Chapter 6 - The Choice on the Lawn
The mower was heavier than Elena expected.
Garrick rolled it from the garage and left it near the flower beds.
He did not offer instructions or ask whether she could safely operate it.
Miriam stood on the steps with coffee while Travis arrived in a convertible.
“What’s happening?” he asked.
“Elena needs exercise,” Miriam replied.
Travis looked at the recovery gown.
“Is she supposed to be doing that?”
Garrick glanced at him.
“Stay out of it.”
That should have been enough to end the joke.
Instead, Travis sat beside Miriam and accepted a bowl of fruit from a housekeeper.
Elena gripped the mower handle.
Her body protested immediately.
She moved forward a few feet, stopped to breathe and continued.
The mansion rose behind her like a monument to everything the Mercers had pretended to be.
Generous.
Respectable.
Devoted to family.
From the road, Elena probably looked like a recovering woman taking a slow walk behind a garden machine.
No one could see the pressure beneath her bandages or the dizziness blurring the edges of her vision.
Miriam called from the steps.
“Straight lines, Elena. It looks careless.”
Elena kept moving.
She needed the security cameras to capture enough.
Adrian had confirmed that the exterior system was recording.
Dr. Shah had provided a written statement that heavy activity posed a serious risk to recovery.
The fraud case was already prepared.
The trust had voted to suspend Garrick’s financial access.
All Elena needed to do was make the call.
Yet she continued for another minute.
She wanted Garrick to have one last opportunity.
She stopped and looked toward him.
“Garrick.”
He stood near the black car, typing on his phone.
“What?”
“I can’t do this.”
Miriam answered for him.
“You can. You don’t want to.”
Elena ignored her.
“Please,” she said to her husband. “I am asking you to help me.”
Garrick slid the phone into his pocket.
“You’ve spent two weeks making everyone rearrange their lives.”
“I had cancer surgery.”
“You survived.”
The words struck harder than shouting.
As though survival canceled pain.
As though the removal of the tumor meant the removal of his obligation to care.
Elena looked at the man she had married.
“Did you ever love me?”
Miriam scoffed.
“Do not reward that question.”
Garrick glanced toward the road, worried that someone might see.
“This is not the time.”
“It is the only time.”
He stepped closer but remained several feet away.
“You have become impossible since Adrian started interfering.”
“Adrian didn’t destroy my medication.”
“Mom was trying to help.”
“She tried to have me declared incompetent.”
His face changed.
It lasted less than a second, but Elena saw it.
“You’ve been listening to private conversations,” he said.
“So it’s true.”
“You don’t understand what’s happening with the company.”
“Then explain it.”
“There is nothing to explain.”
“How much did you take from the foundation?”
Travis removed his sunglasses.
Miriam’s coffee cup stopped halfway to her mouth.
Garrick looked toward the cameras mounted beneath the roofline.
“Elena, go inside.”
“How much?”
“You are confused.”
“No. For the first time in years, I am not confused.”
He walked toward her.
Elena’s hand moved into her pocket.
Garrick stopped when he saw the phone.
“What is that?”
“My emergency phone.”
“Give it to me.”
“No.”
“Elena.”
She dialed Adrian.
Garrick approached again.
She raised the phone to her ear.
“Brother,” she said, looking directly at her husband. “I need you.”
Garrick reached for the device, but Elena stepped behind the mower.
A voice answered through the speaker.
“Look toward the gate.”
The first black vehicle appeared seconds later.
Adrian had been waiting less than half a mile away.
He had known Elena would make the call.
Perhaps he had known before she did.
After the ambulance took Elena from the property, the confrontation continued.
Garrick refused to accept the trust notice until the process server placed it on the hood of his car.
Miriam demanded to speak to the family’s attorneys.
Adrian informed her that the attorneys represented Elena’s trust, not the Mercer family.
Travis quietly entered the mansion and began packing.
Before leaving, he approached the private investigator.
“I want a lawyer,” he said.
“Then call one.”
“I didn’t know everything.”
“But you knew something.”
Travis looked toward Garrick.
“He told me those contracts were legal.”
The investigator handed him a card.
“Save that explanation for your attorney.”
At the hospital, Dr. Shah ordered tests and placed Elena under observation.
She had strained healing tissue but had not caused permanent damage.
Adrian remained near the window while the nurse adjusted Elena’s fluids.
“I should have called sooner,” Elena said.
“Yes.”
She looked at him.
He gave a tired smile.
“I am your brother. I am allowed to tell the truth.”
“I thought I needed undeniable proof.”
“You had enough when she destroyed your medication.”
“I know.”
“Do you?”
Elena turned toward the ceiling.
“I kept waiting for Garrick to choose me.”
Adrian pulled a chair beside the bed.
“People reveal their choices through actions long before they admit them with words.”
“He chose money.”
“No. Money was only the reward. He chose control.”
Elena’s eyes filled, but she did not look away.
“What happens now?”
“Tomorrow, the board meets.”
“So soon?”
“We have been preparing for a week.”
“And the house?”
“The residence license has been revoked. They have seventy-two hours.”
“Miriam will fight.”
“She can fight from somewhere else.”
Despite everything, Elena laughed.
It hurt, but she laughed again.
Adrian placed a folder on the bedside table.
Inside were the divorce petition, trust records and a preliminary forensic report.
At the top of the report was a number.
Six million, eight hundred and forty thousand dollars.
That was the amount traced through suspicious transactions so far.
Elena stared at it.
“They thought I would never notice.”
“They thought your kindness was stupidity.”
She closed the folder.
“What will happen at the board meeting?”
Adrian’s expression became serious.
“You will tell them what happened.”
“From here?”
“If Dr. Shah allows it.”
“And Garrick?”
“He has been invited to explain the signatures.”
Elena looked toward the darkening Texas sky outside the window.
May you like
For years, Garrick had spoken for her in rooms she had helped pay for.
Tomorrow, he would sit quietly while she spoke.
