Chapter 11 - the first person Robert erased
The photograph had been taken through the room’s security camera.
Rachel immediately ordered the building’s system isolated.
The head of security claimed he could not locate the camera in the company network.
“It was removed from the system years ago,” he said.
“Then how is it transmitting?” Rachel asked.
“I don’t know.”
Robert stood silently while technicians examined the feed.
Mark watched him.
He no longer believed Robert controlled every part of the conspiracy.
Someone else had access to the house, the headquarters, Ava’s school, and records Robert wanted destroyed.
Claire was not merely an employee.
She held leverage over him.
Daniel examined the torn paper.
“Who else in the family had the initial M?”
“Margaret,” Mark said. “Martin. Me.”
Jessica leaned against the shelf.
“And Marianne.”
Mark looked at her.
“Who?”
Robert’s voice became sharp.
“There is no Marianne.”
Jessica ignored him.
“I saw the name inside the metal case.”
“Who was she?”
“I don’t know.”
Daniel’s face had gone pale.
“I do.”
Everyone turned toward him.
“When I was working in legal, I found old dividend records. One shareholder was identified only as M. Hale. The payments stopped twenty-seven years ago.”
Mark calculated the time.
He had been a child.
“What happened twenty-seven years ago?”
Daniel looked toward Robert.
“Your parents separated for almost a year.”
Mark remembered fragments.
His mother crying behind a closed bedroom door.
Robert disappearing for weeks.
A woman standing near the garden during a company celebration.
“Was Marianne related to us?” Mark asked.
Robert stepped toward the door.
“This search is over.”
The court observers blocked him.
Rachel spoke calmly.
“No one leaves until the archive inspection is complete.”
Robert looked at Mark.
“You are allowing strangers to humiliate your father.”
“You tried to use my daughter as evidence against me.”
“I tried to protect the company.”
“From an eight-year-old?”
“From you.”
Mark held his gaze.
“You are not afraid I will destroy the company. You are afraid I will find out who built it.”
Robert’s expression hardened.
“Your mother built nothing alone.”
“But she built enough for you to spend thirty years erasing her.”
Daniel removed his laptop from his bag.
“If the dividend records still exist on the backup server, we can identify Marianne.”
Robert’s attorney objected.
Rachel showed him the order.
The backup server formed part of the archive.
Daniel connected to the read-only system while observers watched.
Most files had been migrated repeatedly, but older financial databases remained in compressed storage.
They searched for M. Hale.
Fourteen results appeared.
The earliest payment had been made thirty-one years earlier.
The final payment was labeled custodial reserve.
Mark opened the associated shareholder record.
The screen displayed a scanned handwritten agreement.
Margaret Hale owned fifty-one percent of the original company.
Robert owned twenty percent.
Marianne Hale owned twenty-nine percent.
Mark stared at the name.
Relationship to founder: daughter.
He looked at Robert.
“My mother had another daughter?”
Robert did not answer.
Mark’s childhood memories rearranged themselves.
The year his parents separated.
The arguments about someone Robert called ungrateful.
Margaret’s repeated trips to a private clinic.
A locked bedroom in the east wing.
“Where is she?” Mark asked.
Robert turned away.
“Dead.”
“When?”
“Years ago.”
“How?”
“An accident.”
The word settled over the room.
Elena had died in an accident.
Now Robert claimed Marianne had too.
Daniel clicked the final custodial record.
The scan showed an application to transfer Marianne’s shares after she was declared medically incapable of managing her affairs.
The applicant was Robert Hale.
The consulting physician’s signature was illegible.
The witness signature was unmistakable.
Margaret Hale.
Mark stepped closer to the screen.
“My mother would never have agreed to that.”
“She did,” Robert said.
“Or you copied her signature too.”
Robert’s face darkened.
“You know nothing about Marianne.”
“Then tell me.”
“She was dangerous.”
“To whom?”
“To herself. To the family. To everyone.”
“Where did she die?”
Robert did not answer.
Jessica’s phone vibrated again.
Another message from Claire.
This time, it contained an address.
St. Catherine’s Residential Hospital.
May you like
Beneath it was a sentence.
Ask Robert why Marianne is still alive.
