Chapter 2 - The Locked Drawer
Mark had never seen Victoria run that fast.
She reached the upper hallway before he crossed the office.
“Don’t touch anything!”
Mark turned.
Victoria stood at the doorway, breathing hard.
“Why?”
“This is my private office.”
“You just tried to kill Lily.”
“I did not.”
“I watched you release her.”
“You watched a recording.”
“And I watched it happen with my own eyes.”
Victoria glanced downstairs.
The sirens had stopped outside.
Someone pounded on the front doors.
“Mr. Ellison! Police!”
Victoria swallowed.
“Mark, if you love this family, you will not open that drawer.”
His attention shifted.
A walnut desk stood beneath the windows.
One drawer had a brass keyhole.
The others did not.
Mark walked toward it.
Victoria rushed forward.
He caught her wrist.
“Don’t.”
Her eyes filled with tears.
For years, tears had worked on him.
Tonight they looked manufactured.
“Mark, please.”
The officers downstairs knocked again.
Elena called through the intercom.
“Mark? Police are here.”
“Let them in.”
Victoria whispered, “You have no idea what you’re doing.”
Mark pulled the drawer.
Locked.
He searched the desktop.
Victoria suddenly lunged for a porcelain bowl near the bookcase.
Mark reached it first.
Inside were two keys.
One small.
One brass.
He inserted the brass key.
Victoria closed her eyes.
The drawer opened.
Inside were a leather folder, three prepaid cell phones, a flash drive, and a stack of financial documents.
Mark stared.
His name appeared across the first page.
ELLISON DESCENDANT TRUST.
Below it:
IRREVOCABLE TRANSFER EFFECTIVE SEPTEMBER 1.
Three days away.
Mark frowned.
“What is this?”
Victoria said nothing.
He flipped pages.
Fifteen percent of Ellison Dynamics voting shares would move from his branch of the Ellison Family Trust into Lily’s protected descendant trust on September 1, six months after her birth.
Mark knew about the transfer.
His father, Charles Ellison, had created the structure before his death.
What Mark had never seen was the next document.
A loan agreement.
HALCYON CAPITAL PARTNERS.
COLLATERAL: 15% ELLISON DYNAMICS CLASS B VOTING INTEREST.
Borrower:
VICTORIA HALE ELLISON.
Amount:
$18,500,000.
Mark looked up slowly.
“What did you do?”
Victoria’s lips trembled.
“It isn’t what it looks like.”
“You pledged shares that don’t belong to you.”
“It was temporary.”
“You don’t own them.”
“You were supposed to sign the authorization.”
“I never saw this.”
Victoria looked toward the hallway.
Two officers appeared behind her.
“Mrs. Ellison, step away from your husband.”
Victoria immediately became composed.
“This is a domestic misunderstanding.”
Mark held up the document.
“No. It isn’t.”
One officer, Sergeant Dana Walsh, looked at Mark.
“Sir, we need to separate everyone.”
Mark nodded.
“Take her.”
Victoria’s expression twisted.
“You think this ends with me?”
“No,” Mark said. “I think it starts with you.”
They brought Victoria downstairs.
Paramedics examined Lily in the library.
By some miracle, Elena’s catch had prevented any obvious injury, but Lily was taken to the hospital for imaging and observation.
Mark rode beside her.
Elena followed in a second vehicle with Detective Walsh.
Victoria left the mansion in handcuffs.
Before entering the patrol car, she looked back at Mark.
Not pleading.
Warning.
At St. Matthew’s Medical Center, Lily underwent a CT scan.
Mark paced until the pediatrician returned.
“No fractures. No intracranial bleeding. We’d like to monitor her overnight.”
Mark closed his eyes.
“Thank God.”
Elena sat nearby with an ice pack pressed against her swollen knee.
“You saved her.”
She looked away.
“I was there.”
“You could have been killed catching her like that.”
“So could she.”
Mark sat beside her.
For several seconds, neither spoke.
Then Elena said, “Mr. Ellison…”
“Mark.”
She hesitated.
“There’s something I should have told you weeks ago.”
He felt dread immediately.
“What?”
“Victoria has been asking unusual questions about Lily’s trust.”
“How would you know?”
“Because she asked me whether your father’s will required Lily to survive six full months.”
Mark stared.
“When?”
“Three weeks ago.”
“And you didn’t tell me?”
“I thought she was asking because of estate planning.”
“After everything you’ve seen from her?”
Elena’s face tightened.
“What does that mean?”
Mark realized the accusation had come out sharper than intended.
“I’m sorry.”
“No. Say it.”
He leaned forward.
“I want to know whether there were warning signs.”
“There were.”
Mark looked at her.
Elena’s eyes were wet.
“And I ignored some of them too.”
She told him about unexplained arguments Victoria had taken behind closed doors.
About a man who visited twice while Mark was traveling.
About Victoria demanding access to the nursery camera.
About a document courier who came after midnight.
Mark felt increasingly sick.
“Who was the man?”
“I don’t know.”
“Describe him.”
“Tall. Gray suit. About forty. Dark hair.”
Mark’s blood went cold.
His chief financial officer was forty-two.
Tall.
Dark-haired.
And almost always wore gray.
“Grant Mercer?”
Elena looked surprised.
“That’s him.”
Mark stood.
Grant had been his friend for fourteen years.
He had helped build Ellison Dynamics.
Mark called him.
Straight to voicemail.
He tried again.
Nothing.
Then his phone vibrated.
A message from an unknown number.
STOP DIGGING.
Mark stared at the screen.
A second message arrived.
May you like
YOUR DAUGHTER SURVIVED ONCE.
DON’T MAKE US TRY AGAIN.
