CHAPTER 9
I watched the video twice.
The second time hurt worse.
Vanessa sat across from her father looking calm.
Not frightened.
Not coerced.
Calm.
Richard leaned back behind his desk.
“What exactly does Michael know?”
“Enough.”
“And Claire?”
“She knows he is worried, but he hasn't given her documents yet.”
Richard tapped his fingers against the desk.
“Can Michael be persuaded?”
Vanessa shook her head.
“He thinks he's saving people.”
Richard smiled.
“Men like that are always inconvenient.”
Then came the sentence Agent Chen had warned me about.
“If Michael goes to the authorities, Daniel will eventually find out too. Handle Michael. I'll handle Daniel.”
Richard looked at her.
“Can you?”
Vanessa smiled.
“I know exactly what Daniel wants to believe.”
The video ended.
I sat frozen.
Agent Chen closed the laptop.
“We still need context.”
“What context could make that innocent?”
“None that I can imagine.”
“Then arrest her.”
“We're moving.”
“You keep saying that.”
“Because cases involving conspiracy, homicide, public corruption, and financial crimes require more than one disturbing video.”
“She knew.”
“Yes.”
“She helped him.”
“Possibly.”
“She said handle Michael.”
“I heard it.”
I stood and walked to the window.
I wanted to break something.
Instead, I called Noah's therapist.
Grace had arranged an emergency trauma specialist named Dr. Aaron Bell.
Noah had his first appointment that afternoon.
I was not telling him about the video before then.
Claire's words stayed in my head.
Do not turn Noah into a soldier.
He will try.
Do not let him.
So I didn't show him evidence.
I didn't ask him to help solve anything.
I drove back to the apartment and made pancakes.
Bad ones.
Lily ate two.
Noah complained that mine looked like “sad tortillas.”
It was the most normal ten minutes we'd had in days.
Then the DNA technician arrived.
The court-approved test took cheek swabs from Lily and me.
Lily frowned at the swab.
“Medicine?”
“No.”
“Shot?”
“No shot.”
She immediately opened her mouth.
Noah laughed.
After the technician left, Lily climbed onto the couch beside me.
“Why mouth stick?”
I looked at Noah.
He watched me carefully.
“It's a test to see if I'm your biological daddy.”
Lily stared at me.
“You Daniel.”
“Yes.”
“You not Daddy.”
My heart twisted.
“No.”
She thought about this.
Then looked at Noah.
“Noah brother.”
“Yes.”
“Mommy Mommy.”
“Yes.”
Then she shrugged.
“You Daniel.”
Noah laughed again.
I did too.
Children sometimes handled truths more simply than adults.
That evening, Marcus called.
“Richard's lawyers are demanding access to your company records.”
“Why?”
“He's calling the loan attached to his investment.”
“Can he?”
“Contractually? Maybe.”
My business employed eighty-three people.
Engineers.
Project managers.
Administrators.
People with mortgages and children.
Richard knew exactly where to press.
“How bad?”
“If he accelerates the note and convinces the bank you're unstable, bad.”
I looked at Noah.
He was helping Lily build a tower.
“He's trying to make me choose.”
“Yes.”
“Then we remove the choice.”
“How?”
“Sell my stake.”
Marcus went silent.
“Daniel.”
“I mean it.”
“You built Mercer Infrastructure for fourteen years.”
“And I can build again.”
“Richard's stake is only twenty-two percent.”
“Then find a buyer for mine before he can freeze the company.”
“That could cost you millions.”
I looked at Lily laughing as the blocks fell.
“I don't care.”
“You will later.”
“Maybe.”
I lowered my voice.
“But I will care forever if these kids watch another adult sacrifice them for money.”
Marcus exhaled.
“I'll find options.”
The next day, news broke.
Not about Richard.
About me.
DANIEL MERCER'S SECRET LOVE CHILD.
Photos of Claire and me appeared online.
One was from the night after Michael's funeral.
We were leaving a hotel.
Someone had kept it for four years.
Vanessa.
The article claimed I had maintained an affair with Claire throughout my marriage.
It described Lily as “the possible product of a long-term secret relationship.”
It claimed I was exploiting Claire's death to seize custody.
Noah found the story before I could stop him.
He slammed his tablet shut.
“People are saying Mom cheated on Dad.”
“I know.”
“Did she?”
“No.”
“But you and Mom—”
“Vanessa and I were separated. Michael was already dead.”
He looked sick.
“They're making Mom sound horrible.”
“Because Richard wants us ashamed.”
“Can we make them stop?”
“Not immediately.”
His eyes filled.
“She can't defend herself.”
“I know.”
That was the cruelty of attacking the dead.
They had no voice.
But Claire had left evidence.
And I still had mine.
I issued one statement.
Nothing more.
Claire Bennett was my friend for over twenty years. Recent private information concerning her family was obtained through evidence in an active federal investigation. I will not publicly discuss her children or expose them to further harm. Claims that Claire conducted a long-term affair with me are false. My priority is protecting Noah and Lily.
The statement spread.
So did the attacks.
By nightfall, reporters stood outside my company.
Richard's strategy was obvious.
If he couldn't take the evidence, he would destroy the people holding it.
Then Agent Chen called.
“We identified the man who sent the fake officers to your house.”
“Who?”
“Gerald Pike. Head of security for Vale Development.”
“Can you connect him to Richard?”
“We can connect him to Vanessa.”
My pulse rose.
“How?”
“A text.”
She read it.
Get the key before Daniel understands what it opens.
Sent at 1:42 a.m.
From Vanessa's phone.
Finally.
Something direct.
“When are you arresting her?”
“Warrant is being signed now.”
I closed my eyes.
Then Agent Chen added, “There's another development.”
“What?”
“We recovered deleted messages from Michael Bennett's old work account.”
I gripped the phone.
“And?”
“Michael emailed someone the night before he died.”
“Who?”
“You.”
My stomach dropped.
“I never got anything.”
“We know.”
“Why?”
“The email was deleted from the server before delivery.”
“By Vanessa?”
“We're investigating.”
“What did Michael write?”
Agent Chen paused.
Then read the recovered message.
Daniel, if something happens to me, Claire and the kids are going to need you. Richard knows I found the accounts. Vanessa knows too. Do not trust either of them.
I sat down.
Michael had tried to warn me.
Years before Lily.
Years before Claire died.
Before I married Vanessa.
And someone had made sure I never saw it.
Across the room, Lily suddenly shouted.
“Daniel!”
I turned.
Noah was staring through the window.
A black car had stopped across the street.
A woman stepped out.
Vanessa.
But before she could take three steps toward the building, two unmarked federal vehicles boxed her in.
Agents surrounded her.
Noah came beside me.
Lily held his hand.
We watched through the glass as Vanessa was placed in handcuffs.
She looked up.
Straight at our window.
For a moment, our eyes met.
May you like
And the woman I had once loved didn't look sorry.
She looked furious that she had lost.
