Page 109
Seriously? “I’m listening.”
“Barclay kept what he called a ‘blackmail book.’ Every dirty, hidden fact he knew about anyone and everyone he wrote down, along with details about where he heard the information and how he verified it.” She hesitates, and I hear the nerves in her voice. “He made lists of the people he could hurt most with it.”
Tension twists my stomach. “What do you know that I should?”
“Were you aware that Barclay and Lund were friends?”
“No.”
“They were, for years…until Barclay got Amanda Lund pregnant and Douglas realized his pal had stolen almost two hundred million dollars from him.”
The information shocks me…yet it doesn’t. Barclay and Douglas seem like birds of a feather. Why wouldn’t the high-rolling scumbags be buddies?
“So Lund was going to buy Stratus, get Barclay’s financial information, recoup his losses, and make a killing for himself by taking the rest of the stolen money?”
“That’s my guess. If you had to spend a billion dollars to get almost three billion in return, wouldn’t you do it?”
“If I wasn’t breaking the law and hurting people, absolutely. Fuck…” The Lunds were willing to procure and destroy my business for revenge and greed. I wish I could say I’m having trouble believing it. But I’m not.
“I’m not done yet, Evan. I’m sorry.”
Holy shit, what else could there be? “Go on.”
“Barclay knew some of the skeletons in Douglas’s closet. Lots of them, actually. For instance, he was there years ago when Lund was carrying on a torrid affair with his maid. Barclay didn’t tell Douglas’s wife at the time, even when the maid got pregnant. Douglas paid the maid off and provided financial support for the child. But thinking she might be helpful someday if Lund ever proved…difficult, Barclay kept track of Douglas’s illegitimate daughter. His bi-racial daughter. You must know who I mean.”
I freeze. Bethany can’t be right.
“You’re saying Nia…”
“Is Lund’s daughter, yes. Small world, isn’t it? I’m emailing you a picture of Nia’s original birth certificate right now.”
I open my email, find Bethany’s missive, and launch the attachment. Everything she said stabs me with the truth. Unless this is one hell of a forgery—and why would my half sister bother?—Douglas Lund really is Nia’s biological father.
Holy shit.
Here comes that debilitating grip on my lungs. I can’t quite stand upright.
I swallow and lean against the side of the cafe. “How…”
Shock has even rendered me unable to speak.
“How did I get my hands on this? Lund was dumb enough to give it to Barclay for safekeeping shortly after Nia was born, maybe so his wife wouldn’t find it. I don’t know. Of course, within a month Lund had paid Nia’s mother to petition the courts to have his name removed from the birth certificate. That’s why Nia’s copy says the father is ‘unknown’ instead.”
“Why didn’t Barclay threaten Lund with blackmail if he had all this information?”
“I’ll bet he did. But all these years later and after his wife’s passing, I don’t think Lund cared anymore. He just wanted his money back.”
So all this information remained in the safe. Jesus. This explains why the Lunds were so damn interested in Nia last month when they barged into my office to give me their final offer. Maybe that’s why they insisted on keeping my staff—Nia especially—on board if they bought Stratus out from under me.
“That, and revenge. Lund wanted that, too. I suspect he’s the one who tipped off the FBI. He’s the reason Barclay is awaiting trial now.”
“You’re probably right.” And even though Douglas Lund is on my shit list, I have to give him credit for doing something right.
“Do you think Nia has any idea Lund is her biological father?” Bethany asks.
“According to my wife, her mother took the secret of his identity to her grave.”
And how devastated will she be to learn that the man who contributed half of her DNA has been paying more attention to acquiring my company than to mending fences with his daughter?
