Chapter 8 - The Father
Conrad Hawthorne arrived at the hotel at 1:40 a.m.
He came through a private entrance with three attorneys and two bodyguards.
Claire had seen photographs of him before.
They did not capture the force of the man.
At seventy-one, Conrad walked with a silver cane, but nothing about him seemed weak.
His gray hair was immaculate.
His dark suit looked severe.
His eyes were colder than Julian’s.
Vanessa confronted him in a private conference room.
Claire and Detective Cole were present.
Marcus remained under police guard downstairs.
Vanessa placed copies of the financial records on the table.
“Tell me these are fake.”
Conrad looked at the documents.
His expression did not change.
“Where did you get them?”
“That isn’t an answer.”
Conrad turned toward Claire.
“So you are Julian’s wife.”
Claire met his gaze.
“Yes.”
“He told us you were dead.”
“I’ve heard.”
Conrad looked back at Vanessa.
“You should go home.”
Vanessa laughed once.
“No.”
“Vanessa.”
“No more sending me out of rooms when the truth becomes inconvenient.”
Conrad gripped his cane.
Claire noticed his knuckles whitening.
Vanessa pushed the documents toward him.
“Did you authorize these transfers?”
“No.”
“Is that your signature?”
“Yes.”
“Then explain it.”
Conrad sat.
For the first time, he looked tired.
“Someone has been stealing from Hawthorne Hospitality for nearly two years.”
Claire exchanged a glance with Cole.
Conrad continued.
“I discovered irregularities eighteen months ago.”
“You told me you were restructuring.”
“I was protecting you.”
Vanessa’s expression hardened.
“From whom?”
Conrad looked directly at Claire.
“Your husband.”
Claire felt no surprise.
Only exhaustion.
Conrad explained that Julian had entered Hawthorne Hospitality through a consulting partnership.
He had impressed executives.
He had found weaknesses in their international payment system.
Then money began disappearing.
Conrad hired private investigators.
Three months later, one investigator died in a boating accident.
Another vanished.
Claire whispered, “And you still let Julian near your daughter?”
Conrad’s face tightened.
“I needed him close.”
Vanessa stared at her father.
“You used me.”
“No.”
“You let me believe I was going to marry him.”
“I believed I could expose him before the wedding.”
Vanessa stood.
“You gambled with my life.”
Conrad said nothing.
Cole slid the death-payment document across the table.
“What about this?”
Conrad read it.
For the first time, his composure broke.
“What is this?”
Claire watched him carefully.
The shock looked real.
Cole asked, “You’ve never seen it?”
“No.”
Vanessa looked at her father.
“Marcus said Hawthorne hired him.”
Conrad’s face became stone.
“My company has thousands of employees.”
“He meant a person.”
Conrad slowly looked toward the door.
May you like
Then he asked a question that changed the room.
“Where is my brother?”
