Chapter 1 - Sixty Seconds
“She’s never even touched her father…”
Emily Mercer’s voice broke as one-year-old Sophie pressed both tiny hands against the thick prison glass.
On the other side, Daniel Mercer pressed his palms against hers.
Glass separated them.
His daughter had seen photographs of him every day since she was born. Emily played recordings of Daniel saying goodnight. During prison video calls, Sophie had learned the face that appeared on the screen.
Now she knew him immediately.
“Dada!”
Daniel’s composure shattered.
Hudson Ridge Correctional Facility had placed him on non-contact visitation after a disciplinary accusation involving contraband three months earlier. He had denied it. The facility review had dragged on.
So the daughter born four months after his conviction had never touched him.
Sophie stretched both arms toward him.
Daniel moved instinctively toward the partition edge.
“Please,” he begged. “Just let me hug her once.”
Officer Harris caught his arm.
“Step back.”
Daniel twisted toward Sophie.
“She’s one.”
“Daniel.”
“One minute.”
“Visit’s over.”
Sophie screamed when Harris began escorting Daniel toward the steel door.
Emily lifted her higher.
“Please! She just wants her dad!”
Sophie slapped the glass.
“Dada!”
Daniel stopped.
Harris tightened his grip.
Daniel looked back.
His face collapsed.
“Daddy loves you, baby.”
The steel security door slammed behind him.
The visiting room became painfully quiet.
Emily sat with Sophie against her chest.
Sophie kept staring at the door.
“Dada…”
Emily kissed her hair.
“He wanted one hug. That’s all.”
Then—
CLANK.
Emily looked up.
The security lock released.
The door opened.
Officer Harris entered first.
Daniel stood behind him.
Confused.
Sophie stopped crying.
Her eyes widened.
“Dada!”
She bounced violently in Emily’s arms.
Daniel stared at Harris.
“Officer… what’s happening?”
Harris looked uncomfortable.
“The shift lieutenant just cleared your contact restriction. Camera review confirmed the contraband report couldn’t have happened the way it was written.”
Daniel’s eyes narrowed.
“After three months?”
“Take the win.”
Harris crossed to the locked contact door dividing the visitation sections.
Click.
“You have sixty seconds.”
Emily covered her mouth.
Daniel remained frozen.
Then Sophie reached toward him.
“Dada!”
He stepped through.
Emily lowered Sophie into his arms.
Daniel caught his daughter.
For one second he made no sound.
Then his knees weakened.
He held Sophie against his chest, trembling as she grabbed his prison shirt in both fists.
“Oh, baby.”
Sophie pressed her face beneath his chin.
Daniel closed his eyes.
Emily turned away because seeing the man she loved hold his own child for the first time was almost unbearable.
Daniel kissed Sophie’s hair.
Again.
Again.
She touched his cheek, fascinated.
“Dada.”
“Yes.”
He laughed through tears.
“Dada.”
Harris looked toward the clock.
“Forty seconds.”
Daniel held her tighter.
Emily moved closer.
For fourteen months Daniel had lived at Hudson Ridge after being convicted in New York of first-degree grand larceny, conspiracy, and falsifying business records connected with the disappearance of $11.8 million from Bennett Harbor & Development.
The prosecution said Daniel used his position as chief financial officer to route company money through shell contractors and hide the theft.
Daniel insisted he had discovered the theft—not committed it.
The jury believed the documents.
And Emily’s older brother, Julian Bennett, had testified against him.
Daniel received six to twelve years.
His appeal was pending.
Emily had spent nearly everything liquid she personally controlled on lawyers and investigators.
Julian repeatedly told her to accept reality.
Daniel had not.
“Twenty seconds,” Harris said.
Daniel’s expression suddenly changed.
He looked at Emily.
“Mateo wrote me.”
Emily frowned.
“Mateo Ruiz?”
Daniel nodded.
Before the conviction, Mateo had been Bennett Harbor’s director of information systems.
Julian fired him after Daniel’s arrest.
“What did he say?”
“He found the original server logs.”
Emily’s pulse jumped.
“What logs?”
“The ones from the night the Harbor Fund transfers were approved.”
“Daniel—”
“They were replaced before trial.”
Harris looked at the clock.
“Ten seconds.”
Emily’s heart hammered.
“Where is Mateo?”
“I don’t know.”
Sophie grabbed Daniel’s nose.
He laughed once despite everything.
Then he looked at Emily again.
“He said the prosecution never received the original audit image.”
“Why?”
“Because somebody inside Bennett Harbor deleted it.”
Harris stepped forward.
“Time.”
Daniel kissed Sophie’s forehead.
His voice cracked.
“Daddy loves you.”
Emily took their daughter.
Sophie screamed instantly.
Daniel forced himself backward.
“Harris.”
The officer hesitated.
Daniel continued.
“Thank you.”
Harris nodded.
Then he escorted Daniel through the door.
Before it closed, Daniel called:
“Emily!”
She looked up.
“Don’t sign anything Julian gives you.”
The steel door slammed.
Emily froze.
Her brother had been calling her for two days.
He wanted her to sign documents involving the Bennett family trust.
He said they were routine.
Sophie cried against Emily’s shoulder.
Outside the facility, snow had begun falling.
Emily buckled Sophie into her car seat and checked her phone.
Seven missed calls.
All from Julian.
Then a text arrived.
We need your signature tonight. If you refuse, the company may not survive Daniel’s scandal.
A second message followed.
And Sophie’s trust becomes part of this whether you like it or not.
Emily stared at her daughter.
Until that moment, she had thought Daniel’s conviction was about eleven million dollars.
May you like
Now she wondered whether the real target had never been Daniel’s money.
It had been the shares belonging to the little girl who had just called him Dada.
