Chapter 3 - The Message Nathan Never Heard
Nathan’s first instinct was denial.
“She did warn me.”
Grace shook her head.
“Not about being sick.”
The yacht seemed unnaturally quiet.
Even the engines beneath the deck felt far away.
Grace continued.
“About them.”
Vanessa’s eyes sharpened.
“Grace.”
Nathan lifted one finger.
“Don’t.”
Grace looked at him.
“Three weeks after Mia was born, Mrs. Mercer asked me to help her send a package from Nassau. She didn’t want it processed through the family office.”
“What package?”
“I never saw inside it.”
“Where did it go?”
“To your attorney.”
Nathan frowned.
“My attorney was Martin Keene.”
Grace shook her head.
“No. Her attorney.”
Nathan remembered.
Margaret Sloan.
Claire had used the seventy-year-old estate lawyer long before marrying him. After Claire died, Nathan had assumed Margaret’s work was finished and transferred most family matters to Martin.
“Why didn’t Margaret contact me?”
“I thought she had.”
Vanessa suddenly said, “This is absurd.”
Nathan turned.
“Why?”
“Because Grace is presenting a memory from two years ago as evidence.”
Grace’s voice hardened.
“I remember Mrs. Mercer crying.”
Vanessa folded her arms.
“Claire cried often then.”
Grace went still.
Nathan saw the cruelty of the sentence.
So did Vanessa.
For the first time that evening, Vanessa seemed to realize she had gone too far.
Nathan walked toward her.
“You will leave this yacht.”
“Nathan—”
“Tonight.”
Richard moved beside his sister.
“If she goes, I go.”
Nathan looked at him.
“That was always the plan.”
Richard’s face tightened.
“We’re twenty miles offshore.”
“Lucas can arrange the tender.”
Richard laughed in disbelief.
“You’re throwing us off your yacht because of an old recording?”
“No.”
Nathan nodded toward the galley.
“I’m throwing Vanessa off because she deliberately withheld food from my two-year-old daughter.”
Vanessa’s face hardened.
Nathan continued.
“And I’m throwing you off because when a memory card fell out of a cabinet, you told everyone not to touch it.”
Richard lowered his voice.
“You need me.”
“No.”
“You think Mercer Maritime survives without Vale Capital?”
Nathan hesitated.
Only slightly.
But Richard saw it.
“There it is,” Richard said. “Reality.”
Mercer Maritime Technologies employed nearly four thousand people. The company built advanced navigation, communications, and safety systems for commercial vessels.
It had also expanded too quickly.
Nathan knew the debt.
Richard knew it better.
Vale Strategic Capital controlled a major credit facility and held two board seats.
Richard stepped closer.
“You can humiliate us tonight. Tomorrow morning, lenders still exist.”
Nathan’s anger wanted him to strike back.
His judgment stopped him.
That bothered him more.
Richard smiled.
“You gave me authority because I was better at the parts of business you found boring.”
Nathan remembered Claire saying almost the same thing in an argument years earlier.
You don’t hate paperwork, Nathan. You hate anything that makes you slow down.
He had laughed then.
He wasn’t laughing now.
Grace returned with Mia, who was eating small pieces of banana from a spoon.
Nathan took her.
She offered him one crushed piece.
“Daddy.”
His throat tightened.
He kissed her forehead.
“Thank you.”
Vanessa watched them.
Something passed through her expression.
Jealousy?
Pain?
Then it disappeared.
Lucas approached.
“Tender can be ready in twelve minutes.”
Richard reached for his jacket.
Vanessa didn’t move.
She looked at Nathan.
“You’re going to regret making me your enemy.”
Nathan stared at her.
“You were already my enemy. I just didn’t know.”
That landed.
Vanessa walked toward him until only a few feet separated them.
“You want truth?” she whispered. “Ask yourself why Claire never showed you those documents.”
“She tried.”
“Did she?”
Nathan’s jaw tightened.
Vanessa glanced at Grace.
“She had months.”
“She was dying.”
“No. She was deciding whether she trusted you.”
Nathan felt the words.
Vanessa knew exactly where to place a knife.
“You spent the last year of Claire’s life chasing acquisitions,” she continued. “She begged you to stay home.”
Nathan remembered missed dinners.
Hospital appointments joined by phone.
Flights he should have canceled.
Vanessa saw the guilt.
“She didn’t hide things only because of Richard.”
“Get off my yacht.”
Vanessa’s eyes filled.
“I was there when she needed someone.”
“And you used that.”
“You don’t know what I used.”
Nathan stepped closer.
“But I’m going to.”
Vanessa left.
Richard followed.
As he passed Nathan, he murmured, “Call your board before breakfast.”
Then they were gone.
The tender carried them toward shore beneath a dark Florida sky.
Nathan returned to the salon.
The food had been cleared.
Except the empty white toddler bowl.
He stared at it.
Grace stood nearby.
“Mr. Mercer?”
“Call Margaret Sloan.”
Nathan checked the time.
Almost eleven.
“I don’t care what hour it is.”
Grace hesitated.
“There’s one more thing.”
“What?”
“When Mrs. Mercer gave me the package, she also gave me a number.”
Grace pulled an old crew notebook from a drawer and opened the back cover.
A telephone number had been written beneath Claire’s initials.
Nathan recognized the area code.
Washington, D.C.
“What is it?”
“She said if anything happened to the package, I was supposed to call.”
“Did you?”
“No.”
“Why?”
Grace looked ashamed.
“Because after she died, Martin Keene told the crew that Mrs. Mercer’s illness had affected her judgment. He said contacting people from her private notes would violate estate instructions.”
Nathan’s face went blank.
“My attorney told you that?”
“Yes.”
Nathan took out his phone.
Before he could call Martin, the device rang.
Martin Keene’s name appeared.
Nathan and Grace looked at each other.
Nathan answered.
Martin spoke immediately.
“Nathan, Richard just called me.”
Nathan’s grip tightened.
Martin continued.
“He says you found something on the yacht.”
Nathan said nothing.
May you like
Then Martin asked the question that changed everything.
“Did you open Claire’s card?”
