Chapter 8
The next week was a blur of FBI agents, accountants, lawyers, press conferences, and more lies than I could keep track of.
Marcus Cole.
The man who’d pretended to be my brother.
The con man.
He’d hacked into the Langford computer systems three months earlier, when all the chaos with Julian and Helen started.
Found out about Daniel.
Found out about my father.
Found out about Robert Vance.
Created a whole backstory.
Fake records.
Fake photos.
Fake scars.
Everything.
He’d played us all.
Perfectly.
He’d helped us take down Vance, sure.
But only because Vance was in his way.
Only because once Vance was gone, once I was distracted by the gala, by Julian and Helen, by getting Lily back, he could walk into the bank, transfer five hundred million dollars out of the Langford operating accounts into a dozen offshore shell companies, and disappear.
And he had.
No trace.
No leads.
Nothing.
The FBI said he was one of the best they’d ever seen.
Had been doing this for twenty years.
All over the world.
Never left a clue.
Never got caught.
The five hundred million he’d stolen was the money earmarked for the new children’s hospitals.
For the raises for the employees.
For the pensions.
For everything I’d promised.
Without it, the company would collapse in three months.
Thousands of people would lose their jobs.
The hospitals would never get built.
Everything I’d fought for.
Everything my father had built.
Gone.
Because I’d been stupid enough to trust a stranger who’d looked like my brother.
Who’d said all the right things.
Who’d known all the right memories.
I’d wanted a brother back so badly.
I’d wanted family so badly.
I’d let him in.
And he’d robbed us blind.
The board was furious.
Richard Torres was calling for my resignation.
Arthur Hale was disappointed, saying I’d been “reckless.”
Only Victoria stood by me, saying we’d find the money, that we’d fix it, that I was still the right person to run the company.
But even she was worried.
Five hundred million dollars is a lot of money.
Almost impossible to make up in three months.
The press was brutal.
LANGFORD CEO FOOLED BY CON MAN.
FIVE HUNDRED MILLION GONE.
IS IRIS LANGFORD JUST ANOTHER RICH GIRL IN OVER HER HEAD?
The employees were scared.
Morale was at an all-time low.
People were already quitting, taking other jobs, not knowing if Langford would even exist in a few months.
And Lily?
She was having nightmares again.
Waking up screaming about Julian, about Helen, about the factory, about the knife.
She wouldn’t let me out of her sight.
Wouldn’t go to school.
Wouldn’t play outside.
Wouldn’t talk to anyone but Rosa and me.
The therapist said it was normal.
That it would take time.
That she’d get better.
But I didn’t have time.
I had three months to save the company.
And I had a daughter who needed me more than ever.
I was sitting in my office one night, two weeks after Marcus had disappeared, going over the books for the hundredth time, trying to find a way to make the numbers work, trying to find something, anything, that could save us, when Elias came in, his face tight, holding a thick envelope.
“Something came for you,” he said. “No return address. Hand delivered. To the house. Rosa thought you should see it right away.”
I took the envelope, opening it.
Inside was a single USB drive.
And a note.
In the same neat handwriting as before.
Sorry about the money. Really. But I left you something. Something worth far more than five hundred million. Check the drive. You’ll thank me later.
— M
I looked up at Elias.
“Put it in,” I said.
He hesitated.
“It could be a virus,” he said. “Could wipe all our systems. Could be another trap.”
“Put it in,” I said again.
He did.
The drive opened.
One folder.
Labeled: VANCE / LANGFORD / THE TRUTH.
Inside were hundreds of files.
Bank records.
Property deeds.
Secret accounts.
Wills.
Letters.
And one video file, labeled: FOR IRIS ONLY.
I clicked play.
Marcus’s face filled the screen.
He looked tired.
Genuine.
Like he really was sorry.
“Hey, Iris,” he said, leaning into the camera. “If you’re watching this, it means I’m long gone. And you’re probably furious. And you have every right to be. I took your money. I lied to you. I played you. And for what it’s worth, I am sorry. You’re not like the others. The rich, arrogant, entitled people I usually take from. You’re good. You’re trying to do good. And your daughter? She’s the best thing I’ve seen in a long time. I hated lying to her. Hated it more than I can say.”
He paused, running a hand through his hair.
“But I need you to understand,” he said. “I didn’t just take the money and run. I took it from the accounts Vance set up. The ones with the dirty money. The trafficking money. The drug money. The money he’d been siphoning out of Langford for ten years. That five hundred million? It was never yours. It was never clean. I just… redirected it. To people who need it. The girls Vance hurt. Their families. The kids in the hospitals you want to build. All over the world. Every last penny. I kept nothing for myself. Not a dollar. You can check. All the transfers are there. In the files. Every last one.”
I stared at the screen, shocked.
He’d given it all away?
To the victims?
“Why?” I said, out loud, to no one.
“Because I know what it’s like,” Marcus said, like he could hear me. “To have your family destroyed by men like Vance. To lose everything. To have no one to help you. I grew up in the system. No parents. No money. No one who cared. Men like Vance destroyed my family too. A long time ago. So when I found out what he was doing? I couldn’t just walk away. I had to help. Even if it meant lying to you. Even if it meant you’d hate me. The files on this drive? They’re the rest of Vance’s empire. The hidden assets. The offshore accounts. The properties he bought with dirty money. All of it. Total value? About 1.2 billion dollars. All clean now. All traced back to him. All seized by the government, and by law, since Langford was the original victim of the embezzlement? It all comes back to you. In about a week. Once the courts process it. You’ll have more than enough to cover the missing five hundred million. To build the hospitals. To give the raises. To save the company. Twice over.”
I looked at Elias, my mouth open.
1.2 billion dollars.
Coming back to us.
In a week.
It was a miracle.
“One more thing,” Marcus said, his face getting serious. “The real Daniel Langford didn’t die in a car accident. Vance had him killed. Twelve years ago. In Germany. Because Daniel found out about the trafficking ring. Because he was gonna tell your dad. Vance made it look like an accident. The proof is in the files too. Burial records. Witness statements. The whole thing. I’m sorry. I know you loved him. I know you wanted him back. I wish I could have been him. For real. You would have been a good little sister.”
He paused, smiling that lopsided smile that had fooled us all.
“Take care of Lily,” he said. “Tell her the fake uncle is sorry he lied. And tell her she was right. I do look like the guy from that pirate movie. I get that a lot. Goodbye, Iris. You’re gonna be great. I know it.”
The video cut to black.
I sat there, staring at the screen, crying, not knowing whether to be furious or relieved or both.
Elias was already going through the files, his face going from skeptical to shocked to overjoyed.
“It’s real,” he said, looking up at me, laughing, crying a little. “All of it. The 1.2 billion. The proof about Daniel. Everything. He was telling the truth. All of it. We’re saved, Iris. The company is saved. We have more than enough. We can do everything you promised. Twice over.”
I nodded, wiping my eyes, smiling through the tears.
Marcus Cole.
Con man.
Liar.
Thief.
And the man who’d just saved us all.
A week later, the courts approved the transfer.
1.2 billion dollars.
Back into Langford accounts.
Clean.
Legal.
Ours.
I announced it at a press conference, the room erupting in cheers, the employees crying, the board apologizing to me one by one, Richard Torres resigning in shame, Arthur Hale publicly endorsing me for as long as I wanted the job.
We announced the new children’s hospitals the next day.
Ten of them.
All over the country.
Named after my father.
After Daniel.
After every victim of Vance and Julian and Helen.
We gave every employee a fifteen percent raise.
Fully funded the pensions.
Hired two thousand more people.
Reopened the old factories Julian had closed.
Langford was back.
Bigger.
Better.
Stronger than ever.
And Lily?
She was getting better too.
Slowly.
She went back to school.
Started sleeping through the night again.
Stopped having nightmares.
Started laughing again.
The loud, bright laugh I’d missed so much.
We went to family therapy.
All of us.
Me.
Lily.
Rosa.
Working through everything that had happened.
Healing.
Together.
Three months after the gala, we went to Germany.
To the small town where Daniel was buried.
The real Daniel.
We found his grave.
Overgrown.
Forgotten.
No headstone.
Just a small wooden cross with his name on it, rotting in the rain.
We had a proper headstone made.
Daniel James Langford.
Beloved son.
Beloved brother.
Taken too soon.
We left flowers.
I talked to him.
Told him I was sorry.
That I’d missed him.
That we’d finally gotten justice for him.
For Dad.
For everyone.
Lily left a drawing she’d made of the two of us, with a third person, tall, with a big smile, standing between us.
“For Uncle Daniel,” she said, putting it on the grave. “So he knows we love him. Even if we didn’t get to meet him.”
I cried, holding her.
It felt like closure.
Like we could finally move on.
Like the past was finally the past.
We flew home a week later, ready to start our new life, our happy life, no more secrets, no more lies, no more danger.
I was wrong.
We landed at the airport, going through customs, Lily half-asleep in my arms, Rosa right beside me, when two FBI agents walked up to me, badges out, their faces serious.
“Iris Langford?” one said.
“Yes?” I said, my heart sinking.
“You need to come with us,” he said. “There’s been a development. In the Vance case. Something you need to see. Something about your father. About who he really was.”
I looked at Lily, sleeping peacefully.
What now?
What more could there possibly be?
I handed her to Rosa, telling her I’d be right back, and followed the agents to a small office in the back of the airport.
The lead agent from the Vance case was waiting for me, his face grave, holding a thick file.
“Iris,” he said, pushing the file across the table to me. “We finished going through all of Vance’s records. All of Marcus’s files. Everything. And we found something. Something no one knew. Something that changes… well, everything. Your father. James Langford. He wasn’t killed by Vance because he found out about the trafficking ring. He was killed because he was running it. From the very beginning. For twenty years. Vance was just his partner. Your father wasn’t the good man you thought he was, Iris. He was the monster. The original monster. And Vance was just the guy who took over after he died.”
I stared at him, unable to breathe.
No.
It couldn’t be.
My father.
The man who’d taught me to ride a bike.
Who’d read me bedtime stories.
Who’d built hospitals and helped kids and given millions to charity.
A monster?
The head of a trafficking ring?
No.
It was a lie.
It had to be.
I opened the file.
May you like
And my whole world fell apart.
All over again.
