Chapter 2 - The Car Waiting at the Gate
The driver was already at the chapel gates.
Daniel discovered that twenty minutes after canceling the wedding.
A black SUV waited beneath an oak tree beyond the guest parking area. On the dashboard was a printed placard:
Family Transition Transport Services.
Daniel’s attorney had not arrived yet.
Neither had police.
But Daniel’s private security director, Owen Briggs, blocked the vehicle from leaving.
The driver, a middle-aged woman named Janet Ellis, looked genuinely confused.
“I was contracted to transport a child to Bellweather.”
“By whom?” Daniel demanded.
“My dispatch office.”
“Who hired them?”
“I don’t know.”
Emily stood behind Nora, still clutching the front of Daniel’s jacket whenever Rebecca came near.
Rebecca had changed.
Not clothes.
Strategy.
Her tears were gone.
Her voice had become gentle and controlled.
“Daniel is overwhelmed.”
He turned.
“Do not speak for me.”
Nearly two hundred guests were being quietly told the ceremony was canceled because of a “family emergency.”
Phones were already out.
Rebecca’s mother was crying.
Daniel’s board chairman had cornered Caleb near the reception hall.
And Emily’s packed suitcase remained beneath the floral arch like physical proof that something had been planned without him.
Police arrived at 4:18 P.M.
Detective Maya Torres took possession of copies of the placement documents.
Daniel explained the forged signatures.
Rebecca immediately interrupted.
“They aren’t forged.”
Daniel stared at her.
“You’re saying I signed them?”
“I’m saying you authorized the process.”
“No.”
“You told me Emily needed professional help.”
“I said she might need a grief counselor.”
Rebecca looked at the detective.
“Daniel signs documents electronically all the time. He forgets things when he’s under pressure.”
Daniel almost laughed.
It was too polished.
Detective Torres asked, “Mrs. Sloan, did Mr. Mercer know a vehicle was arriving today?”
“We aren’t married.”
Rebecca’s correction was automatic.
Then she said, “I believed he did.”
Nora looked down.
Torres noticed.
“Ms. Kim?”
Nora swallowed.
“Rebecca told me Mr. Mercer approved everything.”
“Did you hear Mr. Mercer approve it?”
“No.”
“Did you pack the suitcase?”
“Yes.”
Emily looked at her.
Nora’s voice broke.
“I’m sorry.”
Daniel saw the hurt in his daughter’s face.
“You packed my stuff?”
“I thought your father knew.”
Rebecca snapped, “Nora, stop.”
Torres looked directly at Rebecca.
“Let her answer.”
Rebecca folded her arms.
The detective reviewed the Bellweather packet.
“A forged signature may be criminal. Arranging transportation based on false parental authorization could be more serious. But I need evidence before I decide what happened.”
Daniel nodded.
“I’ll provide everything.”
Rebecca whispered, “You’re actually calling me a criminal on our wedding day.”
Daniel turned.
“You packed my daughter.”
“She needed help.”
“You scheduled the car for after the vows so I wouldn’t notice until we were leaving for Europe.”
Rebecca said nothing.
That silence mattered.
Daniel asked Torres to examine the corporate proxy too.
Caleb stepped forward.
“That is a company matter.”
Daniel looked at him.
“It has my forged signature.”
“I never asked Rebecca to carry that document.”
Rebecca’s eyes flashed toward him.
Daniel saw it.
“You knew it existed.”
Caleb hesitated.
“I knew we were discussing a proxy because you were supposed to be abroad during the extraordinary meeting.”
“I never signed one.”
“You agreed conceptually.”
“No.”
“Daniel—”
“No.”
Caleb lowered his voice.
“The East Harbor sale is time-sensitive.”
There it was.
Three months earlier, Mercer Development Group had received a $214 million offer for its waterfront hospitality division.
Daniel rejected it.
The buyer, Baycrest Capital Partners, had returned with a revised proposal.
Caleb wanted the board to consider it.
Daniel did not.
Now a forged proxy would have allowed Caleb to vote Daniel’s controlling interest while Daniel was on his honeymoon.
Daniel asked, “Was the shareholder meeting moved?”
Caleb’s expression changed.
“Moved?”
“It was scheduled for next month.”
“The lenders requested acceleration.”
“When?”
“Yesterday.”
Daniel stared.
“And nobody told me?”
“We were going to discuss it after the wedding.”
Again.
After the wedding.
Everything important had apparently been scheduled for the moment Daniel stopped paying attention.
Emily tugged his hand.
“Daddy?”
“Yes?”
“Rebecca said Uncle Caleb would fix everything after we left.”
Caleb’s face went blank.
Daniel looked down.
“When did she say that?”
“Last night.”
Rebecca stepped forward.
“She misunderstood.”
Emily backed away.
Daniel moved between them.
“What exactly did she misunderstand?”
Rebecca said, “She listens at doors.”
Emily began to cry.
Daniel’s anger rose.
Detective Torres stepped closer.
“Mr. Mercer.”
He breathed once.
Slowly.
He remembered two hundred guests.
The note.
The suitcase.
The signatures.
He looked at Rebecca.
“Leave.”
“This is my wedding.”
“No. It was your wedding.”
Her face tightened.
“Where am I supposed to go?”
“You own a condo in Manhattan.”
Rebecca’s eyes sharpened.
“How do you know about that?”
Daniel froze.
Rebecca had told him she sold the condo before their engagement.
Now she had accidentally confirmed she still owned it.
Torres noticed too.
Rebecca picked up her bouquet and walked away.
Caleb followed her with his eyes.
Too long.
Daniel saw that as well.
That evening, after Emily finally fell asleep beside Nora in a private room at the chapel hotel, Detective Torres called Daniel aside.
“We contacted Bellweather.”
“And?”
“They received a six-month prepaid deposit.”
“How much?”
“Ninety-six thousand dollars.”
Daniel frowned.
“From Rebecca?”
Torres shook her head.
“From the Mercer Family Foundation.”
Daniel felt the floor shift beneath him.
May you like
Rebecca did not control the foundation account.
Caleb did.
