“No.”
Sarah turned toward him.
“But someone who was in her hospital room has.”
Rebecca.
Nathan spun around.
She had vanished during the fire evacuation.
Daniel swore.
Then Nathan’s phone rang.
Unknown number.
He answered.
Rebecca spoke.
“I’m sorry.”
Nathan’s voice turned cold.
“Where are you?”
“Doing the only useful thing I’ve done in eleven years.”
“What did you take?”
“The registry.”
“For Vale?”
“No.”
“Then bring it back.”
“I can’t.”
“Why?”
“Because Charles will follow it.”
Nathan understood.
“You’re bait.”
“Yes.”
“Rebecca, don’t.”
She laughed sadly.
“You used to say that exactly the same way.”
“Where are you?”
“The place where all of this started.”
The call ended.
Nathan looked at Sarah.
She knew before he spoke.
“Pierce Biomedical.”
The abandoned original factory.
May you like
Twenty miles outside Seattle.
And Rebecca had just invited Charles Vale there carrying the one piece of evidence he was willing to kill for.
