Chapter 7 - Claire’s Secret Visit
Nathan drove straight to Boston.
Claire opened the door and saw the visitor log in his hand.
Her face told him everything.
“You were at the archive.”
“Yes.”
“You lied to me.”
“I didn’t lie.”
“You let me spend two days hunting Bianca while knowing you’d been in the same restricted archive.”
Claire stepped aside.
“Come in.”
“No.”
“Nathan.”
“What did you take?”
“Nothing.”
“What did Bianca take?”
“I don’t know.”
“You went together.”
“No.”
He stopped.
Claire explained.
She had visited the archive six days before Bianca.
“Why?”
“Because your father wrote me a letter.”
Nathan stared.
“My father died before I met you.”
“I know.”
“Then explain that sentence.”
Claire went upstairs and returned with a weathered envelope.
On the front was written:
For the mother of Nathan’s first child.
Nathan felt the air leave his lungs.
“My father wrote that?”
“Yes.”
“How did you get it?”
“Your mother gave it to me before she died.”
Nathan’s mother had died seven years earlier.
“Why didn’t she give it to me?”
“She made me promise not to.”
He laughed bitterly.
“Everyone protects me by lying.”
Claire’s expression sharpened.
“She wasn’t protecting you.”
“Then who?”
“Ava.”
Nathan opened the letter.
James Mercer’s handwriting filled two pages.
The message described an early partnership agreement involving Mercer Maritime’s original coastal properties. James had built the business with his younger brother Robert.
Nathan’s uncle.
The letter warned that some assets placed under James’s control were not solely his.
It mentioned a sealed partnership ledger.
Location: Newport archive.
Cabinet F-19.
Nathan looked up.
“What exactly did you find?”
Claire produced photographs.
The missing box had contained copies of a 1999 agreement.
Robert Mercer held a contingent 30 percent beneficial interest in several legacy properties if certain debts were repaid.
James apparently repaid them.
But the release document was missing.
“If there’s no release,” Margaret later explained by phone, “Robert could theoretically claim an interest.”
Nathan stared at Claire.
“Bianca knew?”
“I don’t know.”
“You visited the archive and then six days later she did.”
Claire became angry.
“You think I told her?”
“I think I’m done assuming anything.”
Claire stepped closer.
“Then investigate me.”
The words stopped him.
No manipulation.
No panic.
“Check my phone. My email. My location history. Whatever you need.”
Nathan’s anger cooled.
Bianca had panicked at scrutiny.
Claire was inviting it.
“Why keep the letter secret?”
“Because your mother believed Robert was dangerous.”
Nathan laughed.
“Uncle Robert?”
“He pressured her after your father died.”
“For what?”
“Company control.”
Nathan remembered being nineteen.
His father’s death had thrown Mercer Maritime into chaos. Robert had run the company until Nathan finished college and gradually took control.
Claire continued.
“Your mother believed Robert had destroyed the debt-release document deliberately.”
Nathan felt sick.
“Why?”
“Because someday it could give him leverage over you.”
Nathan thought of the board meeting.
Robert telling him to stop making things personal.
What if the conspiracy did not begin with Bianca?
What if she had found an older vulnerability?
Margaret investigated Claire’s archive access and confirmed it matched her story. She had photographed documents but removed nothing.
Bianca arrived later using Nathan’s forged authorization.
The missing box disappeared afterward.
That night, Nathan returned to Newport.
Robert was waiting at Mercer Maritime headquarters.
“We need to talk.”
Nathan shut the office door.
“About my father?”
Robert’s expression barely shifted.
Interesting.
Nathan placed a copy of the partnership agreement on the table.
Robert sat down.
“Where did you get that?”
“Answer my question.”
His uncle studied him.
“Your father and I built this company together.”
“I know.”
“No. You know the story James told.”
“What story?”
“That I was the reckless younger brother and he saved the business.”
Nathan said nothing.
Robert leaned back.
“I mortgaged my house to keep Mercer afloat in 1997. James later bought me out of several properties.”
“So?”
“So some releases were never properly executed.”
“You’re claiming ownership now?”
“I’m saying history is complicated.”
Nathan’s voice hardened.
“Did you help Bianca?”
Robert laughed.
“Your wife hates me.”
“Did you tell her about F-19?”
Robert’s eyes narrowed.
“No.”
“Did Julian?”
“I have no relationship with Julian Vale.”
Nathan watched him.
Robert was hiding something.
“What aren’t you telling me?”
Before Robert answered, Nathan’s phone buzzed.
A message from an unknown number.
A photograph.
The missing archive box sat open on a table.
Beside it lay the original 1999 partnership agreement.
And a handwritten note:
$25 MILLION OR YOUR UNCLE GETS EVERYTHING.
Nathan showed Robert.
His uncle read it.
Then whispered:
May you like
“That handwriting belongs to your father.”
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