Chapter 67: The Girl Nathaniel Trusted

Nobody took their eyes off the photograph.

The smiling young woman standing beside Nathaniel looked nothing like the polished assistant everyone knew as Colette.

Her hair was shorter.

She wore no expensive clothes.

There was warmth in her smile.

"That's impossible," Damien whispered.

"It's the same woman," Arthur said.

"Twenty years younger, but definitely her."

Victor accepted the photograph.

His expression slowly hardened.

"Her real name wasn't Colette."

"It was Sophia Rowan."

I looked up sharply.

"You knew her?"

Victor nodded.

"We studied together for one semester."

"She disappeared before graduation."

"No explanation."

"The university said she'd transferred overseas."

"She never did."

Arthur zoomed into the group photograph.

"Nathaniel is looking directly at her."

"Not the camera."

"They were close."

"Friends?" Damien asked.

"Maybe more than friends," Victor answered quietly.

I turned the photograph over.

Nathaniel had written something in blue ink.

"Some people are trapped before they realise they're prisoners."

No signature.

No date.

"That sounds like him," I whispered.

Rose frowned.

"If Nathaniel trusted her... why did she work for Raven?"

Nobody answered immediately.

Finally Victor spoke.

"Perhaps she never chose Raven."

"Perhaps Raven chose her."

Arthur's tablet vibrated.

"I've accessed Nathaniel's archived university files."

"Anything?" Victor asked.

"One folder marked Sophia Rowan."

"Open it."

Arthur clicked the file.

Several scanned documents appeared.

Admission records.

Academic transcripts.

Scholarship applications.

Then one handwritten letter.

"From Nathaniel," Arthur said.

"Addressed to the Dean."

He began reading aloud.

"Sophia Rowan is the most gifted financial analyst in our class."

"If she withdraws from university, it won't be because she lacks talent."

"Someone is threatening her family."

"Please don't stop looking for her."

The room fell silent.

"Nathaniel knew she was in trouble," I whispered.

"Years before Raven."

Victor slowly nodded.

"And he tried to help her."

Arthur opened another document.

"This one's stranger."

It was a police report.

Sophia Rowan.

Reported missing.

Case closed after forty-eight hours.

Reason:

Voluntary disappearance.

"Forty-eight hours?" Damien frowned.

"Missing person investigations don't end that quickly."

"Unless someone powerful ends them," Victor replied.

I remembered Sparrow's voice.

"Nathaniel saved my daughter."

"Victor..." I said quietly.

"She wasn't lying."

"No," he answered.

"I don't think she was."

"Which means everything Colette did inside Raven may have had another purpose."

Arthur searched deeper into the archive.

"There's one final file."

"Encrypted by Nathaniel himself."

"Can you open it?"

"Already done."

Nathaniel never used passwords.

He used questions.

"What was the question?" Damien asked.

"Who deserves a second chance?"

"And the answer?"

Arthur looked directly at me.

"Sophia."

The file opened.

Inside was only a single video.

Nathaniel appeared on screen.

Much younger.

Standing beside the same woman from the photograph.

"If anyone ever finds this," Nathaniel said with a smile,

"Then Sophia, you're probably angry with me again."

The young woman laughed.

"You always assume the worst."

"Occupational habit," Nathaniel replied.

"Tell them the truth," she said.

"Not yet," he answered.

"One day."

"When it's safe."

Sophia looked directly into the camera.

"If you're watching this... then I failed."

"I couldn't destroy Raven from the inside."

"But Nathaniel will know what to do."

"He's the only man I ever trusted completely."

Nathaniel gently lowered the camera.

"And she's the bravest woman I've ever met."

"Remember that before you judge her."

The recording ended.

Nobody spoke for several moments.

Everything we believed about Colette had shifted.

"She became Sparrow," Victor said softly.

"Not because she betrayed Nathaniel."

"Because she stayed where he couldn't."

"Inside Raven."

"Then why steal my designs?" I asked.

"Why frame Verline?"

Victor folded his arms.

"Because if Raven suspected her loyalty..."

"She had to appear ruthless."

"She sacrificed her reputation to protect her cover."

"And nearly destroyed mine," I replied.

"Yes," Victor admitted.

"Which means she crossed lines Nathaniel never wanted crossed."

Arthur suddenly froze while reviewing the university records.

"There's another name."

"What?"

"One student withdrew on the exact same day Sophia disappeared."

"Who?" Damien asked.

Arthur slowly turned the screen toward us.

The name at the top of the file made Victor's face lose all colour.

"No..." Victor whispered.

"That can't be right."

"Who is it?" I asked.

Victor took a slow breath.

"My younger brother."

"Elias Hayes."

"He vanished twenty-six years ago."

"We were told he'd died in a boating accident."

Arthur opened the student photograph attached to the file.

A young man smiled confidently into the camera.

Strong jaw.

Dark eyes.

A faint scar beside his left eyebrow.

I had seen that face before.

Not in person.

In Nathaniel's papers.

Beside one handwritten note.

"Never trust the first story."

Beneath the photograph, someone had stamped one word in red ink.

RECRUITED.