Chapter 2 - The Missing Pages
Bianca never reached the deck.
Officer Reynolds caught her near the stairs.
“Let me go!”
“Stop resisting.”
Nathan followed, his anger held together by something thinner than self-control.
“Where is the folder?”
Bianca looked at him.
“What folder?”
“The one you took from my office.”
“I moved it.”
“Where?”
She said nothing.
Sofia stood near the doorway, Ava now wrapped in a blanket against her side.
Nathan looked at his daughter.
That image hurt more than Bianca’s lies.
Ava trusted Sofia instinctively.
He should have noticed how often she had begun shrinking around Bianca.
He had not.
“Cole,” Nathan said, “lock down the yacht. Nobody leaves until the officers say otherwise.”
Bianca laughed bitterly.
“You’re imprisoning your wife because of a misunderstanding?”
Officer Reynolds answered. “We’re investigating possible false reporting and attempted evidence manipulation. Nobody’s imprisoned.”
Bianca’s eyes sharpened.
The performance was returning.
“Then I want my attorney.”
“Call whoever you want,” Nathan said.
She did.
Not a criminal defense lawyer.
Nathan heard the name.
“Grant Holloway.”
His stomach tightened.
Holloway represented Vale Development Partners.
Bianca’s older brother Julian’s company.
Nathan had refused Julian a loan six months earlier.
“What does your brother’s corporate lawyer have to do with this?”
Bianca turned away.
Nathan headed for his office.
The lock showed no damage. Inside, drawers had been opened.
The blue folder was gone.
So was a sealed envelope from Nathan’s estate attorney, Margaret Lin.
He checked the wall safe.
Still locked.
His laptop sat untouched.
A small detail on the desk stopped him.
Ava’s silver hair clip.
Nathan picked it up.
He remembered finding Ava in his office that afternoon.
She had said she was looking for her rabbit.
Had she seen something?
Sofia appeared in the doorway.
“Mr. Mercer.”
For years she had called him Nathan in private.
The formality landed like a punishment.
“I’m sorry,” he said.
“For what?”
“For hesitating.”
Sofia’s expression trembled.
“You looked at me like you believed her.”
“I didn’t know what to believe.”
“That’s the problem.”
Nathan lowered his eyes.
She was right.
Sofia had cared for Ava since she was fourteen months old. She had moved from Boston with them after Nathan and Claire separated. She had sat beside Ava through ear infections, preschool nightmares, and the panic attacks Ava developed after the divorce.
Bianca had entered their lives later.
Yet one accusation had been enough to make Nathan pause.
“I failed you.”
Sofia looked toward Ava.
“You failed her first.”
Nathan absorbed it.
Then Ava spoke from the doorway.
“Daddy?”
Nathan crouched.
“What happened in here earlier?”
Ava looked at the floor.
“Bianca told me not to tell.”
Sofia touched her shoulder.
“You can tell your dad.”
Ava pointed to the desk.
“She was taking pictures.”
Nathan’s eyes narrowed.
“Of what?”
“The papers.”
“What papers?”
“The ones with my name.”
Nathan felt his pulse change.
The trust draft.
Margaret Lin had prepared a restructuring of the Mercer Family Trust. Nathan planned to place additional voting shares of Mercer Maritime into trust for Ava while limiting spousal claims against company control.
Bianca knew generally that Nathan was updating his estate plan.
She did not know the terms.
Or at least she shouldn’t have.
“What did Bianca say when she saw you?”
Ava whispered, “She said grown-up papers were boring.”
“Anything else?”
“She called Uncle Julian.”
Nathan exchanged a look with Sofia.
“What did she say?”
Ava thought carefully.
“She said, ‘He signed the wrong version.’”
Nathan stood.
That made no sense.
He had not signed anything.
He called Margaret Lin.
She answered immediately.
“Nathan?”
“Did you send anyone a signed version of the trust amendment?”
“No. We’re nowhere near execution.”
“Did my wife contact you?”
A pause.
“Yesterday.”
Nathan looked at Bianca through the glass partition.
“About what?”
“She asked whether a spouse could challenge a trust amendment if the grantor lacked capacity.”
The room seemed colder.
“What did you tell her?”
“That you plainly have capacity, and that the question was inappropriate.”
Nathan closed his eyes.
Margaret continued.
“Nathan, there’s something else.”
“What?”
“Your private banker called me this afternoon. Someone submitted instructions concerning a $12 million transfer from your personal investment account.”
Nathan gripped the desk.
“I authorized no transfer.”
“I thought not.”
“To whom?”
“The destination was an escrow account.”
“For what?”
Margaret hesitated.
“Purchase of a controlling interest in farmland outside Newport, Rhode Island.”
Nathan stared at Bianca.
Julian’s company had been trying to acquire waterfront land outside Newport for a luxury marina project.
“How was the instruction authenticated?”
“Your electronic signature.”
“I didn’t sign it.”
“We know that now. The bank froze it.”
Nathan’s gaze dropped to Ava’s hair clip in his hand.
A child’s tiny silver clip.
Left beside documents someone had photographed.
Ava had interrupted something.
Bianca had then tried to frame Sofia.
Not merely because Sofia saw her frightening Ava.
Because Sofia might have noticed the office.
Nathan walked toward his wife.
Bianca’s attorney had not yet arrived.
She looked at his face and understood immediately.
“The bank froze it,” Nathan said.
For the first time, she did not pretend confusion.
Instead, she smiled.
It was small.
Exhausted.
Almost contemptuous.
“You think the transfer is the problem?”
Nathan stopped.
“What does that mean?”
Bianca leaned closer.
May you like
“You should check who actually owns your yacht.”
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