Chapter 5 - The Fire in the HallwayDaniel moved first.
Nobody in the Mercer family knew.
That was intentional.
For seven months, Daniel had been living in Zurich while overseeing a European acquisition his mother insisted could not be trusted to anyone else.
He had left Chicago furious with Anna.
Or at least, furious with the woman he thought Anna had become.
The night before his flight overseas, Daniel received photographs showing Anna entering a hotel with another man.
Then came messages from her phone.
I don’t want your family.
I don’t want this life.
I was going to tell you eventually.
The final message had been worse.
The baby probably isn’t yours.
Daniel had called repeatedly.
Anna never answered.
Then her number disconnected.
Her apartment was emptied.
His mother told him Anna had accepted two hundred thousand dollars and moved west.
Daniel believed it because heartbreak made ugly explanations easier than uncertain ones.
Still, something had never felt right.
Three weeks earlier, Daniel’s younger sister, Sophie, found an old company expense report.
A payment of $38,000 to Peter Sloan.
Description:
Personal reputation management — Carter matter.
Daniel confronted his mother by phone.
Evelyn dismissed it.
Daniel started digging.
Then he found the transfer Anna supposedly accepted.
The bank account wasn’t hers.
It belonged to a shell company controlled by Rebecca Shaw.
Daniel boarded the first flight home.
At 10:14 p.m., he knocked on Maria Reyes’s door.
Maria answered holding Rafael’s old baseball bat.
Daniel stared.
“Maria?”
She lifted the bat.
“You have five seconds to explain why I shouldn’t break your expensive face.”
“I’m looking for Anna.”
The bat rose higher.
“Wrong answer.”
Anna heard voices upstairs.
She slowly descended.
Then she saw him.
Her hand flew to the railing.
Daniel looked older.
Tired.
His hair was longer.
There were shadows beneath his eyes.
But it was him.
The man she had once planned to marry.
Daniel’s gaze dropped to her stomach.
The world seemed to leave his face.
“No.”
Anna said nothing.
His eyes filled with disbelief.
“Anna…”
“Leave.”
“How far along are you?”
“Leave.”
“Is that—”
“Don’t.”
Daniel stepped inside.
Maria blocked him.
“Listen to her.”
Daniel looked past Maria.
“Anna, I didn’t know.”
She laughed once, bitterly.
“You knew I was pregnant.”
“I knew you said you were pregnant.”
Her face changed.
Daniel heard his own words and hated them immediately.
“That isn’t what I meant.”
“You disappeared.”
“You disappeared.”
Anna’s eyes widened.
“What?”
“You told me you were leaving.”
“No.”
“You said the baby might not be mine.”
“I never said that.”
Daniel went still.
Anna stared at him.
Neither moved.
Maria lowered the bat slightly.
Daniel reached slowly into his coat.
Anna flinched.
He stopped.
“Phone.”
He removed it and placed it on the table.
Then he opened a folder.
Screenshots.
Messages.
Photographs.
Anna read them.
Her skin went cold.
“These weren’t from me.”
“I know that now.”
“Now?”
“I found evidence three weeks ago.”
“Seven months, Daniel.”
“I know.”
“Seven months!”
Her voice cracked.
“You had seven months to wonder why the woman you claimed to love suddenly became a completely different person?”
Daniel’s jaw tightened.
“I called you forty-three times.”
“I called you eighty-six!”
He stared.
“My number was disconnected.”
“So was mine!”
Maria closed the door.
“This is what Evelyn does.”
Daniel looked at her.
“You know about this?”
“I know enough.”
Anna wiped her face angrily.
“Did your mother send that lawyer?”
“What lawyer?”
“Rebecca Shaw.”
Daniel’s expression darkened.
“What did she want?”
“To buy me.”
His fists tightened.
“How much?”
“Fifty thousand.”
Daniel turned toward the door.
Maria grabbed his sleeve.
“You storm into Mercer Tower tonight, your mother destroys whatever evidence remains.”
He faced her.
“What evidence?”
Maria looked at Anna.
“It’s time.”
She took them into the basement.
Behind boxes of Christmas decorations sat a steel filing cabinet.
Maria unlocked it.
Inside were old photographs, letters, and one cassette tape.
Anna lifted a picture.
Her mother.
Young.
Pregnant.
Standing beside Maria.
A man had been partially cropped from the picture.
Only his hand remained.
He wore a distinctive gold signet ring.
Daniel leaned closer.
“I know that ring.”
Anna turned.
“Whose?”
Daniel swallowed.
“My grandfather’s.”
The room went silent.
“Arthur Mercer?”
Daniel nodded.
Anna stared at the photograph.
Arthur Mercer had founded Mercer Holdings.
He had died twelve years ago.
A respected philanthropist.
A public legend.
And potentially…
Anna couldn’t finish the thought.
Maria picked up the cassette.
“Claire gave me this the night she ran.”
“You never listened?” Anna asked.
“I did.”
“What’s on it?”
“Her voice.”
Maria inserted the cassette into an old player.
Static filled the basement.
Then Claire Carter spoke.
She sounded terrified.
Maria, if you’re hearing this, I couldn’t come back.
Anna covered her mouth.
It was her mother’s voice.
Younger, but unmistakable.
Evelyn knows the baby belongs to Arthur. She says if the truth gets out, Daniel loses everything because the family trust can be challenged. She wants my baby erased from the Mercer name.
Daniel stumbled backward.
Anna stopped breathing.
The recording continued.
I don’t want their money. I just want my daughter safe.
Anna’s knees weakened.
Daughter.
Her.
Claire’s voice cracked.
Her name will be Anna. And someday, if she asks who her father was, tell her I kept quiet because I loved her more than I hated them.
The tape clicked off.
No one spoke.
Then Daniel whispered:
“If Arthur Mercer was your father…”
Anna looked at him.
Daniel’s face was pale.
“…you’re my aunt.”
Maria closed her eyes.
“And that means Anna’s unborn child could have a legal claim to the Mercer family trust worth almost four billion dollars.”
Upstairs, glass shattered.
Everyone froze.
May you like
Daniel turned.
Maria whispered, “We’re not alone.”
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