“He saved me first.”
Christopher looked down.
“In 2010, my father discovered I had copied financial records. He planned to send me away.”
“Send you where?”
“Somewhere I wouldn’t come back from.”
I felt cold.
“Ryan found out.”
Christopher smiled sadly.
“He put me in a truck and drove me across three states. He risked his life for me.”
I looked at the locket.
“Why give you that?”
“Ryan said if anything happened to him, I should find Rachel Morgan.”
My breath stopped.
“What?”
“He told me you were his little sister.”
I began crying.
“Then why didn’t you?”
“Because my father found me first.”
Christopher’s voice cracked for the first time.
“He threatened everyone I cared about. Ryan disappeared. I was forced back into the company.”
“You became part of it.”
“Yes.”
Anger burned through me.
“You became a billionaire.”
“Yes.”
“Using dirty money.”
“At first.”
I looked at him with disgust.
Christopher didn’t defend himself.
“I spent years separating the legitimate companies from my father’s criminal operations. After he died, I turned evidence over to prosecutors.”
“Why wasn’t this public?”
“Deals. Immunity agreements. Sealed investigations.”
I shook my head.
“And your accident?”
Christopher went still.
“What about it?”
“You said it was a car crash.”
“It was.”
“Was it an accident?”
Silence.
That told me enough.
“Christopher.”
“No.”
