Chapter 2 - The First Lie
Police arrived seventeen minutes later.
By then, every Mercer relative had developed the same story.
It had been an accident.
Lily had thrown food.
Vanessa had been carrying the pan from the kitchen.
Daniel had entered, misunderstood the situation and become aggressive.
Margaret had fallen because Daniel frightened her.
Daniel listened from the upstairs landing while Officer Lena Ruiz interviewed them one at a time.
It astonished him how quickly lies could become polished when wealthy people had spent their entire lives protecting one another.
Vanessa even cried.
"I adore my niece."
Daniel nearly laughed when he heard it.
Instead he carried Lily outside through the side entrance and drove with Officer Ruiz to St. Catherine's Children's Clinic.
Dr. Hannah Cho had treated Lily since infancy.
She examined the toddler carefully.
"The bruise on her upper arm is several days old," Hannah said. "There's another fading bruise near her hip."
Daniel stared at the floor.
"Could they be normal toddler bruises?"
"They could."
The answer hurt because he wanted certainty.
"But?"
"The locations concern me."
Daniel looked up.
Hannah lowered her voice.
"Lily is two. Children this age fall. They bump into things. We don't assume abuse from bruises alone."
"I understand."
"But her reaction when I asked about Aunt Vanessa matters."
Lily sat nearby drawing circles with a purple crayon.
She had gone silent when Hannah mentioned Vanessa.
Daniel rubbed his forehead.
"I left her there."
"You left her with family you trusted."
Daniel said nothing.
Trust suddenly felt like a word used by fools.
Hannah documented everything and explained that the report would be sent to child protective services as required.
Daniel welcomed it.
"I want everything documented."
On their way out, Lily tugged his sleeve.
"Home?"
"Not Grandma's house."
Daniel had called the Mercer estate home since childhood, but the word felt contaminated now.
"We're going somewhere safe."
He took her to the downtown apartment he kept near Mercer Development's headquarters.
It had been unused for months.
Lily walked through the unfamiliar living room carrying her rabbit.
"Where toys?"
Daniel crouched.
"We'll get them."
"My bed?"
"We'll get that too."
"Pink blanket?"
"Especially the pink blanket."
She nodded solemnly.
Daniel had survived hostile acquisitions, lawsuits and the death of Lily's mother.
Nothing had prepared him for having to convince his daughter that her blanket still belonged to her.
At six that evening, Mara arrived.
She carried a canvas grocery bag.
Daniel let her inside.
The sixty-one-year-old housekeeper looked exhausted.
"I should have done this sooner."
"Show me."
She removed an old tablet from the bag.
"I started recording because things kept disappearing."
Daniel frowned.
"What things?"
"Lily's food. Her toys. Her clothes."
Mara unlocked the tablet.
"I thought perhaps I was imagining it."
The first video showed the estate kitchen three weeks earlier.
Vanessa stood beside Lily's high chair.
Mara was apparently filming from the pantry doorway.
Vanessa took Lily's bowl away.
The child reached for it.
Vanessa put it on top of the refrigerator.
"You can eat when your father comes home."
Daniel's jaw tightened.
Another clip.
Margaret removing Lily's stuffed rabbit and dropping it inside a cabinet.
"Stop rewarding whining."
Another.
Vanessa making Lily stand alone in the hallway while the family ate dinner.
Another.
Lily banging softly on a basement utility-room door.
Daniel stopped the video.
"What is that?"
Mara looked down.
"The old silver-storage room."
"You told me she had been put in the basement."
"Twice that I saw."
Daniel struggled to speak.
"For how long?"
"The first time, seven minutes."
"And the second?"
"I don't know."
His head snapped up.
"I found her after seventeen."
Daniel walked to the window.
Below them, traffic flowed through downtown as though the world had not changed.
"Why didn't you call me?"
"I did."
"You said you texted."
"I also called your office."
"Who answered?"
"Ms. Claire."
Daniel turned.
Claire Donnelly was Margaret's executive assistant.
Margaret had insisted Claire temporarily handle Daniel's scheduling after his own assistant went on maternity leave.
"What did she say?"
"That you knew Lily was being disciplined."
Daniel stared at Mara.
"I never said that."
"I know that now."
"Why now?"
"Because this afternoon your mother called me."
Mara's hands trembled.
"She offered me one hundred thousand dollars."
"For what?"
"To sign something saying I had never seen anyone mistreat Lily."
Daniel closed his eyes.
The abuse was horrifying.
The cover-up meant something else.
Margaret wasn't merely defending Vanessa after the fact.
She had anticipated exposure.
"Do you have the document?"
Mara reached into her bag.
A folded envelope appeared.
Daniel read the first paragraph.
A confidentiality agreement.
A sworn declaration.
Payment upon execution.
The lawyer listed at the bottom was Gerald Pike, general counsel for the Mercer Family Trust.
Daniel knew him well.
Very well.
Pike had been his father's lawyer.
Daniel put the document down.
"Did you sign?"
"No."
"Did anyone know you recorded these videos?"
"I don't think so."
Daniel looked at the tablet.
"These need copies."
"I already made them."
"Where?"
Mara met his eyes.
"Somewhere your mother can't buy."
For the first time that day, Daniel almost smiled.
Then Mara reached into the grocery bag again.
"There is something else."
She removed a child's pink sock.
Daniel recognized it immediately.
Lily's.
There was a small strip of silver tape stuck to the sole.
"What is that?"
"I found it in the basement room."
Daniel peeled the tape back.
Written underneath in black marker were four words.
SHE MUST GIVE IT UP.
Daniel stared at Mara.
"Give what up?"
"I don't know."
Then his phone rang.
Mercer Development's chairman.
Daniel answered.
"Daniel," the man said, "your mother has called an emergency board meeting for tomorrow morning."
"About what?"
A pause.
May you like
"You."
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