Chapter 6 - The Mother Nobody Buried)
Margaret Mercer lived under the name Margaret Stone in a modest house outside Richmond.
Elena couldn't reconcile the woman who opened the door at two in the morning with the glamorous photographs she'd seen inside Mercer House.
Margaret wore a cardigan, reading glasses and slippers.
Her silver hair hung loose around her shoulders.
She looked at Ethan.
Then Elena.
Then Lily.
Her knees nearly failed.
"Oh my God."
Ethan caught her.
"Mom."
Margaret touched Lily's face.
Not possessively.
Almost reverently.
"You found her."
Elena pulled Lily back.
"You knew?"
Margaret looked at Elena.
"I'm sorry."
Those words ignited seven years of rage.
"You knew?"
Margaret stepped aside.
"Come inside."
"No."
"Elena."
"You knew I had a child?"
"I knew there might be one."
"And you did nothing?"
Margaret's eyes filled.
"I didn't know where you were."
"You could have told Ethan."
"I couldn't."
Ethan entered.
"Why?"
Margaret closed the door.
Victoria remained outside.
Margaret saw her through the glass.
Her expression became cold.
"Why is she here?"
Victoria heard.
"Lovely seeing you too."
Margaret let her in only after Ethan insisted.
Inside, photographs covered the walls.
None showed Mercer House.
None showed Margaret's husband.
Only Ethan.
Mostly childhood pictures.
Lily studied them.
Ethan at seven looked almost exactly like her.
Margaret noticed.
"I don't need a test."
Ethan looked at Lily.
"We'll still do one."
Elena nodded.
"For Lily."
Margaret prepared tea nobody drank.
Then she told them the truth about her supposed death.
Twelve years earlier, Margaret discovered that Mercer Holdings had been used to move money through shell companies.
Her husband, Charles, claimed he was investigating.
Margaret didn't trust him.
Then her car brakes failed.
She survived only because the crash occurred at low speed.
Charles moved her into a private medical facility.
Publicly, the family announced complications and later a death.
Privately, Margaret disappeared.
"Ethan thought you were dead."
Margaret looked at her son.
"He had to."
"No. He didn't."
"If the people targeting me believed you knew, they would use you."
Ethan laughed bitterly.
"Everyone keeps protecting me by lying."
Margaret lowered her eyes.
"Yes."
"That ends tonight."
Elena placed the flash drive on the table.
Margaret recoiled.
"Where did you get that?"
"Inside my music box."
"Charles hid it there."
Elena stared.
"Your husband was inside my apartment?"
"Not personally."
"Daniel."
Margaret nodded.
"Before Charles realized Daniel had his own agenda."
Ethan paced.
"What is on it?"
"Transaction records."
"That's all?"
"No."
Margaret's answer came too slowly.
Victoria leaned against the wall.
"Tell him."
Margaret looked at her.
"You don't get to give orders here."
Victoria smiled faintly.
"But I'm right."
Margaret turned back to Ethan.
"The records connect Mercer Holdings to a private network called Northstar."
Ethan frowned.
"I've never heard of it."
"You weren't supposed to."
"What does Northstar do?"
"Officially? Nothing. It doesn't exist."
Elena was tired of riddles.
"Unofficially?"
Margaret's voice dropped.
"They collect leverage."
"Blackmail?"
"Information. Affairs. Hidden accounts. Medical records. Paternity. Anything powerful people don't want revealed."
Lily sat nearby drawing on paper Margaret had given her.
Elena looked at her child.
"Paternity."
Margaret nodded.
"Charles discovered someone had created a file on you before you became pregnant."
"Why me?"
"Because of your father."
Elena froze.
"My father was a mechanic."
"No."
Margaret's answer was immediate.
"Your father worked for Northstar."
Elena laughed.
It was impossible.
Her father had died when she was fourteen.
He repaired cars.
He wore work boots.
He came home smelling like oil.
Margaret reached into a cabinet and removed a photograph.
Elena's father stood beside Charles Mercer.
Behind them was Daniel Pike.
The photograph was twenty years old.
Elena stared at it.
"My father knew Ethan's father?"
"They were partners in something they both later regretted."
Elena sat down.
Ethan touched her shoulder.
Victoria watched silently.
Margaret continued.
"When your father tried to leave Northstar, he kept records. Charles helped hide them."
"The flash drive?"
"Part of them."
"So Daniel thought I had my father's evidence."
"Yes."
Elena stared at the tiny device.
"And Lily?"
Margaret looked toward the child.
"Northstar became interested in Lily before she was born."
Ethan stepped forward.
"Why?"
Margaret's eyes filled with something close to fear.
"Because according to Charles, Lily connected two families Northstar had spent decades trying to control."
Ethan glanced at Elena.
"Mercer and Ruiz?"
Margaret nodded.
Victoria pushed away from the wall.
"We need to move."
Ethan turned.
"Why?"
Victoria held up her phone.
One bar of signal had returned.
A message glowed on the screen.
Unknown sender.
YOU SHOULD HAVE STAYED AT THE HOUSE.
Beneath it was a photograph taken seconds earlier.
May you like
It showed all of them sitting inside Margaret's living room.
Taken through the window.
