Chapter 4 - The Lawyer on My Father's ListI dropped the notebook.
Daniel didn't move.
Victor watched him carefully.
Mike stared at all three men and women in front of him like he had wandered into somebody else's nightmare.
"What is this?" I asked.
Daniel bent down and picked up the notebook.
"It isn't what you think."
I laughed bitterly.
"That sentence has become the family motto."
He turned to the page.
"Your father suspected me."
"Suspected you of what?"
"Helping someone move money."
My stomach tightened.
"Did you?"
"No."
Victor stepped inside.
"I believe him."
I looked at Victor.
"Why?"
"Because Richard tested everyone."
"How?"
"He planted false information."
Daniel nodded.
"Several times."
Victor continued.
"Your father deliberately gave different people different versions of his financial plans. When information leaked, he knew which person had passed it along."
"And Daniel?"
"He failed the test."
I looked at Daniel.
"What does that mean?"
Daniel sat down.
"It means Richard fed me information that suggested the company was preparing to sell the Hawthorne property."
"And someone used it?"
"Within forty-eight hours."
Victor said quietly,
"Which means Daniel's information reached the wrong person."
"Who?"
Nobody answered.
Daniel opened the notebook again.
"Your father never wrote the name."
"Why not?"
"Because he was afraid the notebook would be found."
Victor looked toward the windows.
"Richard believed the walls were listening."
Mike laughed nervously.
"That's paranoid."
Victor turned toward him.
"Your father was not paranoid."
"Then what was he?"
"Careful."
I looked at the notebook.
There were dates.
Initials.
Numbers.
Symbols I didn't understand.
One phrase appeared repeatedly.
MARCH 17.
"What's March 17?" I asked.
Victor's expression changed.
Daniel noticed.
"What?"
Victor shook his head.
"Nothing."
"You're lying."
"Stephanie."
"What happened on March 17?"
He hesitated.
Then said,
"Your father discovered your daughter was being watched."
The air left my lungs.
My daughter.
Lily.
Three years ago.
She had been eight years old.
She died after a sudden medical emergency that doctors called complicated and unexpected.
I had never accepted how quickly it happened.
One day she had been laughing.
A week later I was standing beside a coffin.
No one in my family liked discussing Lily.
Mom always said, "You need to move on."
Mike once told me grief made me unstable.
I had learned to swallow the rage.
Now Victor had connected Lily to my father's secret investigation.
"What do you mean, watched?"
Victor looked at Daniel.
Daniel lowered his eyes.
"Richard believed someone was monitoring Lily."
"Why?"
"He thought she had seen something."
"What?"
"The day she disappeared from school for twenty minutes."
I stared at him.
"Lily was never missing."
"That's not what your father believed."
I remembered.
Three years ago.
The week before Lily died.
Her teacher had called me.
Lily had become frightened during recess and refused to explain why.
She kept saying,
"There's a man who waits by the black car."
I had assumed she was describing a stranger.
I had taken her home early.
Three days later, she collapsed.
I had spent years believing those events were unrelated.
My knees weakened.
"What did Dad know?"
Victor answered.
"He believed Lily saw someone carrying documents out of Mike's office."
I turned toward Mike.
He stared at the floor.
"Mike?"
"I don't remember."
"You don't remember my daughter seeing someone?"
"I was busy."
"Doing what?"
He said nothing.
I stepped closer.
"You knew."
"I didn't know anything."
"Then why are you shaking?"
He looked at me.
"Because you're making this into something it isn't."
Victor interrupted.
"Your brother was never the mastermind."
"Then who was?"
Victor took the notebook from Daniel and flipped to the final page.
There, beneath March 17, was another notation.
MERCER KNOWS.
I looked up.
"C. Mercer."
Victor nodded.
"Yes."
"Who is Mercer?"
"That is the question your father died trying to answer."
Daniel closed the notebook.
"We need to find Mara."
"She's missing."
"Then we search."
Mike suddenly stood.
"I'm done."
He grabbed the loan folder.
"You want to destroy my life, fine. But I'm not sitting here listening to ghosts and conspiracy theories."
I blocked the door.
"You're not leaving."
He stared at me.
"What?"
"You owe me answers."
"I owe you nothing."
"You tried to use my signature to secure a loan."
"I thought you wanted to help."
"I wanted to help Mom."
"And that's why you're punishing me?"
"No. I'm asking who Mercer is."
His expression flickered.
Just once.
Enough.
"You know."
He looked away.
I grabbed his wrist.
"Who is Mercer?"
He pulled free.
"I don't know."
Then he whispered,
"But Tyler does."
I stared at him.
"What?"
Mike opened the door.
"Ask your nephew."
He left.
Victor looked at me.
Daniel looked equally disturbed.
"Why Tyler?" I asked.
Victor's answer came softly.
"Because Richard believed the family was using that boy as a messenger."
I remembered Tyler's words from the birthday dinner.
Grandma says you don't belong here.
A fifteen-year-old repeating a sentence fed to him by an adult.
Not a prank.
A message.
My phone buzzed.
A text from an unknown number.
YOU SHOULD HAVE TAKEN THE SODA AND LEFT.
Another message arrived.
NOW THEY KNOW YOU REMEMBER.
I stared at the screen.
A third message appeared.
MARCH 17 WASN'T AN ACCIDENT.
Then a photograph arrived.
It was a picture of Lily.
Taken three days before she died.
She was standing outside school.
May you like
Beside a black car.
And in the driver's seat was my mother.
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