Chapter 5 - THE HOUSE IN PITTSBURGHDaniel made one thing very clear.
“We don't confront Derek.”
“Why?”
“Because we don't know what he knows.”
“And he knows about the Mercer account.”
“Which means he probably knows you're investigating.”
Rachel crossed her arms.
“So what do we do?”
Daniel placed a folder on the table.
“We find out what this account was used for.”
He had requested records.
The answer came two days later.
Mercer Holdings wasn't a normal investment company.
It was a shell structure.
Money moved in.
Money moved out.
Companies appeared and vanished.
People lent money to people who didn't exist.
And one recurring address appeared in hundreds of transactions.
The Pittsburgh house.
The one listed on my insurance.
Daniel looked at me.
“We need to see it.”
“No.”
I expected him to argue.
Instead, he nodded.
“Good.”
Then he added:
“Because you're not going.”
Rachel looked confused.
“Then who is?”
“Me.”
Two days later, Daniel returned.
He was quiet.
Very quiet.
“What did you find?”
He placed photographs on the table.
The house was large.
Old.
Hidden behind iron fencing.
The mailbox carried no name.
“It's empty,” Daniel said.
“Empty?”
“Officially.”
He showed us a photo.
The front door.
Then another.
A basement window.
“Unofficially, someone has been using it.”
“How do you know?”
He zoomed in.
Fresh tire tracks.
Recent utility usage.
A delivery receipt.
And something else.
A security camera.
Installed recently.
Facing the road.
Watching anyone who approached.
“Derek owns it?”
“No.”
“Then who does?”
Daniel looked at me.
“The property is owned by a trust.”
“What trust?”
“Mercer Family Trust.”
My throat tightened.
“What family?”
He didn't answer immediately.
Then:
“Your family.”
Silence.
I laughed.
Not because it was funny.
Because there was no other response.
“My family?”
“You're listed as a beneficiary.”
“I don't have a family trust.”
“You do.”
“Who created it?”
Daniel opened another document.
A name appeared.
Evelyn Mercer.
I frowned.
“I've never heard of her.”
Rachel looked at me.
“You know that name?”
“No.”
Daniel studied me.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
“Then we have a problem.”
He handed me another paper.
It was a birth certificate.
My birth certificate.
Except it contained something I'd never seen.
A second surname.
Mercer.
My full legal name was not the one I had used for the last thirty years.
Someone had changed it.
Or hidden it.
I stood so quickly the chair fell backward.
“No.”
Rachel reached for me.
“Anna.”
“No.”
I shook my head.
“My parents would have told me.”
“Maybe they didn't know,” Daniel said.
“They died.”
“I know.”
“How?”
Daniel looked uncomfortable.
“I found the report.”
“What report?”
He slid it across the table.
A police report.
My mother's death.
Then my father's.
Separate incidents.
Different years.
But one detail appeared in both.
Mercer Holdings.
I read the words three times.
Then I noticed something at the bottom.
A handwritten note from the investigating officer.
Possible connection to Samuel Reed.
Rachel whispered my name.
I couldn't hear her.
I was already staring at the photograph attached to the report.
My father.
Standing beside a much younger Samuel Reed.
And behind them was a woman.
Evelyn Mercer.
The same woman whose trust supposedly belonged to me.
I looked at Daniel.
“What am I?”
He didn't answer.
“Daniel.”
“We don't know yet.”
Then Rachel's phone rang.
She answered.
A man's voice spoke.
Her face drained.
“What?”
She turned the speaker on.
Samuel Reed.
“You've gone too far.”
Rachel said nothing.
He continued.
“You need to stop digging.”
Daniel leaned forward.
“Samuel, I'm Daniel Ward.”
“I know.”
“You've been monitoring my client.”
“I've been monitoring the situation.”
“That isn't legal.”
Samuel laughed quietly.
“Lawyers always think legality is the same thing as truth.”
Daniel's eyes narrowed.
“What do you want?”
“Anna.”
I took the phone.
“I'm here.”
Samuel paused.
Then:
“You deserve to know what Derek did.”
My heart raced.
“Tell me.”
“Not over the phone.”
“Then where?”
“Tomorrow.”
“Where?”
“The old Mercer warehouse.”
“Why?”
“Because that's where your husband first met you.”
I froze.
“That isn't possible.”
“It is.”
The line went dead.
Rachel stared at me.
Daniel stood.
“No one is going.”
I looked at the phone.
“But I need answers.”
Daniel shook his head.
“Samuel doesn't want to give you answers.”
“What does he want?”
Daniel's expression hardened.
“He wants you somewhere he controls.”
But that night, while Rachel slept, I made a decision.
I was going to the warehouse.
Because I had spent too many years being afraid of what Derek might do.
May you like
Now I was afraid of something worse.
That I had built my entire life on a lie.
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