Chapter 4 - The Memory Behind the Crash
Maya should have left.
Instead, she followed Adrian inside.
The Mercer estate looked less like a home than a place designed to convince visitors they were insignificant.
Tall windows.
Marble floors.
Paintings probably worth more than Maya’s apartment building.
Yet Adrian seemed uncomfortable there.
He led her into his father’s old study.
“My memory came back in fragments.”
He placed several documents on the desk.
“The missing money was real. Charles Whitmore moved it. But he wasn’t acting alone.”
“Who helped him?”
“My uncle.”
“Your mother has a brother?”
“My father’s brother. Richard Mercer.”
Maya remembered seeing his name in business articles.
“What does he do?”
“He’s vice chairman.”
Adrian explained.
Richard had expected to control Mercer Holdings after Thomas died.
Instead, Thomas had left voting control to Adrian.
Richard had spent years quietly resenting him.
The stolen money gave Richard something more dangerous than resentment.
Exposure.
“If I went to the board,” Adrian said, “Richard lost everything.”
“So he damaged your brakes?”
“I can’t prove it.”
“Then why are you sure?”
“Because I remember meeting him that night.”
Adrian described the underground garage.
Richard had demanded that Adrian sign documents approving the transfers retroactively.
Adrian refused.
Richard warned him not to destroy the family.
“You should have signed it,” Richard had said.
The same words Adrian remembered from the crash.
“But you said someone was in the car.”
“I thought so.”
“And?”
“There wasn’t.”
Adrian touched his temple.
“The voice was a memory. Richard wasn’t beside me. I was replaying our argument.”
Maya exhaled.
“So you still don’t know who sabotaged the car.”
“No.”
A door opened.
Evelyn entered.
She saw Maya.
Then the check in Maya’s hand.
“I suppose you’re angry.”
Maya placed it on the desk.
“I don’t want your money.”
“I wasn’t buying you.”
“What would you call it?”
“Gratitude.”
“You investigated my finances and then sent twenty-five thousand dollars.”
Evelyn’s composure cracked.
“I watched my son almost die.”
“And I helped him because that was my job.”
“No.”
Evelyn looked at her.
“You helped him because that is who you are.”
Maya stopped.
Evelyn continued.
“I was wrong about you.”
She took the check.
“I apologize.”
It was not the apology Maya expected.
She nodded.
“Thank you.”
Adrian looked surprised.
“You two finished declaring war?”
Maya almost laughed.
For the first time, Evelyn did too.
But the fragile peace lasted less than an hour.
Detective Ortiz arrived.
Richard Mercer had been found dead in his apartment.
Natural causes appeared possible, but the timing was suspicious.
More importantly, his laptop was missing.
Adrian became the obvious person police needed to question because Richard had called him seven times the night before.
“Why?” Maya asked.
“I didn’t answer.”
“Why not?”
“I wasn’t ready.”
Ortiz looked at him.
“Someone may be cleaning up evidence.”
That night Maya returned home.
A black sedan was parked across the street.
She noticed it because it had been there the previous night too.
Her instincts sharpened.
She hurried inside.
Toby was playing a video game.
Lorraine was asleep.
Everything seemed normal.
Then Maya found an envelope pushed beneath the door.
No stamp.
No name.
Inside was a photograph.
It showed Maya leaving St. Catherine’s.
On the back were six words.
STAY AWAY FROM ADRIAN MERCER.
Maya called Ortiz.
Within thirty minutes, police were at the apartment.
Adrian arrived shortly afterward.
“You shouldn’t be here,” Maya told him.
“Someone threatened you because of me.”
“That doesn’t mean you get to—”
“I’m not leaving.”
“You don’t get to decide that.”
He stopped.
“You’re right.”
The answer disarmed her.
He lowered his voice.
“But I’m asking you not to face this alone.”
Maya looked at him.
For weeks she had been the strong one.
For Toby.
For Lorraine.
For patients.
For everyone.
Now someone was offering to stand beside her without trying to purchase her problems.
She nodded.
“Okay.”
Adrian stayed until sunrise.
They sat at the kitchen table drinking terrible instant coffee.
He met Toby.
Toby immediately asked, “Are you the billionaire?”
Maya nearly choked.
Adrian laughed.
“Unfortunately.”
“Why unfortunately?”
“People become strange around money.”
Toby glanced at Maya.
“She’s strange around money too. She avoids it.”
“Toby.”
“What? It’s true.”
Adrian smiled at her.
Maya hated how natural it felt.
At six in the morning Lorraine entered.
She stopped when she saw Adrian.
Something fell from her hand.
A glass shattered.
Adrian stood.
“Mrs. Bennett?”
Lorraine stared at him as if she had seen a ghost.
“Mom?” Maya asked.
Lorraine’s face had gone completely white.
“You.”
Adrian frowned.
“Have we met?”
Lorraine backed against the wall.
Maya rushed toward her.
“Mom.”
Lorraine looked at Adrian.
Then she whispered:
“You have your father’s eyes.”
The room became silent.
Adrian stared.
“You knew my father?”
Lorraine closed her eyes.
“Yes.”
Maya felt the world shift.
“How?”
Her mother opened her eyes.
“Thomas Mercer was the reason your father lost everything.”
And then she looked at Maya.
May you like
“And I’ve been praying for eighteen years that you would never meet his son.”
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