Chapter 14 - Mercer’s Secret
I followed Mercer into the hospital corridor.
“You knew my grandmother?”
“No.”
“Your father did.”
“Yes.”
“How long have you known?”
“That she was his client?”
“Yes.”
“Three weeks.”
My anger exploded.
“You investigated my family while withholding that from me?”
“My father’s old files were sealed under attorney-client privilege.”
“She has been dead eleven years.”
“The privilege does not automatically disappear with death.”
“Do not lecture me about privilege.”
I was a property attorney.
He knew exactly how insulting that sounded.
Mercer lowered his voice.
“When the forged mortgage application surfaced, your grandmother’s name appeared in historical title records.”
“And then?”
“I recognized it from my father’s archived client index.”
“Did he help create the trust?”
“I believe so.”
“You believe?”
“My father died seven years ago.”
That stopped me.
Mercer continued.
“His firm transferred certain sealed files to a successor trustee.”
“Who?”
“A retired attorney named Samuel Pierce.”
“Where is he?”
“Vermont.”
“Call him.”
“We already did.”
“And?”
“He disappeared yesterday.”
I stared at Mercer.
“Before or after the wedding?”
“Before.”
My anger cooled into fear.
“Mom got to him.”
“Possibly.”
“Or Andrew.”
“Possibly.”
“Or someone else.”
Mercer nodded.
That was the part I hated most.
We still did not know everyone involved.
An investigator approached with new information.
Andrew had not escaped custody.
Lily was wrong about that.
He had remained locked inside a federal holding facility all night.
“So who put her inside my hidden room?”
Mercer asked.
Lily had only seen a man from behind.
Dark suit.
Andrew’s build.
Andrew’s voice.
Or someone imitating it.
Then investigators recovered hallway footage from my building.
The man leaving my penthouse was not Andrew.
It was Lily’s husband’s older brother.
Nathan Cole.
I had met him twice.
He was quiet.
Polished.
A private wealth manager.
He had also served as best man at the wedding.
Lily went pale when she saw the image.
“Nathan?”
Mercer searched his records.
Then his expression hardened.
“Nathan Cole works for Pierce Fiduciary Services.”
My stomach dropped.
“Samuel Pierce’s firm?”
“Yes.”
Everything suddenly connected.
Andrew had access through Braxton Capital.
Nathan had access through the trust administrator.
Mom had access through our family.
They did not simply want my penthouse.
They wanted the one thing Grandma had hidden before she died.
The ledger.
Mercer’s phone rang.
A Vermont state trooper had located Samuel Pierce’s vehicle beside a rural highway.
There was no sign of Samuel.
But inside the trunk, officers found an envelope.
My name was written across the front.
CLAIRE HOLLOWAY.
Mercer put the call on speaker.
The trooper continued.
“There’s something else.”
“What?”
“The envelope has a handwritten note.”
He read it aloud.
May you like
If Claire is hearing this, Margaret has already started the final phase.
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