Chapter 4 - The Name Her Grandmother Buried
Grace remembered the envelope at midnight.
Her grandmother had left it with a lawyer under instructions that Grace could collect it after her thirtieth birthday.
Grace had forgotten because the date was still six weeks away.
Luca did not wait.
By morning, Victor had contacted the attorney.
The envelope arrived before lunch.
Grace opened it in Luca’s office.
Inside was a birth certificate.
Her father’s name had been left blank.
Behind it was a letter.
Grace,
I wanted to tell you.
Your mother wanted to tell you too.
But knowing would have placed you in danger.
Your father did not die before you were born.
Grace stopped reading.
Luca remained silent beside her.
She continued.
His name was Daniel Mercer.
Luca frowned.
Victor’s head snapped upward.
“You know him?” Grace asked.
Victor did.
Daniel Mercer had been chief accountant for Moretti Holdings thirty years earlier.
He disappeared shortly after Isabella began investigating the stolen money.
Officially, Mercer had fled with company funds.
Grace’s grandmother had apparently known otherwise.
The letter continued.
Daniel discovered the theft first.
He brought the evidence to Isabella.
Together, they began collecting records.
Then Daniel disappeared.
Evelyn believed Matteo had arranged it.
Grace lowered the letter.
“So my father wasn’t a thief.”
“No,” Luca said.
“He was helping your mother.”
“Yes.”
Grace’s eyes filled, but she refused to cry.
For twenty-nine years she had lived with a dead father who had never existed.
The truth was somehow more painful.
Then Victor turned to the last page.
“There’s more.”
A location.
An old farmhouse two hours north.
Evelyn had written:
If you ever need the complete truth, go here. Ask for Daniel.
Grace stared.
“That’s impossible.”
Luca looked at her.
“Maybe not.”
---
The farmhouse sat beyond a line of maple trees.
Grace stepped from the car.
An elderly man came onto the porch.
He had silver hair.
Thin shoulders.
And Grace’s eyes.
Neither moved.
The man whispered her name.
“Grace?”
Her knees almost failed.
Daniel Mercer began crying before she did.
Twenty-nine years collapsed in the space between them.
He had been alive.
All this time.
Hidden under another name.
Protected by Evelyn and Isabella’s remaining allies.
“Why?” Grace demanded.
“Why didn’t you come for me?”
Daniel looked destroyed.
“Because Matteo told me if I appeared, he would find you.”
Grace turned away.
Luca stood several yards back, giving them privacy.
Daniel told everything.
Matteo had stolen from Moretti companies with the help of a senior employee.
Daniel discovered it.
Isabella believed him.
They gathered evidence.
Matteo discovered their investigation.
Daniel fled.
Isabella stayed because she would not abandon Luca.
“And then she died,” Luca said.
Daniel looked at him.
“I’m sorry.”
“Did Matteo kill her?”
“I don’t know.”
Luca’s disappointment was visible.
“But,” Daniel continued, “your mother knew something might happen.”
He went inside.
When he returned, he carried a metal box.
Inside were copies of the documents stolen from the hidden room.
Victor almost smiled.
“Evelyn made duplicates.”
“Evelyn made duplicates of everything,” Daniel said.
Then his expression darkened.
“But Matteo wasn’t the person Isabella feared most.”
Luca looked at him.
“Who was?”
Daniel pulled out a photograph.
Three men stood together.
Matteo.
Luca’s father.
And a much younger Edwin Clarke.
Grace’s breath caught.
“The house manager?”
Daniel nodded.
“Edwin controlled the household. Schedules. Staff. Security access.”
Victor swore.
“He knew every movement Isabella made.”
“And he still does,” Luca said.
Grace suddenly remembered Edwin’s reaction the morning she arrived.
Not merely surprise.
Recognition.
“He knew who I was.”
Daniel nodded.
“Then you need to get back.”
Luca’s phone rang.
Victor answered.
His face changed.
“What?”
He listened.
Then looked at Luca.
“The estate security system just went offline.”
Luca called Edwin.
No answer.
He called another guard.
No answer.
Then Grace’s phone vibrated.
Unknown number.
She opened the message.
A photograph appeared.
Titan lay on the courtyard stones.
His eyes were closed.
Grace gasped.
Below it was a message:
COME BACK ALONE OR THE DOGS DON’T WAKE UP.
Grace looked at Luca.
For the first time since entering the Moretti estate, she was no longer afraid for herself.
She was afraid for the animals that had trusted her before any human in that house had.
And Luca saw something change in her face.
“Grace.”
She grabbed her coat.
“I’m going back.”
“No.”
“They want me.”
“That’s exactly why you’re not going alone.”
Grace looked at him.
“Then how do we get inside?”
Luca looked toward Victor.
Victor smiled without humor.
May you like
“We don’t use the gate.”
---
