Chapter 11 - WHAT DANIEL DID
Daniel looked more shocked than anyone.
“That’s impossible.”
Caroline’s recording continued.
“If my son Daniel reaches adulthood, Meridian will attempt to use him.”
Daniel stepped toward the screen.
“I was fourteen when she died.”
“They will study his fears.”
Caroline continued.
“His loyalties.”
“His need to protect the people he loves.”
Daniel whispered.
“Mom.”
“They will make him believe cooperation is protection.”
Emily stared at him.
The recording ended.
Nobody spoke.
Torres turned.
“Did they?”
Daniel looked at her.
“Did who what?”
“Use you.”
“No.”
Victor lowered his eyes.
Daniel saw it.
“What?”
Victor remained silent.
“What do you know?”
Lydia suddenly understood.
“Oh, God.”
Daniel grabbed Victor’s jacket.
“What?”
Victor spoke quietly.
“After Grace’s accident, you authorized Project Harbor.”
Daniel released him.
Emily asked, “What’s Project Harbor?”
Daniel looked sick.
“A security containment protocol.”
“For who?”
He didn’t answer.
Emily already knew.
“Mom?”
Daniel sat.
The story came out slowly.
Six months before Grace died, Daniel learned someone had threatened Emily.
No details.
Only photographs of her school.
Her bedroom window.
Her riding lessons.
Daniel panicked.
An anonymous security consultant offered a solution.
Project Harbor.
Track Grace.
Track Emily.
Monitor communications.
Restrict travel if necessary.
Daniel authorized it.
“I thought I was protecting you.”
Emily stared at him.
“You tracked Mom.”
“Yes.”
“Without telling her.”
“Yes.”
“Did she know?”
“Eventually.”
“That’s why she was afraid of you.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
“Yes.”
Grace thought Daniel was part of Meridian because Blackwood surveillance followed her everywhere.
Daniel thought he was protecting Grace from Meridian.
Both were being manipulated by the same people.
Torres said, “Who sold you Project Harbor?”
Daniel looked toward Victor.
Victor answered.
“An outside contractor.”
“Name?”
“Northlight Risk.”
Torres searched it.
The company no longer existed.
Its founder supposedly died two years earlier.
But another name appeared on incorporation papers.
Raymond Hale.
Emily felt the floor shift beneath her again.
Raymond.
The man who had protected her since birth.
The man who had been shot at the conservatory.
The man Preston Vale recognized.
Daniel immediately called the hospital.
Raymond was gone.
He had checked himself out against medical advice forty minutes earlier.
A letter waited in his room.
Daniel opened it.
I’m sorry.
I didn’t know they would kill Grace.
I only knew they wanted her stopped.
Emily took the page.
Her hands started shaking.
Daniel read the next line.
I was the one who changed her route that night.
Daniel sat down.
Lydia whispered, “Raymond caused the crash.”
The letter continued.
They promised nobody would be hurt.
I believed them because I needed to believe them.
By the time I understood, Grace was already dead.
I have spent three years trying to undo one cowardly decision.
Preston recognized me because I hired him eleven years ago to witness the Mercer Trust.
Charles ordered it.
I was loyal to him then.
Later I became loyal to the wrong people.
There is one thing you need to know.
The person running Meridian is not Victor.
Not Lydia.
Not me.
Their name is inside the vault.
But if you open the administrator list, they will know.
Emily looked toward the servers.
One directory blinked.
ADMINISTRATORS.
Torres disconnected the external network.
“It may still trigger something.”
Daniel stared at the folder.
Emily whispered.
“Open it.”
“No.”
“Dad.”
“Raymond said they’ll know.”
“They already know where we are.”
She was right.
Daniel selected the directory.
One name appeared.
CURRENT ADMINISTRATOR:
ELEANOR VOSS.
Nobody recognized it.
Except Lydia.
She stepped backward.
“No.”
Daniel looked at her.
“Who is Eleanor Voss?”
Lydia’s face had become gray.
“She died before Mom.”
“Who?”
Lydia whispered.
“Our grandmother.”
Emily stared.
Caroline Blackwood’s mother.
A woman who had supposedly been dead for thirty years.
Torres opened the administrative activity log.
The most recent access had occurred twelve minutes earlier.
May you like
From inside Blackwood House.
Someone using the identity of a dead woman was currently inside Emily’s home.
