Chapter 4 - THE MAN BEHIND THE FORTUNE “PUT THE LEDGER DOWN.”
“PUT THE LEDGER DOWN.”
Evelyn recognized Charles Delacroix’s voice immediately.
Nathan slowly raised his hands.
Emergency lights illuminated the office in red.
Charles stood in the doorway holding a pistol.
At sixty-one, he had built a reputation as the calm, respectable brother who protected the Delacroix empire whenever Henri disappeared from public life.
Now the mask was gone.
“Charles,” Evelyn said.
He stared at her.
“You look like Katherine.”
The words struck harder than she expected.
“You knew my mother.”
“I knew everybody who tried to destroy this family.”
Nathan shifted slightly.
Charles pointed the weapon at him.
“Don’t.”
Nathan stopped.
Evelyn held the ledger.
“What’s inside?”
Charles smiled.
“You came all this way without knowing?”
“I came for my father.”
“No. You came because Henri sent you breadcrumbs.”
Charles stepped inside.
“Your father always preferred dramatic gestures to difficult decisions.”
Evelyn thought of Henri hidden beneath the mansion.
“He was drugged in a basement.”
“Because he became sentimental.”
Charles spoke as though discussing an inconvenient employee.
Thirty years earlier, Delacroix Maritime had nearly collapsed.
Charles had saved it through secret contracts, shell corporations, political bribes, and illegal shipping operations.
Henri discovered the truth too late.
By then the company employed thousands.
Exposing Charles could have destroyed innocent families alongside guilty executives.
Henri hesitated.
Charles exploited that hesitation.
Katherine did not.
Evelyn’s mother had copied records.
She planned to take them to federal authorities.
Then she died in a car crash.
Evelyn’s eyes filled with rage.
“You killed her.”
Charles remained expressionless.
“I solved a problem.”
Nathan lunged.
The gun fired.
The bullet struck the bookshelf.
Evelyn threw the ledger behind the desk.
Nathan slammed Charles into the wall.
The weapon skidded across the floor.
Evelyn kicked it away.
Security rushed inside seconds later.
Charles was restrained.
But as Marcus pulled him upright, Charles began laughing.
“You think that book matters?”
Evelyn stared.
“It’s twenty years old.”
His smile widened.
“The real business moved long ago.”
“What business?”
May you like
Charles looked directly at her.
“Ask Victoire.”
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