Chapter 5 - CAROLINE’S VERSIONNobody wanted Caroline Mercer inside.
Especially Elise.
But Caleb was six years old, it was raining, and none of the sins in the room belonged to him.
So Elise stepped aside.
Caroline entered with her son.
Caleb held tightly to her hand.
Margaret noticed his eyes immediately.
Nathan’s eyes.
That same hazel shade he had inherited from Theodore.
There was no doubt.
Lily came from the hallway.
She stopped.
Caleb stopped too.
The two children stared at each other.
Adults could hide affairs behind carefully chosen words.
Children needed only faces.
Lily looked at Margaret.
“Who is he?”
Nobody answered.
Caroline crouched beside Caleb.
“Sweetheart, why don’t you sit over there?”
He walked to the couch.
Lily stayed where she was.
Elise looked at Caroline.
“Say what you came to say.”
Caroline nodded.
“I met Nathan seven years ago.”
Elise’s jaw tightened.
“He told me he was separated.”
“Of course he did.”
“He said you were living together temporarily because of the children.”
Elise laughed.
“Did he also forget to mention we were sleeping in the same bed?”
Caroline flinched.
“I didn’t know.”
“For seven years?”
“No.”
Elise folded her arms.
“You never looked him up?”
“I did.”
“Then you saw we were married.”
“He said the divorce was private because of his position.”
Elise stared at her.
“That doesn’t even make sense.”
“I know that now.”
Caroline’s eyes filled.
“I know how stupid it sounds now.”
Margaret watched two women who had every reason to hate each other slowly discover that the same man had built different prisons around both of them.
“Did you know about the house sale?” Theodore asked.
Caroline looked at him.
“What house sale?”
Elise gave a bitter smile.
“That answers that.”
Caroline shook her head.
“Nathan told me he inherited money.”
Margaret almost laughed from disbelief.
“Inherited from whom? We’re both alive.”
Caroline looked at her.
“I’m sorry.”
Margaret sat across from her.
“What happened this morning?”
“Nathan left around six.”
“Did he say where?”
“No.”
“Was that unusual?”
“Yes.”
“He’s suspended from work.”
Caroline looked startled.
“What?”
“You didn’t know?”
“He told me he took personal leave.”
The lies seemed endless.
Caroline reached into her purse.
“He left this.”
A letter.
Nathan’s handwriting.
She handed it to Theodore.
It was short.
I need a few days to solve this. Don’t trust anyone from Hartford. Keep Caleb home from school. Do not contact Elise or my parents. If anyone asks about the investment accounts, say you knew nothing.
Margaret stared.
“He told you not to contact us.”
“Yes.”
“And you came anyway.”
Caroline nodded.
“Because yesterday I found something else.”
She opened her phone.
A bank statement.
Large transfers.
Dozens.
Some from Bluegrass Residential.
Some to another company.
Meridian Advisory Group.
Theodore frowned.
“Who owns Meridian?”
“I don’t know.”
Caroline scrolled.
“The transfers began two years ago.”
“How much?”
“Almost nine hundred thousand dollars.”
Elise stared.
“Nathan moved that much?”
“Yes.”
“To whom?”
“I don’t know.”
Theodore immediately began searching corporate records.
Meridian Advisory Group had been registered in Delaware.
The owner was hidden behind a corporate services company.
But one name appeared in an old filing.
Richard Halpern.
Margaret recognized it.
“The Hartford president?”
Theodore looked at her.
“Executive vice president.”
Daniel Reeves had said someone above Nathan might be involved.
Suddenly the pieces shifted.
Nathan was a liar.
A cheat.
A thief.
But perhaps he was also trapped in something larger.
Elise’s voice remained cold.
“This doesn’t excuse what he did.”
“No,” Theodore said. “It doesn’t.”
Caroline looked toward the children.
“I didn’t come here to defend him.”
“Then why?”
“Because I think he’s scared.”
Elise laughed.
“We’ve all been scared. He didn’t care.”
Caroline accepted the blow.
“You’re right.”
That stopped Elise.
Caroline’s voice shook.
“You’re right. He let me believe you were cruel. He let you believe I didn’t exist. He let his daughter think he was coming home.”
She looked at Lily.
“And he let Caleb believe he was his only child.”
Lily heard.
“What?”
Every adult froze.
Caroline closed her eyes.
Too late.
Lily looked at Caleb.
Then at Elise.
“Mom?”
Elise slowly knelt.
“Come here, baby.”
Lily did not move.
“Who is he?”
Elise took a breath.
“Caleb is your brother.”
The little girl’s face went blank.
“My brother?”
“Yes.”
“Daddy’s?”
Elise nodded.
Lily looked at Caleb again.
The boy looked frightened.
“Does Daddy live with him?”
Elise could not answer.
Lily’s lower lip trembled.
“Does Daddy love him more?”
“No.”
Elise moved quickly.
“No, sweetheart. This is not about you.”
“Then why does he live with him?”
The question broke everyone.
Caroline began crying.
Margaret stood and wrapped Lily in her arms.
“Your daddy made adult mistakes. Very serious mistakes.”
“Because of me?”
“Never because of you.”
Lily buried her face in Margaret’s dress.
Across the room, Caleb began crying too.
Caroline held him.
Two children.
Same father.
Same wound.
Different side of the same lie.
That evening, Theodore contacted Daniel Reeves and told him about Meridian Advisory.
Daniel became silent.
Then asked Theodore to send everything immediately.
An hour later, Hartford’s attorneys arrived at the apartment.
They brought news.
Nathan’s abandoned SUV had been found near Blue Grass Airport.
His phone was inside.
His wallet was inside.
No sign of Nathan.
Margaret gripped Theodore’s arm.
“Do they think he left the country?”
Daniel shook his head.
“There’s no record of him boarding a commercial flight.”
“Then where is he?”
“We don’t know.”
The police were now involved.
By ten that night, Nathan Sinclair had officially become a missing person.
Ethan reacted differently from everyone else.
He sat at the kitchen table and said nothing.
Margaret touched his shoulder.
“Are you okay?”
He shrugged.
“You can be angry and worried at the same time.”
“I’m not worried.”
Margaret waited.
Ethan stared at his hands.
“What if he’s dead?”
There it was.
The fear beneath the anger.
Margaret sat beside him.
“We don’t know anything yet.”
“He’s a terrible dad.”
“Yes.”
Ethan looked at her in surprise.
She did not soften it.
“What he did to you was terrible.”
Ethan swallowed.
“But I don’t want him dead.”
“I know.”
“I hate that.”
“You don’t have to.”
The teenager finally cried.
Quietly.
Margaret held him.
At midnight, Theodore’s phone rang.
Unknown number.
He answered.
A distorted voice said, “Stop digging into Meridian.”
Theodore stood.
“Who is this?”
“If you care about your son, stop.”
The call ended.
Margaret stared at him.
“What did they say?”
Theodore told her.
Caroline turned pale.
Elise looked frightened.
Then another phone buzzed.
Nathan’s old tablet.
It had been sitting in a box of Elise’s belongings for months.
A notification appeared.
Cloud Backup Complete.
Ethan looked at it.
“Dad’s account is still logged in.”
Theodore opened the tablet.
Photos synced automatically.
Documents.
Messages.
Scans.
Then Ethan noticed a hidden folder.
Password protected.
“What password would he use?” Margaret asked.
Elise tried birthdays.
Nothing.
Caroline tried Caleb’s birthday.
Nothing.
Ethan suddenly typed six numbers.
The folder opened.
Elise stared at him.
“What did you use?”
“My birthday and Lily’s.”
Inside were hundreds of documents.
Bank records.
Emails.
Audio files.
Photographs.
Theodore opened the newest file.
It was a video.
Recorded three days earlier.
Nathan appeared on-screen.
He looked exhausted.
Unlike the man Margaret had seen on Caroline’s porch.
He stared directly into the camera.
“If you’re watching this, something went wrong.”
Margaret covered her mouth.
Nathan continued.
“Dad, I know you’ll hate me when you learn everything. You should.”
He swallowed.
“But I need you to understand one thing.”
Theodore leaned closer.
Nathan’s face tightened.
“I didn’t forge your signatures to make money.”
Elise whispered, “What?”
Nathan continued.
May you like
“I forged them because Richard Halpern told me he would destroy Ethan if I didn’t.”
The video cut to black.
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