Chapter 6 - The Edited Video
The video of Daniel punching Owen went viral Tuesday morning.
It lasted eleven seconds.
Owen climbed from the river.
Daniel rushed forward.
Punch.
Punch.
The clip ended.
No Evelyn.
No fishing net.
No drowning child.
The caption read:
MERCER CEO ATTACKS NEIGHBOR IN FRONT OF SEVEN-YEAR-OLD SON.
By noon, three major clients had requested calls.
By two, Mercer Riverworks’ largest lender demanded an explanation.
By four, the board suspended Daniel from day-to-day management pending an “independent review.”
Evelyn was appointed interim executive chair.
Daniel watched the announcement from his kitchen.
Melissa slammed her palm on the counter.
“She tried to kill Caleb and somehow you’re the one losing your job.”
“I hit Owen.”
“You know what I mean.”
“Yes.”
“And she leaked that video.”
“We can’t prove it.”
Maya looked up from her laptop.
“We may be able to.”
Daniel turned.
“The viral clip wasn’t filmed by a phone. It was taken from the boathouse security feed.”
“How can you tell?”
“Frame angle. Compression. Timestamp crop.”
“So whoever leaked it had access.”
“Correct.”
Daniel’s jaw tightened.
Only six people had administrator credentials.
Daniel.
The security contractor.
The estate manager.
Martin.
Evelyn.
And Richard Sloan.
Maya held up a finger.
“Do not call any of them.”
Daniel glared.
“I know.”
“Good. Growth.”
Caleb entered with Melissa’s tablet.
“Dad?”
Daniel closed the laptop.
“What’s wrong?”
“A boy at school sent me this.”
The screen showed a message from a classmate.
YOUR DAD BEATS PEOPLE.
Daniel felt something inside him break.
Melissa took the tablet.
“You’re staying home tomorrow.”
Caleb’s eyes dropped.
“Did you beat Mr. Reed?”
Daniel could have softened it.
Instead, he told the truth.
“I hit him twice.”
“Why?”
“I was scared.”
“So when you’re scared, you hit people?”
Daniel looked at his son.
“No. I shouldn’t have.”
“Grandma said you get angry like Grandpa.”
Daniel froze.
“When did she say that?”
“Before.”
“How long before?”
“A lot.”
The manipulation had begun long before the river.
That realization was worse than the headlines.
Later that afternoon, Owen arrived with a cardboard box.
Melissa opened the door cautiously.
“He’s asking for Daniel.”
Daniel came downstairs.
Owen’s bruise had darkened.
“I found something in Rachel’s papers.”
He placed the box on the dining table.
Inside were printed emails.
Daniel saw Rachel’s name.
Then Owen’s.
One subject line caught him.
DANIEL CAN’T KNOW YET.
His chest tightened.
He read.
Owen—
Daniel is too close to Evelyn to see this clearly. If I tell him before I can prove it, he’ll take it straight to her.
I need the bank records first.
—Rachel
Daniel sat down.
“She knew me.”
Owen said nothing.
“She knew exactly what I would do.”
“Yes.”
Daniel read another message.
Meet me at the boathouse after Daniel leaves. I found Arthur’s duplicate invoice file.
The date was fourteen months before Rachel died.
Daniel looked at Owen.
“You met her there?”
“Yes.”
“At night?”
“Yes.”
“Alone?”
“Yes.”
The old jealousy rose again despite everything he knew.
Owen saw it.
“You still want this to be an affair because an affair would hurt less.”
Daniel flinched.
Owen continued.
“If Rachel cheated, then she betrayed you. You can be angry at her. But if she was investigating your family and hid it because you wouldn’t listen, then you have to be angry at yourself.”
Daniel closed the email.
“Get out.”
Melissa stepped forward.
“Daniel.”
“I said get out.”
Owen’s expression went flat.
“Fine.”
He took one step.
Then Caleb’s voice came from the stairs.
“Mr. Reed.”
Owen stopped.
“Mom liked you?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Owen looked toward Daniel before answering.
“Because I believed her.”
Caleb nodded as if that made perfect sense.
Daniel felt ashamed again.
After Owen left, Maya called.
“I have news about the leaked video.”
Daniel braced himself.
“The security contractor’s access logs show the clip was downloaded Sunday night.”
“By whom?”
“An administrator account assigned to Martin Vale.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
“Can he claim someone else used it?”
“Yes.”
“But?”
“The login originated from an IP address at Evelyn’s Richmond townhouse.”
Daniel stood.
Maya continued.
“And Priya found another transfer.”
“How much?”
“Eight hundred thousand dollars.”
“From where?”
“Mercer Riverworks.”
“To?”
“Richard Sloan’s client trust account.”
Daniel stared through the windows toward the river.
“What was it for?”
“No invoice attached.”
His phone buzzed.
A court document had arrived by email.
Evelyn Mercer had filed a petition seeking emergency temporary guardianship of Caleb.
Her basis:
Daniel’s violent conduct.
His alleged emotional instability.
And “credible concerns that the child was endangered while in his father’s care.”
Attached as Exhibit A was the edited video of Daniel punching Owen.
Daniel read the petition.
Then one sentence twice.
May you like
Evelyn was asking a judge to remove Caleb from him.
The woman who had pushed Caleb into the river was now using Daniel’s own mistake to take his son.
