Chapter 11 - Samuel’s Betrayal
Ethan dragged Olivia and me through the kitchen.
Bullets struck the front wall.
We escaped through a root cellar behind the house.
A narrow tunnel led toward the woods.
My father had prepared even for this.
At the end of the tunnel waited an old utility vehicle.
We drove until the gunshots disappeared.
Only then did I call Samuel back.
“You led them to us.”
“Yes.”
His answer stunned me.
“You admit it?”
“I didn’t know they were tracking my emergency phone.”
“Convenient.”
“I deserve that.”
Ethan grabbed the phone.
“Where are you?”
“At Mercer Tower.”
“Stay there.”
Samuel laughed bitterly.
“I don’t think that’s going to be possible.”
A door crashed somewhere on his end.
Thomas’s voice followed.
“Samuel.”
Then the call ended.
Olivia stared at us.
“If Thomas takes Samuel alive, he’ll get into the archive.”
“Not without us,” I said.
Olivia shook her head.
“You still don’t understand.”
She opened the metal box again.
“The two-key system protects the archive.”
“But there’s another method.”
Ethan frowned.
“What method?”
“Three failed authorization attempts trigger an emergency transfer.”
“To where?”
Olivia looked at me.
“To the Mercer heir.”
I almost laughed.
“That sounds good.”
“It would be.”
“If Barbara hadn’t spent years getting herself appointed as your financial proxy.”
My blood went cold.
“The documents with Ethan’s name.”
“Some were distractions.”
Olivia nodded.
“Barbara’s real goal was to create a paper trail suggesting you were financially incompetent.”
I remembered every time Barbara called me unstable.
Every family dinner where she told people I forgot bills.
Every moment Ethan allowed her to take over household accounts because it was “easier.”
They had been building a legal argument.
Not controlling me socially.
Preparing to control me financially.
“If the emergency transfer triggers while a court believes I’m incompetent…”
Olivia finished the thought.
“Barbara could gain temporary control.”
Ethan looked sick.
“I signed competency affidavits.”
I stared at him.
“What?”
“Years ago.”
“What did they say?”
“That you had anxiety after your father died.”
“That you sometimes became overwhelmed.”
My voice dropped.
“And you signed them.”
“I thought they were insurance documents.”
I laughed once.
“You keep saying that.”
“I know.”
It was becoming impossible to separate Ethan’s deception from Ethan’s stupidity.
Both had helped Barbara.
My phone buzzed.
A bank alert.
Mercer Family Trust legal status updated.
I opened the attachment.
A court order had been filed that morning.
Petitioner:
Barbara Whitmore.
Basis:
Emergency guardianship.
Supporting witness:
Ethan Whitmore.
I looked at my husband.
His face drained of color.
“I never filed that.”
His signature was there anyway.
Then another message appeared.
A video.
Samuel sat tied to a chair inside my father’s office.
Thomas stood behind him.
Barbara stood beside Thomas.
She smiled into the camera.
“Come home, Claire.”
May you like
“Or in seventy-two hours, you will legally lose the right to say no.”
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