Chapter 2 - The Man Daniel Buried
Daniel never boarded the ferry.
Port security opened the restricted gate after Officer Brooks reported the assault and suspicious baggage issue.
Daniel came through so quickly he nearly collided with a security barrier.
He went straight to Sophie.
“Let me see your arm.”
“I’m okay.”
“No, you’re not.”
A bruise was already forming beneath Marcus’s fingerprints.
Daniel’s jaw tightened.
Sophie touched his wrist.
“Not here.”
She knew that look.
Daniel was furious enough to make a second mistake.
Marcus had already made the first.
Daniel crouched beside Ava instead.
“Hey, birthday girl.”
“It’s your birthday.”
Daniel smiled weakly.
“My mistake.”
Ava lifted the cupcake.
“Daddy’s cake.”
Something in Daniel’s face broke.
He kissed her forehead.
“That might be the best cake I’ve ever seen.”
Across the terminal, Marcus was speaking with port police.
He claimed Sophie had taken confidential company documents without authorization.
Officer Brooks immediately contradicted him.
“I watched you try to seize the suitcase before anyone opened it.”
Marcus glared.
“You’re misunderstanding an internal matter.”
Brooks replied, “I understand assault.”
Sophie looked toward the ferry.
“Where’s Adrian?”
Daniel followed her gaze.
“Still onboard, unless he left through another access point.”
“Who is he really?”
Daniel hesitated.
“Dad hired him when Mercer Maritime was refinancing after the 2016 dock expansion.”
“And?”
“He became close to Marcus.”
“How close?”
“Too close.”
Six years earlier, company auditors discovered questionable legal invoices routed through two consulting entities.
Daniel believed Adrian had approved them.
Marcus had produced emails showing Adrian discussing undisclosed payments.
Their father, Charles Mercer, had been furious.
Adrian resigned.
Within months he vanished from the U.S. maritime business press.
Marcus claimed he had moved to Singapore.
Daniel had accepted it.
Sophie stared at him.
“You never verified that?”
“It wasn’t my responsibility.”
“Daniel.”
He closed his eyes.
“No.”
The port police asked them not to touch the suitcase further.
Officer Brooks photographed its contents in place.
The sealed luggage tag was especially important.
It showed:
Passenger: ADRIAN VALE
Cabin: UPPER DECK 6B
Priority Transfer — Executive Baggage
The booking code was attached to a Mercer Maritime corporate travel account.
Authorized purchaser:
M. MERCER
Daniel looked at Marcus.
“You booked his ticket.”
Marcus’s lawyer had not arrived yet.
He answered anyway.
“I booked transportation for a consultant.”
“You told me he was gone.”
“People come back.”
“Why secretly?”
“It wasn’t secret.”
Daniel pointed at the child’s suitcase.
“You hid his documents in Ava’s bag.”
“I did not.”
Sophie opened her mouth.
Officer Brooks stopped everyone.
“Do not argue around the child.”
He was right.
Daniel took Ava to a quieter seating area while Sophie gave a statement.
Marcus was cited and detained for further questioning related to the assault.
Because Sophie had visible injury and witnesses, officers treated it seriously.
But the larger document issue was murkier.
Corporate records in family luggage did not automatically prove a crime.
Adrian’s presence was suspicious.
Not illegal.
The Mercer Dawn remained at dock thirty-four minutes past departure while security attempted to locate him.
He was no longer in cabin 6B.
A crew member remembered seeing him descend toward the vehicle deck.
By the time port officers searched, he was gone.
“Gone where?” Daniel demanded.
The ferry had not left.
Officer Brooks looked frustrated.
“There are contractor passages and crew exits. We’re checking cameras.”
Marcus heard and laughed.
Daniel turned.
“What’s funny?”
“Nothing.”
“You know where he went.”
“No.”
Daniel stepped toward him.
Sophie caught his sleeve.
“Don’t.”
Marcus noticed.
His mouth curved.
“That’s new.”
Daniel ignored him.
Police released Marcus several hours later with instructions regarding the assault investigation and no-contact conditions pending review.
His lawyer drove him away.
Before leaving, Marcus looked back.
Not at Daniel.
At the suitcase.
The fear remained.
That evening the Mercer family returned to their home overlooking Lake Washington.
Ava fell asleep holding the cupcake container.
The frosting had collapsed.
Daniel carried her upstairs.
Sophie stood in his office afterward.
Port police had allowed them to keep copies of photographed documents while retaining certain originals temporarily.
Daniel laid out the pages.
“North Sound Terminal transfer.”
Sophie frowned.
“What is that?”
“One of Mercer Maritime’s most valuable properties.”
“How valuable?”
“Seventy to eighty million.”
“And this document?”
“Would authorize sale to Tidecrest Infrastructure.”
Sophie looked at the price.
“Forty-one million?”
Daniel nodded.
“Less than market value.”
“Who owns Tidecrest?”
“I don’t know.”
The next document was worse.
An emergency ratification of previously issued debt.
Borrower:
Mercer Maritime.
Lender:
Crown Harbor Credit Partners.
Principal:
$38,400,000.
Daniel stared.
“I never authorized this.”
“Could Marcus?”
“Not alone.”
The company’s bylaws required both brothers’ consent for secured borrowing over ten million dollars.
Yet Daniel’s electronic signature appeared.
Sophie looked at him.
“Is that yours?”
“It looks like it.”
“Could it be real?”
Daniel did not answer immediately.
That frightened her.
“Daniel.”
“I sign hundreds of documents.”
“Thirty-eight-million-dollar loans?”
“No.”
Then Sophie found a spousal acknowledgment.
Her name.
Her signature.
She went cold.
Daniel looked at her.
“Sophie?”
She recognized the signature.
Not forged.
Real.
Six months earlier, Marcus had come to the house while Daniel was traveling.
He told Sophie the form was a routine insurance acknowledgment related to family-owned properties.
She had signed on his tablet without reading the entire packet.
Daniel watched her face.
“You signed this.”
“I didn’t know what it was.”
“But you signed it.”
“Yes.”
Silence.
For the first time that day, Daniel looked at Sophie with something other than protection.
Doubt.
Then a small voice came from the doorway.
“Mommy?”
Ava stood there holding her stuffed rabbit.
Sophie immediately went to her.
“What is it?”
Ava pointed toward the old photograph on Daniel’s desk.
“That man.”
Adrian.
“He came here.”
Daniel crouched.
“When, sweetheart?”
Ava looked toward the hallway.
“When Uncle Marcus was here.”
Sophie’s stomach dropped.
She had never seen Adrian that night.
May you like
But Marcus had been inside their home.
And apparently, he had not come alone.
