Chapter 10 - The Name Gideon Erased
Gideon requested to speak with Rowan alone.
Detective Sloan refused, but she allowed them to sit at opposite ends of an interview room while officers watched through the glass.
“The Hale Trust originally transferred control from parent to eldest child,” Gideon began. “Eleanor hated the rule. She believed family should not be reduced to birth order.”
“Who was the other heir?”
“She never told me.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“She drafted the amendment secretly. Adrian learned about it and became convinced she had named him.”
“Did she?”
“I don’t know.”
“Why erase every reference to him?”
“Because after Eleanor disappeared, Adrian began sending messages. He said he would come for you when you turned thirty-five and claim what she had promised him.”
Rowan remembered his thirty-fifth birthday.
Julian had organized a surprise party at the old estate.
That same night, a fire destroyed part of the company archive.
At the time, everyone had blamed damaged electrical wiring.
“Atlas House became active again when I turned thirty-five,” Rowan said.
Gideon nodded.
“I noticed the transfers. I tried tracing them without alerting you.”
“You allowed Julian to investigate.”
“He offered.”
“And that gave him access to everything.”
Gideon lowered his eyes.
“I trusted him.”
The words sounded painfully familiar.
Rowan took out the partial letter found beneath the piano key.
Gideon did not kill me.
“What is the missing half?”
“Eleanor often divided sensitive messages. One part stayed inside the piano. The other was hidden in a music box she gave you.”
“I don’t remember a music box.”
“You carried it everywhere after she vanished. Then one day it disappeared.”
“Who was with me?”
Gideon’s face changed.
“Julian.”
“That’s impossible. I met Julian in college.”
“I am not talking about Julian Mercer.”
“Then who?”
“His father.”
Rowan had been told Julian’s father died before they met.
Gideon explained that a man named Thomas Mercer worked as the Hale family driver during Rowan’s childhood. After Eleanor disappeared, Thomas resigned and vanished with his young son.
Years later, Julian appeared at Rowan’s university using a shortened version of his middle name.
Gideon had recognized him but said nothing.
“I believed the boy was innocent,” Gideon said. “I thought keeping him close would allow me to see if his father returned.”
“Instead, you allowed him into our company.”
“I underestimated his anger.”
“Why would Julian hate us?”
“Thomas Mercer was the man found inside Adrian Vale’s car.”
Rowan went still.
“If Thomas died in Adrian’s vehicle, Adrian may have escaped.”
“Yes.”
“And Julian grew up believing our family covered up his father’s death.”
“Yes.”
“Did we?”
Gideon did not answer.
Rowan stood.
“That silence is why Mara is missing.”
Back at the hospital, Micah was drawing at a small table beside Elsie’s bed.
The picture showed their family in front of a house. Rowan stood on one side, Mara on the other, and the children between them.
Behind the house was a tall man without a face.
Rowan sat beside him.
“Who is that?”
Micah continued coloring.
“The man who came the first night.”
“What man?”
“Miss Celia said not to look at him.”
“Did he speak to you?”
“He asked where Teddy was.”
“What did he look like?”
Micah reached into the pocket of his pajamas and removed a small object.
“I took this from his coat.”
It was a brass button engraved with the letter M.
Mercer.
On the back was a dark brown stain.
Not blood.
Wood varnish.
Rowan recognized the smell.
The music box from his childhood had been made from cedar and coated in the same varnish.
“Where did the man go after he searched the room?” Rowan asked.
May you like
Micah pointed at the drawing.
“Under the house.”
