Chapter 5 - The Security Chief’s Password
Marcus took one step backward.
“Daniel, I didn’t do it.”
“You’re the only administrator.”
“My credentials are the only ones listed.”
“That isn’t the same thing.”
Marcus’s face hardened.
“I have protected your family since Lily was born.”
Daniel hated himself for hesitating.
Marcus saw that hesitation.
“Say it.”
“What?”
“You think I helped them.”
“I think somebody used your account.”
“That’s not what your face says.”
Helen intervened.
“Both of you stop. Suspicion is exactly what Celeste needs.”
Marcus took out his phone and placed it on the table.
“Take it.”
Daniel frowned.
“My phone. My work laptop. My house computer. Have a forensic examiner look at everything.”
“You don’t have to—”
“Yes, I do.”
His voice broke slightly.
“Because if they can make you doubt me, they can make anyone doubt anyone.”
The next morning, Investigator Dana Hall interviewed Daniel separately from Lily.
Daniel admitted everything damaging before Hall could confront him with it.
“Yes, I travel too much.”
“Yes, Celeste stayed with Lily frequently.”
“Yes, I dismissed two of Lily’s complaints because Celeste explained them away.”
Hall watched him carefully.
“You understand those admissions are not flattering.”
“I’m not trying to look flattering.”
“Why not?”
“Because my daughter needs me to tell the truth too.”
Hall’s expression softened by a fraction.
When Lily’s interview ended, Hall would not disclose details.
But she did say one thing.
“Your daughter’s account is internally consistent.”
Daniel exhaled.
“Does that mean—”
“It means I continue investigating.”
Outside, Celeste was waiting with Grant Hollis.
Daniel stopped.
“You brought reporters?”
Two local news vans sat across the street.
Celeste said, “I didn’t.”
Grant said nothing.
Daniel laughed bitterly.
“Of course.”
A reporter shouted, “Mr. Mercer, are you being investigated for neglect?”
Daniel kept walking.
Celeste called after him.
“You could make this quieter.”
He turned.
“How?”
“Step down temporarily.”
“From the company?”
“And as voting trustee.”
There it was.
Daniel walked back.
“You want Lily’s shares.”
“I want stability.”
“For whom?”
“For the company Dad spent forty years building.”
“You terrorized his granddaughter.”
Celeste’s smile disappeared.
“Careful.”
“No. You be careful. Because the more you attack me, the more obvious the reason becomes.”
She leaned close.
“Then find the reason.”
By afternoon, Mercer Coastal’s board voted four to two to place Daniel on paid administrative leave pending the governance review.
His CEO access was suspended.
Owen Price became interim chief executive.
Daniel lost entry to the company’s financial systems.
Celeste had won her first major reversal.
At the Ocean Crown, Daniel threw his access badge onto the desk.
“I built half the expansion portfolio.”
Helen poured coffee.
“And now you’re angry enough to make a stupid decision.”
“I’m going to headquarters.”
“You’ll be removed by security.”
“My security.”
“Not anymore.”
Daniel hated that she was right.
Marcus entered carrying a laptop.
“I found how they used my account.”
He opened a log.
“Remote session at 2:18 A.M. four weeks ago. My password was entered correctly from a villa network address.”
“You were home?”
“I was in Orlando.”
“Who had access to your password?”
Marcus looked ashamed.
“I kept an emergency credentials card in the security office safe.”
Daniel understood.
“Celeste had unrestricted access to the house.”
“And knew where the office was.”
They checked the villa’s internal hall camera.
At 1:52 A.M. that night, Celeste entered the security office.
At 2:34, she left.
She was carrying nothing.
But she had spent forty-two minutes inside.
Marcus pointed to another log.
“She deleted footage. Exported stills. And accessed archived video going back eleven months.”
“Why eleven?”
“That’s when Nora died.”
The room went quiet.
Daniel stared at the screen.
“Search what footage she exported.”
Marcus hesitated.
“One file name keeps appearing.”
He turned the laptop.
GARAGE_NM_0419.
N.M.
Nora Mercer.
April nineteenth.
The night before Nora collapsed at home and was rushed into emergency surgery.
Daniel felt pressure in his chest.
“What was in the garage?”
Marcus opened the access record.
“The video file itself was deleted from the primary server.”
“Backup?”
“Checking.”
Three minutes later, Marcus found a low-resolution archive copy.
The footage opened.
Nora appeared in the villa garage at 9:12 P.M.
She carried a folder.
A second figure entered.
Celeste.
There was no audio.
The sisters argued.
Nora pointed furiously toward the house.
Celeste tried to take the folder.
Nora pulled it away.
Then a third person stepped into frame.
Owen Price.
Daniel leaned closer.
Nora shoved the folder against Owen’s chest.
He opened it.
Even on grainy video, Daniel could see his wife point at a page and then at Celeste.
Owen tore something in half.
Nora slapped him.
Celeste stepped between them.
The footage ended.
Daniel could barely breathe.
“Helen.”
“Yes?”
“Nora never told me she met Owen that night.”
Helen’s face had gone gray.
Daniel replayed the argument.
A woman he had mourned for eleven months had known something about Celeste and Owen.
Something important enough to fight over hours before her medical emergency.
Then Marcus noticed the file-access history.
Celeste had not merely viewed the garage footage once.
She had opened it twenty-seven times.
May you like
And two days after Nora’s funeral, she had tried to permanently erase it.
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