Chapter 10 - The Truth Richard Refused to Give)
Police separated them.
Daniel was taken upstairs first.
Vanessa refused to release the phone until Lena promised Margaret would remain present.
Lena did not like the condition.
Margaret insisted.
The basement became an improvised interview room.
Richard sat on a storage bench.
Vanessa stood against the far wall with an officer beside her.
Margaret remained near the workbench.
No one looked like a family.
Lena said, "Start with the body."
Richard looked at Margaret.
She said, "Answer her."
He inhaled.
"The man buried under my name was Colin Avery."
Margaret felt sick.
"Who?"
"A private investigator."
Lena wrote the name.
"Why was he in your hotel room?"
"He was helping me collect evidence."
"Against whom?"
Richard looked at the phone.
"A network of investors laundering money through real estate projects."
Margaret said, "Our projects."
"Some."
"How long?"
"Almost ten years."
Margaret's voice hardened.
"You knew?"
"I discovered it after the fact."
Vanessa laughed bitterly.
"That's the version now?"
Richard looked at her.
"Don't."
"No, Dad. Seven years of your rules, your disappearing acts, your coded messages. Tell her everything."
Margaret turned toward Vanessa.
"You met him after the funeral."
"Yes."
"How many times?"
Vanessa did not answer immediately.
Margaret repeated, "How many?"
"Twenty-three."
The number struck like a physical blow.
"Twenty-three times."
"Over seven years."
"You knew he was alive every day."
Vanessa's eyes filled.
"Yes."
Margaret looked away.
That betrayal hurt differently from the theft.
Richard said, "I forced her to keep quiet."
Margaret turned on him.
"She was an adult."
"She was twenty-six."
"And I was her mother."
Richard lowered his head.
Lena asked, "How did Colin Avery die?"
Richard answered.
"He came to the hotel with evidence. Someone followed him."
"Who?"
"I never saw."
"What happened?"
"He was attacked in my room."
Margaret whispered, "And you ran."
Richard nodded.
"I panicked."
"You're lying."
He looked at her.
"You don't panic."
Richard said nothing.
Margaret stepped closer.
"You built skyscrapers during labor strikes. You negotiated with organized crime when we were young and stupid. You did not see a dead investigator and suddenly decide to fake your own death."
Richard's face changed.
Lena watched him.
Margaret said, "You planned it."
Richard remained silent.
"How long?"
"Margaret."
"How long?"
"Three weeks."
Vanessa closed her eyes.
Margaret laughed once.
It sounded empty.
"You planned your funeral before Colin died?"
Richard said, "I knew someone would come for me."
"So you needed a body."
"No."
"Then what?"
"Colin's death accelerated the plan."
"You used him."
"No."
"You used his corpse."
Richard stood.
The officer immediately moved.
Richard raised his hands.
"I was trying to protect you."
Margaret said, "Stop saying that."
"It's true."
"You abandoned me to the same people you feared."
"I believed they would stop watching you once I was dead."
"And Vanessa?"
Richard looked at his daughter.
"I needed someone inside."
Margaret understood.
"You chose her."
"She knew the company."
"You chose her over me."
"I chose the person I believed they wouldn't suspect."
Vanessa laughed bitterly.
"They suspected me immediately."
Lena turned toward her.
"Who are they?"
Vanessa looked at Richard.
He shook his head.
Margaret saw it.
Even now.
A command passing between father and daughter.
"No more," Margaret said.
She walked toward Vanessa.
"You want something from me?"
Vanessa's chin lifted.
"What?"
"Trust."
Vanessa looked almost ashamed.
"Yes."
"Earn one inch of it."
Vanessa stared at her mother for several seconds.
Then she said, "The network calls itself the Charter."
Richard stood sharply.
"Vanessa."
She ignored him.
"They use family-owned real estate companies because ownership structures are easy to disguise."
Lena asked, "Names."
"I don't have all of them."
"Give me what you have."
"Bankers. attorneys. developers. former regulators."
"Names."
Vanessa looked at Margaret.
"Dad kept them in the Boston ledger."
Margaret said, "The ledger from the recording."
Vanessa nodded.
"Where is it?"
"I don't know."
Richard said quietly, "I moved it."
Everyone turned.
Lena asked, "Where?"
Richard stared at the black phone.
"I encoded the location there."
Margaret's expression hardened.
"Then unlock it."
"I can't."
Vanessa laughed.
"Of course you can."
"No."
"You built the encryption."
"I built the first layer."
Lena frowned.
"Who built the rest?"
Richard looked toward the phone.
"Someone changed it after I disappeared."
The screen illuminated again.
A message.
CORRECT.
No one moved.
Another message appeared.
THE LEDGER DOES NOT BELONG TO YOU ANYMORE.
Lena immediately ordered the basement sealed.
A cybercrime team was summoned.
Richard stared at the screen as if seeing a ghost.
Margaret noticed.
"You know who's sending these."
He shook his head.
"No."
"You're lying again."
Richard looked at her.
"For once, I'm not."
The phone displayed one final message.
MARGARET HAS UNTIL MIDNIGHT.
Vanessa whispered, "Until midnight for what?"
The answer appeared.
TO DECIDE WHICH CHILD SHE WANTS TO SAVE.
Margaret's blood turned cold.
Vanessa stared at the screen.
Richard stepped toward her.
"Where is Caroline?"
Margaret looked at him.
The name struck something deep and forgotten.
"Who is Caroline?"
Richard realized his mistake.
Vanessa went pale.
Lena asked, "Who is Caroline?"
No one answered.
Margaret stared at her husband.
Then at her daughter.
"What child?"
Richard closed his eyes.
Margaret's voice shook.
"I have one child."
May you like
Vanessa began to cry.
And Margaret understood that the darkest secret in the Mercer family had nothing to do with stolen money.
