Chapter 4 - Elena’s Envelope
Mark hated himself for looking at Elena differently.
It happened instantly.
One photograph.
One suggestion.
One seed of doubt.
That was all Grant needed.
Elena noticed.
“What?”
Mark locked his phone.
“Nothing.”
Her expression hardened.
“Don’t do that.”
“Do what?”
“Look at me like you’re trying to decide whether I’m dangerous.”
He said nothing.
Elena slowly placed Lily’s bag beside the hospital crib.
“What did he send you?”
Mark showed her the photograph.
She stared at it.
Her face lost color.
“That was taken outside First Continental.”
“Yes.”
“I can explain.”
Mark felt anger rising.
“Then explain.”
Elena looked toward Lily.
“Not here.”
“Why not?”
“Because it involves your mother.”
That stopped him.
Mark’s mother, Evelyn Ellison, had died eleven months earlier after a long battle with pancreatic cancer.
Elena had worked for her before moving into the household.
“What about my mother?”
Elena sat down.
“Three weeks before she died, Mrs. Ellison gave me a sealed envelope.”
Mark stared.
“For me?”
“No.”
“For whom?”
“Jonathan Reed.”
The trust protector.
Mark’s pulse quickened.
“What was inside?”
“I wasn’t supposed to know.”
“But you do.”
Elena looked guilty.
“Jonathan told me after he opened it.”
Mark waited.
“Your mother believed someone inside Ellison Dynamics was stealing money.”
“Grant?”
“She didn’t know.”
“Why give the information to you?”
“She trusted me to deliver it without your staff knowing.”
Mark’s suspicion sharpened.
“Why didn’t she trust me?”
Elena looked at him with painful honesty.
“Because you were in love with Victoria.”
The words landed harder than an accusation.
Elena continued.
“Your mother thought Victoria had too much access to you. She believed anything she told you would eventually reach her.”
Mark looked away.
The truth was humiliating.
He had dismissed his mother’s concerns as grief, illness, and dislike of his new wife.
“What did Jonathan find?”
“He began tracing transfers through shell vendors. He called me six weeks ago and asked me to bring additional records your mother had left in a safe-deposit box.”
“That’s the bank photograph.”
“Yes.”
“Why keep it secret?”
“Because Jonathan believed someone was watching him.”
Mark stared.
“Where is Jonathan now?”
Elena’s answer came slowly.
“I don’t know.”
“When did you last hear from him?”
“Eleven days ago.”
Mark called Jonathan.
No answer.
Rachel called his office.
Closed.
Detective Walsh requested a welfare check.
Forty minutes later, she returned.
“Jonathan’s apartment is empty.”
“Empty how?”
“Not abandoned. Cleaned.”
“Blood?”
“No.”
“Signs of a struggle?”
“No.”
“His car?”
“Found at the airport three days ago.”
“Did he fly somewhere?”
“There’s no record of him boarding a commercial flight.”
Mark rubbed his face.
Elena whispered, “Something happened to him.”
Rachel looked at Mark.
“What exactly did Evelyn leave him?”
Elena hesitated.
“A ledger.”
“What kind?”
“Handwritten.”
Mark frowned.
“My mother hated handwriting anything financial.”
“That’s why she did it. She didn’t trust company servers.”
Mark remembered his mother during her final months.
Thin.
Sharp-eyed.
Angry whenever Victoria entered the room.
He had called it bitterness.
Now it looked like fear.
Back at the mansion, police had sealed Victoria’s office.
Mark was permitted to enter only with investigators.
The prepaid phones from the drawer were logged as evidence.
One contained hundreds of encrypted messages.
Another contained photographs of corporate documents.
The third had only one contact.
GM.
Grant Mercer.
Detective Walsh looked at Mark.
“We need a warrant before we can fully search the devices.”
“Do it.”
“There’s something else.”
She showed him a photographed page from one of the phones.
It was Mark’s father’s trust instrument.
A section was highlighted.
If no living descendant of Mark Ellison exists on the applicable vesting date, the reserved Class B voting shares shall remain in the Mark Ellison Branch Trust.
Rachel exhaled.
“That’s the motive.”
Mark’s voice was hollow.
“If Lily died before September first…”
“The shares would stay under your branch control,” Rachel said.
“And Victoria had forged authority to pledge them.”
Mark closed his eyes.
His own wife had reduced their daughter to a line in a trust instrument.
Then Elena called from the hallway.
“Mark.”
He turned.
She was holding a small envelope.
“What is that?”
“I found it inside Lily’s diaper bag.”
Mark froze.
“Was it there before?”
“No.”
Elena handed it to him.
No stamp.
No address.
Just his name.
He opened it.
Inside was a single sheet of paper.
Three typed lines.
EVELYN ELLISON WAS RIGHT.
May you like
JONATHAN REED IS STILL ALIVE.
IF YOU WANT TO FIND HIM, STOP TRUSTING YOUR BOARD.
