Chapter 6 - THE LETTER FROM MY HUSBAND
Police took Vanessa and Chloe downtown.
Chloe agreed to cooperate immediately.
Vanessa requested an attorney.
Daniel remained in the kitchen staring at the forged proxy.
The house felt strangely quiet without her voice.
I went outside.
My silver hair still covered the garden path.
Daniel followed me carrying a wooden box.
He knelt and began gathering the cut strands.
His hands shook.
“I am sorry.”
I watched him place the hair inside the box.
“You did not hold the scissors.”
“No.”
“I only kept telling you to forgive the woman who did.”
He lowered his head.
“I thought you disliked her because she was changing my life.”
“She was changing your life.”
“I simply saw where she intended to take it.”
He gathered the final lock from beneath the roses.
Then he noticed something caught inside the silver strands.
A small paper strip.
It had fallen from the lining of the chair cushion when Vanessa pushed me down.
I recognized Robert’s handwriting.
The wooden garden chair had belonged to him.
He repaired it during his last summer.
The note contained four words.
CHECK BENEATH MY WORKBENCH.
Daniel looked toward the garage.
Robert had not used that workbench in seven years.
We entered together.
Dust covered the tools.
Daniel found a narrow drawer beneath the center shelf.
It was locked.
The key hung behind Robert’s framed photograph in my bedroom.
Inside the drawer was a letter addressed to Daniel.
My dear son.
If you are reading this, someone has discovered the legacy shares.
Daniel sat on the garage floor.
I remained beside him.
Robert’s letter explained that the software company had attracted dangerous interest before Daniel ever met Vanessa.
Marcus Vale’s father had offered to purchase the company during its second year.
Robert refused.
The technology Daniel created was designed to secure hospital and government networks.
Vale Dynamics wanted to adapt it for private surveillance.
Robert suspected Marcus would eventually approach Daniel through friendship.
He created my voting shares as protection.
The letter continued.
Do not assume betrayal will arrive looking like an enemy.
It may arrive as a partner who knows when you are tired.
A friend who volunteers to handle details.
Or a person who asks you to choose love over caution.
Daniel closed his eyes.
Marcus had been his roommate in college.
His first investor.
The person who introduced him to Vanessa.
The letter contained one more instruction.
If Mercer Systems is threatened, contact Evelyn Cross at Halston Trust.
I knew the name.
Evelyn had been Robert’s attorney.
She had disappeared from public practice after his death.
Daniel called the number written beneath her name.
A woman answered.
“Mrs. Mercer?”
May you like
“Yes.”
“I have been waiting seven years for this call.”
