Chapter 7 - Blood Loyalty
Daniel drove nowhere near Christopher.
For once, he listened to Evelyn.
The sheriff’s office sent deputies to Maria’s daughter’s house and moved Ava to an undisclosed foster-relative placement while the threat was investigated.
Maria went with her.
Daniel hated not knowing where Ava slept.
But he understood.
Someone had watched his daughter through a window.
Christopher arrived voluntarily at Evelyn’s office that afternoon.
He looked exhausted.
“What the hell is this?” he demanded.
Daniel placed the photograph on the table.
Christopher stared at it.
His anger vanished.
“That’s my car.”
“Yes.”
“I didn’t take this.”
“Where was the car yesterday?”
Christopher hesitated.
Daniel slammed his palm against the table, then immediately caught himself.
Evelyn noticed.
So did Christopher.
Daniel lowered his voice.
“Where?”
“At Mercer Ridge.”
“Why?”
“Vanessa asked to borrow it.”
Daniel laughed once.
“She borrowed your car?”
“She said hers was being photographed by reporters.”
“There are no reporters.”
“I know that now.”
“When did she return it?”
“Last night.”
Evelyn asked, “Who had the keys?”
“Vanessa. Maybe Aaron.”
Daniel stared at him.
“You know Aaron is involved?”
Christopher’s face tightened.
“I know now.”
“Since when?”
“Yesterday.”
“Wrong answer.”
Christopher looked toward the floor.
Daniel whispered, “How long?”
“Three months.”
Maria had been right.
Resentment made recruitment easier.
Christopher admitted Vanessa had approached him about restructuring the company.
She said Daniel was emotionally unstable, that the board needed a stronger succession mechanism, and that Christopher deserved a larger role.
“What did she promise you?” Daniel asked.
“Chief operating officer.”
“You already run operations.”
“With authority.”
“So you sold me for a title?”
Christopher stood.
“I spent fifteen years making your decisions work.”
Daniel rose too.
“You signed documents that helped her steal six million dollars.”
“I didn’t know about the money.”
“You knew about the trustee petition.”
“No.”
“You knew she wanted me removed.”
“Yes.”
“That should have been enough.”
Christopher’s jaw trembled.
“You want to know what was enough for me? Dad leaving you seventy percent of the company because you were the firstborn. Rebecca putting another fifteen percent into Ava’s trust. Me being told every year to be grateful for my salary while you controlled everything.”
Daniel stared.
“There it is.”
“Yes. There it is.”
“You could have told me.”
“I did.”
“When?”
“For twenty years.”
The brothers stood in silence.
Daniel realized something painful.
Christopher’s betrayal had not started with Vanessa.
Vanessa had simply found the wound.
Evelyn interrupted.
“Did you forge Daniel’s signature?”
“No.”
“Did you witness anyone do it?”
Christopher hesitated.
“I saw Martin practicing it.”
Daniel’s blood chilled.
“Where?”
“Boardroom. Three weeks ago.”
“And you said nothing?”
“I thought it was a joke.”
“Practicing my signature?”
Christopher looked ashamed.
“He said he was signing birthday cards for employees.”
Daniel almost laughed.
Evelyn asked, “What else?”
Christopher removed a USB drive from his pocket.
“I copied Vanessa’s proposed board package.”
Daniel looked at him.
“Why?”
“Because yesterday I realized she intended to dilute my shares too.”
There it was.
Not conscience alone.
Self-interest.
Christopher saw Daniel’s expression.
“I know how that sounds.”
“It sounds exactly like what it is.”
“Take the drive anyway.”
Evelyn inserted it into an isolated computer.
The package contained proposed preferred-share authorization, executive suspension resolutions, and a valuation report claiming Mercer Equestrian faced severe liquidity problems.
Daniel stared.
“We’re not illiquid.”
“You will be if six million disappeared,” Christopher said.
Then Evelyn opened a document titled SUCCESSION CONTINGENCY.
It proposed that if Daniel were removed and Ava’s trust voting rights challenged, interim control would pass to Vanessa as chief executive pending judicial review.
Attached was a declaration from Martin Kessler stating Daniel had displayed “progressive cognitive impairment.”
Another declaration came from someone named Dr. Steven Hale.
Daniel frowned.
“Who is that?”
Evelyn searched.
A psychiatrist.
Licensed in Virginia.
Daniel stared.
“I’ve never met him.”
Yet Hale’s signed declaration claimed he had evaluated Daniel twice.
Christopher whispered, “That’s fraud.”
Evelyn’s expression became grim.
“It’s more than fraud if they planned to use false medical evidence in court.”
Daniel’s phone rang.
The caller was Detective Lauren Pike from the sheriff’s office.
“We executed a search warrant connected to the stable server,” she said.
“And?”
“We recovered something you need to know about.”
Daniel waited.
“It wasn’t at your house.”
“Where was it?”
“In Martin Kessler’s vehicle.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
The detective continued.
“And Mr. Mercer?”
“Yes?”
“There was something else in the trunk.”
A pharmacy bag.
Inside it were two bottles of clonazepam.
Both prescriptions were issued to Vanessa Mercer.
May you like
One was nearly empty.
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