Chapter 61: The Missing Payment

Derek's message concerned a gap in Victor Shaw's financial trail. Several payments connected to the leaked information had been traced through shell consultancies, but one transfer had vanished between two companies. The amount itself wasn't remarkable. The destination was.

The money had briefly passed through a trust once associated with Freya's late father.

Louis read the report twice before calling Derek. "Are you certain this isn't a naming coincidence?"

"We're checking. The trust was dissolved years ago, but one dormant entity linked to it remained registered until shortly before your collapse."

Louis's first instinct was not to tell Freya until the information was verified. Then he remembered their agreement: anything that could affect her directly would no longer be hidden.

He waited until afternoon, when Derek confirmed the registration numbers matched.

Freya was reviewing design drawings when Louis placed the report beside her. "I need to show you something."

She looked at his face and immediately closed her laptop. "That serious?"

"Possibly." He explained the payment trail and pointed to the old trust.

Freya read the name. Stonebridge Family Trust. The original owner's memories reacted before her mind did. She remembered her father discussing the trust at home when she was young, though she had never understood its purpose.

"This belonged to my parents," she said.

"Originally, yes."

"But they died years before your company collapsed."

"The trust itself was dissolved. A related entity wasn't."

Freya frowned. "Who controlled it?"

"That's what we're trying to determine."

She searched her inherited memories. Her parents had run a modest but respected design-and-development business before their deaths. They weren't remotely in Louis's financial league, but they had known his grandfather. That connection was the reason the marriage arrangement existed at all.

"Could Victor have known my father?" Freya asked.

"Almost certainly. Victor knew my grandfather, and your father dealt with him several times."

Another piece of the original story shifted. Freya had believed her marriage to Louis existed only because her grandfather had once saved his grandfather. Perhaps the families had remained connected in more ways than the novel bothered to explain.

"Don't assume this means your family was involved," Louis said. "The entity could have been used after your parents died."

Freya nodded. "I know."

Still, unease followed her through the evening. She opened old digital folders searching for family documents but found little beyond photographs, university records, and scanned certificates.

Then she remembered the boxes stored after her parents' deaths.

According to the original Freya's memories, most had been placed in a private storage facility because she couldn't bear to sort through them.

Freya looked up from the computer. "Louis."

He appeared at her doorway. "What?"

"I think I know where my parents' old records are."

For the first time, the investigation wasn't leading deeper into Louis's fallen empire. It was leading backward into Freya's family.

That night, Freya added another entry to the notebook tracking differences from the novel. She wrote down Stonebridge Family Trust, Victor Shaw, and the storage facility. Beneath them she added a question: "How much of Freya Stone's past did the original story ignore?" She had entered the book believing she knew the important plot. Increasingly, she suspected she had only read the surface.

Neither of them wanted to rush the next step. They had learned enough to know that every answer could expose another hidden connection. For now, preserving the evidence and keeping Victor unaware of what they had discovered mattered more than forcing an immediate confrontation.