Chapter 12 - The House Serena Bought
The house sat behind gates in Cherry Creek.
Serena had never mentioned it.
Derek viewed the property records with no emotion left.
Three bedrooms.
Glass walls.
Heated pool.
Purchased through White Pine.
Cash.
Derek’s marriage had been disappearing long before the mountain.
He simply had not noticed.
Benjamin said, “This helps show financial misconduct.”
“It also shows I lived with someone who bought a house without me knowing.”
“That is a different problem.”
Derek smiled bitterly.
“I’m collecting those.”
The sheriff obtained a warrant for Serena’s White Pine records.
Bank statements showed the three-million-dollar Summit Crest payment.
From there:
$2.7 million for the house.
$120,000 to a luxury jeweler.
$80,000 to a law firm.
The remaining amount had dwindled to about $40,000.
Then Alpine Mechanical payments replenished the account.
Grant had been feeding Serena company money.
Prosecutors confronted her attorneys.
Serena requested a proffer session.
She wanted a deal.
Derek was furious.
“She nearly killed Caleb.”
Benjamin replied, “A deal does not mean immunity.”
“I don’t want her buying her way out.”
“She can’t buy anything with information prosecutors already have.”
Serena’s information was not redundant.
She identified Victor Lang as the architect of the reserve-account scheme.
Grant managed the transfers.
Victor supplied private investment vehicles.
Serena joined two years earlier after discovering Grant’s fraud.
Instead of exposing it, she demanded a share.
Then the affair began.
She admitted the Summit Crest side payment.
She admitted arranging the fraudulent Frostline option.
She admitted stealing trust documents from Derek’s office.
But when prosecutors asked about the slope, Serena became careful.
“I intended to frighten Caleb.”
“Did you intend to injure him?”
“No.”
“Did Grant know?”
“He knew I planned to scare him.”
“Did he order the slope ungroomed?”
“I assume so.”
“Assume?”
“He told me the lane would be faster.”
Derek heard the summary later.
His skin went cold.
Faster.
Serena had known.
She still insisted she expected the tube to stop in soft snow.
The video contradicted part of her story.
Caleb had been aimed directly toward the lower run.
Yet criminal intent remained a legal fight.
Then Olivia discovered something she had missed.
Her original video was four minutes long.
Everyone had focused on the dramatic final forty seconds.
She reviewed the beginning.
At timestamp 00:52, Serena stood with her back partly toward the camera.
Grant appeared near a maintenance fence.
Not close enough to be obvious.
They spoke for eleven seconds.
Olivia increased the audio.
Wind obscured most words.
But two sentences survived.
Grant:
“Make sure he’s strapped in.”
Serena:
“What if someone sees?”
Grant:
“They’ll see an accident.”
The sheriff’s office took the original immediately.
Derek watched the clip once.
Then walked outside and vomited into the snow.
There was no longer any plausible innocent explanation.
Grant knew.
Perhaps he planned more than Serena was admitting.
That afternoon, the district attorney obtained an arrest warrant for Grant Mercer on conspiracy, financial crimes, and child-endangerment-related charges while investigators continued assessing potential attempted-murder counts under applicable law.
Grant disappeared before officers reached his home.
His phone was off.
His passport remained at his residence.
His car was found in an employee garage.
The acting CEO of Hale Mountain had vanished.
The board panicked.
Victor Lang proposed himself as temporary chair.
Susan Park objected.
Within hours, the board split into factions.
Derek had enough shares to force a special meeting but not enough votes to control the outcome.
For the first time since Emily died, he called Margaret Sloan not as a business obstacle.
As someone he trusted.
“What would Emily do?”
Margaret was quiet.
“She would ask what protects Caleb.”
“Not the company?”
“No.”
Derek looked toward the window.
Silver Crown lights glowed below.
“And if protecting Caleb costs Hale Mountain?”
“Then maybe Hale Mountain pays for what Hale Mountain became.”
The answer hurt.
Derek knew it was right.
That night Caleb woke screaming.
Derek ran in.
Caleb was tangled in blankets.
“The barrier.”
Derek sat beside him.
“I’m here.”
Caleb’s eyes remained half asleep.
“Mason can’t catch me.”
Derek’s chest tightened.
“You’re home.”
Caleb grabbed his wrist.
“Don’t let Serena put me in it.”
“She can’t.”
“How do you know?”
Derek paused.
Then answered with something concrete.
“There’s a court order. Security. She isn’t allowed near you. And I will listen if you say you’re scared.”
Caleb’s breathing slowed.
He whispered, “Promise?”
Derek looked at his son.
“Yes.”
The next morning that promise became harder.
Serena disappeared from her court-approved residence.
Her electronic monitor lay cut on the bathroom floor.
May you like
And a note remained on the mirror.
GRANT WILL KILL ME IF I TALK.
