Chapter 8 - The Daughter Richard Cross ErasedJulian did not touch the photograph again.
He stood over the table, staring at Elena Cross as if the image could rearrange itself into something more logical if he looked long enough.
It did not.
Norah recognized details she had missed in the security footage.
Elena was not identical to her.
Not even particularly close.
But with the right hairstyle, glasses, clothing, and distance from the camera, the resemblance was enough.
Especially when someone wanted observers to see Norah.
“Who is her mother?” Julian asked.
Adrian poured himself a glass of water.
“Victoria Bell.”
The name meant nothing to Norah.
It meant something to Julian.
His expression hardened.
“Father’s legal counsel.”
“Former legal counsel,” Adrian corrected. “She disappeared from Cross Global twenty-seven years ago.”
Julian’s eyes moved sharply toward him.
“I remember her.”
“You were fourteen.”
“She worked at the house sometimes.”
“She worked much closer to Father than anyone knew.”
Adrian pushed another file forward.
“Victoria became pregnant. According to correspondence I found, Father offered her money to leave New York permanently. She refused at first.”
Norah felt sick.
“Then?”
“She discovered what refusing Richard Cross meant.”
Adrian’s voice was cold.
“He destroyed her career. Accused her of mishandling client funds. She lost her license and left the state.”
Julian closed his eyes briefly.
Norah knew what he was thinking.
Another person Richard Cross had crushed.
Another child he had hidden.
“Did Elena know who her father was?”
“Not until Victoria died three years ago.”
Adrian sat on the edge of the table.
“She left Elena letters. Documents. DNA results.”
“And Elena contacted you?” Norah asked.
“Eighteen months ago.”
“Why?”
“Because apparently I’m the welcoming Cross brother.”
Julian’s eyes flashed.
Adrian’s sarcasm disappeared.
“I’m sorry.”
Julian looked surprised.
“So am I,” Adrian continued. “For more things than I can fit into tonight.”
For several seconds, the two brothers simply looked at each other.
Twelve years of anger existed in the silence.
Norah could almost feel it.
But there were more urgent problems.
“Why frame me?”
Adrian turned toward her.
“Because you have what Elena believes should have been hers.”
“My job?”
“Your place beside Julian.”
Norah frowned.
“That makes no sense.”
“It does to her.”
Adrian walked to one of the monitors.
“Elena grew up watching her mother struggle. Richard Cross never acknowledged her. Never paid support after the initial settlement. Never gave Victoria another chance professionally.”
He pulled up photographs.
A modest house.
A teenage Elena working in what looked like a grocery store.
Graduation pictures.
“She became obsessed with Cross Global after learning the truth.”
Julian’s jaw tightened.
“Why Norah?”
“Because your story made her furious.”
“What story?”
Adrian looked at Norah.
“Assistant becomes executive. Executive becomes COO. COO becomes the woman Julian Cross loves publicly.”
Norah understood.
“Elena thinks Julian gave me what our father denied her mother.”
“And what the Cross family denied her,” Adrian added.
Julian looked disgusted.
“I didn’t know she existed.”
“She knows.”
“Then why punish Norah?”
“Because people don’t always choose rational targets for twenty-six years of anger.”
Norah folded her arms.
“Does she want money?”
“No.”
“Control of the company?”
“Maybe.”
Adrian changed the screen.
A graph appeared showing Cross Global stock movements.
“Two weeks ago, a series of short positions were opened through shell corporations. If the stock drops significantly after the leak, someone earns approximately ninety million dollars.”
Julian stepped closer.
“Elena?”
“I don’t think so.”
“Then who?”
“That’s what worries me.”
Adrian looked at both of them.
“Elena doesn’t have the resources to orchestrate all of this alone.”
Norah’s mind immediately moved to the obvious conclusion.
“Someone is using her.”
“Yes.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know yet.”
Julian laughed without humor.
“So your entire cybersecurity company can identify my secret sister but not who is directing her?”
“My company isn’t omnipotent.”
“Then why were your tools found in our system?”
Adrian’s face tightened.
“Because Elena worked for me.”
Julian took one sudden step forward.
Norah immediately put a hand against his chest.
“Julian.”
“You gave her access?”
“I didn’t know what she was doing.”
“You let someone with a vendetta against my company work inside a cybersecurity firm.”
“She is my sister.”
“So am I your brother. That never stopped you from hating me.”
Adrian’s expression changed.
“Do you think I hated you because you got the company?”
“Yes.”
“No.”
The answer stunned Julian into silence.
Adrian came closer.
“I hated you because when Father made you sign those papers, I thought you would refuse.”
Julian’s face went pale.
“You were the only person in that house who knew what he was. The only person who understood.”
Adrian’s voice became rougher.
“I thought you’d choose me over him.”
Norah looked at Julian.
The pain on his face was devastating.
Adrian continued.
“You didn’t.”
“I was twenty-eight.”
“And I was twenty-five.”
“I know.”
The fight left Julian’s voice.
“I know.”
Norah understood something then.
This was the oldest wound in the room.
Not Cross Global.
Not money.
A younger brother waiting for his older brother to protect him.
And Julian failing.
The same pattern Julian had later repeated with Norah when fear controlled him.
Except this time he knew it.
“I’m sorry,” Julian said.
Adrian stared.
The apology seemed to surprise him more than anger would have.
“I should have refused.”
Adrian’s jaw tightened.
“Yes.”
“I should have told Father to keep the company.”
“Yes.”
“I can’t change it.”
“No.”
“But I can tell you that I have regretted it every year since.”
The warehouse became very quiet.
Norah watched Adrian’s eyes become glassy for half a second before he looked away.
“You always were terrible at apologies.”
“I’m improving.”
“Norah?”
Julian glanced at her.
“She forces emotional competence.”
“Someone had to.”
The tension broke slightly.
Only slightly.
Then Norah’s phone rang.
Unknown number.
Every person in the room became alert.
Norah answered and put it on speaker.
“Hello?”
A woman’s voice.
“You met Adrian.”
Elena.
Norah exchanged a look with Julian.
“Yes.”
“He always did like playing hero.”
Adrian walked closer to the phone.
“Elena, stop.”
She laughed softly.
“Hello, brother.”
“Where are you?”
“Not telling you.”
“You’re in trouble.”
“No. Julian is.”
Julian spoke.
“What do you want?”
Silence.
Then Elena said, “I wanted you to know my name.”
Julian’s anger changed.
For the first time, he answered her not as a CEO.
As a brother.
“I know it now.”
“That doesn’t fix anything.”
“No.”
“You had everything.”
“I did.”
“Money. Education. Our father’s name. His company.”
“Yes.”
“My mother had nothing.”
“I know.”
“No, you don’t.”
Julian’s voice remained steady.
“You’re right.”
That silenced her.
Norah looked at him.
He continued.
“I didn’t know you existed. That doesn’t erase what happened to you. It doesn’t erase what Father did.”
Elena’s breathing changed.
“But Norah didn’t do it.”
Silence again.
“She has nothing to do with Father.”
“She has everything I was supposed to have.”
“No,” Julian said. “She has what she built.”
Norah felt something tighten in her chest.
“She earned her position.”
“You love her.”
“Yes.”
“Would you love me if you’d known me first?”
The question was so strange and wounded that no one answered immediately.
Julian’s face changed.
“Elena.”
“You all got to be a family.”
Adrian closed his eyes.
“We were never a family,” he said quietly.
Elena laughed bitterly.
“You had each other.”
“No,” Adrian said. “We survived the same house. That’s different.”
A long pause.
Then Elena said, “Tomorrow morning, Julian loses Cross Global.”
Julian straightened.
“What did you do?”
“You’ll see.”
The call ended.
Adrian immediately moved toward his computers.
Norah looked at Julian.
“Tomorrow morning?”
Julian was already calling Owen.
“Find out every scheduled financial event tomorrow. Debt payments. regulatory filings. Everything.”
Adrian typed rapidly.
Then one screen flashed red.
He stopped.
“Oh, no.”
“What?” Norah asked.
Adrian enlarged a document.
“A transfer authorization.”
Julian stared.
Norah did not understand.
“What am I looking at?”
Adrian looked at Julian.
“Someone initiated a transfer from the Cross Global acquisition reserve.”
“How much?”
Adrian swallowed.
“Eight hundred million dollars.”
Norah’s blood went cold.
“Can they do that?”
“Not without two executive authorizations.”
Julian was already shaking his head.
“They have Norah’s credentials.”
“And yours,” Adrian said.
Julian froze.
The warehouse suddenly seemed much colder.
Norah looked between them.
“When does the transfer complete?”
Adrian checked the screen.
“9:00 a.m.”
It was 11:37 p.m.
They had less than ten hours.
Julian looked at his brother.
“Can you stop it?”
“I can try.”
“Try harder.”
Adrian gave him a familiar Cross glare.
“Still charming.”
Norah stepped between two men who apparently shared both DNA and an inability to behave normally during crises.
“Enough.”
They looked at her.
“We don’t have twelve years to resolve your family trauma.”
Adrian almost smiled.
Norah pointed at the screen.
“Someone wants Julian removed, Cross Global financially destabilized, and me blamed.”
“Yes,” Adrian said.
“So Elena is only one piece.”
“Yes.”
“Then we stop looking only at Elena.”
Julian understood immediately.
“We find the person who benefits if I lose the company.”
Adrian nodded.
Norah looked at the ninety-million-dollar short position again.
Then at the names of shell corporations.
One of them caught her attention.
Lauron Capital Holdings.
Her stomach dropped.
“Julian.”
He followed her finger.
Everything in his expression went still.
May you like
Isabelle Lauron had not disappeared.
She had simply changed tactics.
