Chapter 10 - Mark's Confession
Mark's car was found at the airport.
His passport remained at home.
Security footage showed him entering a parking garage.
It did not show him leaving.
For twelve hours, nobody knew whether he had fled or been taken.
Then Sarah received an email.
No sender name.
A video attachment.
Rebecca told her not to open it.
Sarah opened it.
Mark appeared on-screen.
He was sitting in darkness.
There was a bruise beneath his left eye.
"Sarah."
She stared at the man she had married.
For once, he looked small.
"If you're watching this, I finally ran out of ways to pretend I could control this."
Sarah felt nothing.
Mark continued.
"I met Richard Collins fourteen years ago."
Before their marriage.
"He knew who your father was."
Sarah's jaw tightened.
"He introduced us."
She remembered.
A charity dinner.
Mark had "accidentally" bumped into her.
She had thought it was fate.
It had been arranged.
"I was supposed to get close to you."
Sarah stopped breathing.
"Your father had hidden records Hale needed. Richard believed you knew where."
Mark rubbed his face.
"But you didn't."
His voice broke.
"And then I fell in love with you."
Sarah whispered, "Liar."
"Maybe that doesn't matter now."
It didn't.
"After we married, Richard told me to keep looking. Then Hale returned."
Mark explained the scheme.
Properties bought through shell companies.
Loans obtained through forged identities.
Insurance claims.
Money laundering.
Sarah's identity was useful because of her father's connection to Hale.
If investigators ever discovered the network, evidence could be manipulated to make it appear Thomas Whitmore's daughter had continued his operation.
Sarah felt physically ill.
"You were the perfect ending to the story," Mark said.
"The criminal investigator's daughter becoming the criminal."
Rebecca whispered, "Jesus."
Mark continued.
"I told myself I was protecting you."
Sarah laughed bitterly.
"I told myself if I cooperated, they'd leave you and the kids alone."
He looked directly into the camera.
"But I stopped protecting you years ago."
For the first time, Mark sounded truthful.
"I protected myself."
Sarah watched without blinking.
"Brenda found the ledger because Richard wanted her to replace me."
That surprised everyone.
"She wasn't supposed to become my mistress. She was supposed to watch me."
Sarah looked at Rebecca.
Mark continued.
"Then everything got complicated."
Sarah almost threw the phone.
Even now.
Complicated.
The favorite word of cowards.
Then Mark said something that stopped her.
"The twenty-seven million isn't Hale's."
Daniel leaned toward the screen.
Mark said, "It was Thomas Whitmore's recovery fund."
Sarah stared.
"Your father spent years taking stolen money back from Hale's network."
Mark looked somewhere beyond the camera.
"He put it in your name."
A noise sounded behind him.
Mark became frightened.
"If Hale gets access, it's gone."
He leaned closer.
"Do not trust anyone who tells you to transfer it."
Footsteps.
Mark whispered quickly.
"Especially Daniel Mercer."
The video ended.
May you like
Everyone turned toward Daniel.
His face had gone white.
