Chapter 5 - The Night Her Father Died
Evelyn remembered the rain.
Eight years earlier, Charles Mercer's car had gone off a rural highway during a storm.
Police called it an accident.
Her father had been sixty-eight.
There was no reason to question it.
Until now.
"You're lying," Evelyn said.
Grant sat across the boardroom table.
"Am I?"
Daniel looked sick.
Evelyn turned toward her brother.
"Tell me."
Daniel remained silent.
"Tell me!"
"The crash was an accident," he finally said.
"But?"
Daniel looked at Grant.
"But Dad was driving that night because of me."
The room fell silent.
Daniel explained.
Charles had discovered Daniel was alive.
They had arranged to meet secretly.
Daniel intended to come home.
But before the meeting, Charles discovered someone had been accessing the Mercer financial structure.
Someone had learned about the dormant Hartwell rights.
"Who?" Evelyn asked.
Daniel looked at Grant.
Evelyn's stomach tightened.
Grant shook his head.
"Don't."
Daniel continued.
"Grant."
Evelyn stared at her husband.
Grant stood.
"I didn't kill your father."
"No one said you did."
"You were about to."
Daniel shook his head.
"Charles confronted Grant. Grant denied everything. Your father drove to meet me afterward."
"And crashed."
"Yes."
Evelyn felt tears burn her eyes.
Grant stepped toward her.
"I had nothing to do with that accident."
Thomas intervened.
"Sit down."
Grant ignored him.
"I swear to you, Evelyn."
For once, she believed him.
Not because she trusted Grant.
Because fear looked different from guilt.
And Grant was frightened.
The board suspended him as CEO that evening pending investigation.
By morning, the story leaked.
Hotel Tycoon Removed Amid Financial Investigation.
Reporters surrounded Hartwell headquarters.
Evelyn refused interviews.
Madison did too.
Grant blamed everyone except himself.
Then something unexpected happened.
Madison came to Evelyn.
Not glamorous.
Not confident.
Just exhausted.
"I owe you the truth."
Evelyn listened.
Madison had met Grant professionally.
He pursued her.
He told her his marriage existed only on paper.
He said Evelyn had her own life.
Eventually Madison believed him.
"I'm not asking you to forgive me."
"Good."
Madison nodded.
"But I have something."
She handed Evelyn a second phone.
Grant's.
He had left it at Madison's apartment weeks earlier and replaced it without retrieving the old one.
On it were messages.
Hundreds.
Most were ordinary.
Some were not.
Grant had been communicating with someone identified only as "R."
One message read:
Once E signs, we control the trust.
Another:
If she refuses?
Grant had replied:
She won't. She still thinks this marriage is real.
Evelyn stared at the words.
That hurt more than she expected.
Madison quietly said, "I'm sorry."
Evelyn handed the phone to Thomas.
"Find R."
It took six hours.
R wasn't Daniel.
It wasn't an investor.
It was Richard Vale.
Chairman of Hartwell Hotels.
The same man who had called Evelyn accusing her of threatening the company.
Richard had been Grant's mentor for twenty years.
And according to the messages, he had been planning the entire takeover.
Grant had been greedy.
Richard had been patient.
When confronted, Grant finally broke.
"Richard told me the company would collapse if we didn't consolidate control."
"So you forged my signature?"
"I was going to fix it."
"After stealing my assets?"
"I wasn't stealing."
"What do you call taking something that doesn't belong to you?"
Grant had no answer.
Then Evelyn asked the question she'd been avoiding.
"Did you ever love me?"
Grant looked at her.
For the first time since she came home, there was no calculation in his face.
"Yes."
"Then when did you stop?"
Grant's eyes filled.
"I don't know."
Evelyn nodded.
That answer, strangely, gave her peace.
Some endings didn't need villains.
But Grant had made himself one through the choices that followed.
Thomas entered carrying new information.
Richard Vale had disappeared.
His office was empty.
His phone disconnected.
And forty-six million dollars had been transferred out of a Hartwell reserve account hours before Grant's suspension.
Grant stared.
"I didn't authorize that."
Thomas believed him.
"So where did it go?" Evelyn asked.
Thomas turned his laptop around.
Blackridge Holdings.
Daniel went pale.
"I didn't receive it."
Evelyn looked at him.
"Then who controls Blackridge?"
Daniel swallowed.
"I thought I did."
Thomas shook his head.
"No."
He displayed the incorporation documents they had finally obtained.
Blackridge had two beneficial owners.
Daniel Mercer owned forty percent.
The remaining sixty percent belonged to a private trust.
Evelyn read the name.
Then read it again.
The Margaret Hart Trust.
Grant's face lost all color.
Evelyn looked at him.
"Who's Margaret?"
Grant didn't answer.
"Grant."
His voice was barely audible.
"My mother."
Evelyn stared.
May you like
Grant had told her his mother died when he was seventeen.
Apparently, in a marriage filled with ghosts, Daniel Mercer wasn't the only person who had come back from the dead.
