Chapter 13 - Seventy-Two Hours
Margaret did not deny it.
She did not soften it.
Jonathan suggested disabling the brakes.
Margaret paid the mechanic.
Richard was supposed to be frightened.
Forced off the road.
Stopped before meeting federal agents.
“That was the plan?” Daniel asked.
“Yes.”
“You sabotaged his brakes and expected him to survive?”
Margaret started crying.
Daniel did not care.
“I told them not to hurt him.”
“Who is them?”
“Jonathan and the mechanic.”
“Dad died because of you.”
“I know.”
“No.”
Daniel’s voice became quiet.
“You knew for four years.”
Margaret looked down.
Daniel walked away.
He did not look back.
The seventy-two-hour deadline continued.
Jonathan triggered rumors of insolvency.
Mercer stock fell.
Banks demanded assurances.
Employees panicked.
News crews camped outside headquarters.
Daniel could no longer enter his own company without protesters shouting at him.
The board voted to remove him temporarily.
Marcus, still recovering, revealed Jonathan had installed loyal executives throughout Mercer subsidiaries.
This had been planned for years.
The goal was not merely money.
Control.
If Mercer collapsed, Jonathan’s holding companies could buy pieces at a fraction of their value.
Daniel realized Richard’s murder had served two purposes.
Silence him.
And begin a long takeover.
Natalie’s trust was the obstacle.
Richard had moved key voting shares beyond Jonathan’s reach.
If Natalie produced the valid trust, she could stop the asset sale.
But the original was missing.
Samuel Price, the Boston attorney, remained missing.
They needed him.
Brooks traced his phone to a cabin in Maine.
He was found alive.
Jonathan’s men had held him for twelve days.
Price confirmed Richard’s final trust.
More importantly, he knew where the backup original was stored.
A courthouse archive.
The document was retrieved under armed guard.
Natalie legally controlled 31 percent of Mercer voting shares.
Daniel controlled 18.
Together they had enough to block Jonathan’s takeover.
The board meeting was scheduled for the next morning.
That evening, Natalie returned to her hotel room.
The door was already open.
Daniel drew the weapon Brooks had insisted he carry.
The room was empty.
On the bed lay a white envelope.
Inside was a photograph.
Natalie as a child.
Her mother Elaine standing beside her.
Daniel frowned.
“Why would Jonathan have this?”
Natalie turned it over.
Written on the back:
ASK WHO PAID ELAINE.
Natalie’s face changed.
“My mother worked for the Mercer Foundation.”
“When?”
“Before I met you.”
Daniel felt the next secret approaching.
They searched old payroll records.
Elaine Reeves had received payments from a Mercer shell company for seventeen years.
Even after she stopped working.
Even after Evelyn died.
Even after Richard’s crash.
The final payment was made one month after Elaine herself died.
Natalie whispered:
“She knew.”
“Knew what?”
“I don’t know.”
But somewhere in Elaine Reeves’s past was another connection to the Mercer crimes.
May you like
A connection Jonathan believed could destroy Natalie.
At midnight, forty-eight hours remained.
