Chapter 8 - Olivia’s Price
Daniel could barely speak.
“You gave my mother Anna’s envelope?”
Olivia looked away.
“I was twenty-eight. Mom told me Anna was confused from medication.”
“She was dying, not delirious.”
“I know that now.”
“What was in it?”
“I never opened it.”
Daniel laughed in disbelief.
“Of course you didn’t.”
“Don’t.”
“You had something my wife risked sending to you, and you handed it to the woman she was afraid of.”
“I said don’t.”
Olivia’s voice cracked.
Daniel stopped.
He saw something he had missed beneath her defensiveness.
Fear.
“What did Mom have on you?”
Olivia went pale.
Daniel knew.
Eleanor never obtained obedience through affection alone.
“What?”
Olivia sat slowly.
“Debt.”
“How much?”
“Three hundred and eighty thousand.”
Daniel stared.
“Gambling?”
“Sports betting at first. Then online casinos.”
“Does Evan know?”
“He paid it.”
“With whose money?”
She said nothing.
Daniel understood.
“Company money?”
“No.”
“Then where?”
“He said it was a personal loan.”
Daniel almost smiled at the word.
Evan did nothing without leverage.
“What did you sign?”
“A repayment agreement.”
“Anything else?”
“A power of attorney for certain investment accounts.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
“Olivia.”
“It was temporary.”
“Have you revoked it?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because he said if I did before the wedding, he would tell the board about my debt.”
Daniel sat across from her.
“And Mom?”
“She knew before he did.”
“How?”
“She had access to my old statements.”
“Why would she?”
“Because she co-signed my first investment account when I was twenty-one.”
Daniel rubbed his forehead.
Their mother had spent decades turning assistance into ownership.
“What happened when Anna gave you the envelope?”
“Mom came to my apartment that night. She already knew.”
“How?”
“I don’t know.”
“What did she say?”
“That Anna was trying to destroy the family because she hated being dependent on Mercer money during her illness.”
Daniel’s face hardened.
“Anna had her own career.”
“I know.”
“Did Mom threaten your debt?”
“Yes.”
There it was.
Olivia whispered, “She said if I gave her the envelope, she would make sure Dad never found out about the gambling.”
“Did he?”
“No.”
Robert died believing Olivia had simply become more private.
Daniel stood.
“Evan knew all this when he proposed?”
“Yes.”
“You were going to marry a man who could financially destroy you.”
“I love him.”
“Do you?”
Olivia recoiled.
“That is not your decision.”
“No. But maybe ask yourself whether he loves you or your twenty-one percent of Mercer Heritage.”
She slapped him.
The sound filled the apartment.
Daniel did not move.
Olivia’s hand trembled.
“You don’t get to come here and tell me my entire life is fake because yours is falling apart.”
Daniel nodded slowly.
“You’re right.”
That surprised her.
“I don’t.”
He walked to the door.
“But ask him one question.”
“What?”
“Ask whether Blue Heron Facilities belongs to him.”
Olivia’s face froze.
Daniel saw recognition.
“You know the name.”
“No.”
“Yes, you do.”
She looked toward the bedroom.
Daniel followed her gaze.
“What?”
Olivia crossed the room and opened a desk drawer.
Inside were wedding financial documents.
She pulled out an ivory folder.
“My prenuptial agreement.”
“What about it?”
She flipped to a disclosure schedule.
One of Evan’s listed assets was an indirect minority interest in a facilities-management company.
The company name was abbreviated.
BHF Holdings.
Daniel pointed.
“Blue Heron.”
Olivia went silent.
A key turned in the apartment door.
Evan entered.
He stopped when he saw Daniel.
“What are you doing here?”
Daniel held up the agreement.
“Reading.”
Evan crossed the room and took it from him.
“Get out.”
Olivia stood.
“Does BHF mean Blue Heron Facilities?”
Evan looked at her.
“Who told you that?”
“That isn’t an answer.”
“Olivia.”
“Does it?”
Evan placed the document down carefully.
“Yes.”
Her face drained of color.
“You told me BHF was a passive investment.”
“It is.”
“My family’s company has paid Blue Heron almost twelve million dollars.”
Evan’s expression barely changed.
“That allegation is coming from Daniel?”
“It’s coming from invoices.”
Daniel watched him.
Evan looked at Olivia again.
“You’re upset.”
“Don’t do that.”
“We should discuss this privately.”
“You were going to marry me while hiding that your company was billing mine?”
“Our company.”
“No.”
For the first time, Olivia sounded like Robert Mercer’s daughter.
“My company.”
Evan’s eyes hardened.
Then he made his mistake.
“You don’t have a company without the voting agreement your mother arranged.”
Silence.
Olivia whispered, “What voting agreement?”
Evan realized too late what he had said.
Daniel stepped forward.
“What agreement?”
Evan picked up his coat.
“I think you should leave.”
Daniel smiled without humor.
May you like
“No.”
Because for the first time since the lake, Evan looked frightened.
