Chapter 10 - The Chapel Beneath the ChapelWe drove to Ravenswood in three cars.
Police in front.
Security behind.
Daniel beside me.
Claire and Emma in the second vehicle.
Sophie and Marcus in the third.
Rain hammered the windshield.
Nobody spoke for the first twenty minutes.
Finally Daniel said:
"You shouldn't go inside."
I looked at him.
"I've spent my whole life being told what not to do."
"Hannah."
"I am done obeying."
He looked away.
"I knew your mother was alive."
My heart tightened.
"For how long?"
"Since before our wedding."
I stared at him.
"Then you lied to me too."
"I was trying to find proof."
"You could have told me."
"Would you have believed me?"
"No."
"Exactly."
I hated that he was right.
Ravenswood appeared through the rain.
An old hotel on the edge of the marsh.
Closed for twelve years.
Its windows were boarded.
The sign had fallen.
The chapel stood behind it.
Small.
Abandoned.
But the doors were open.
We entered.
The smell of damp stone filled the air.
The old altar stood beneath a shattered stained-glass window.
Marcus approached.
"Your mother said the door is behind the altar."
We moved the wooden panel.
A narrow stairway descended.
Daniel took the flashlight.
I followed.
At the bottom was another chapel.
Beneath the chapel.
The walls were covered in names.
Dates.
Companies.
Bank accounts.
My father's network.
I walked forward.
At the center was a large metal safe.
On it was a biometric scanner.
Marcus looked at me.
"It requires Thomas Mercer's bloodline."
Sophie held out her hand.
The scanner remained red.
I placed my hand on it.
Green.
The safe unlocked.
Inside was a ledger.
A flash drive.
And a small silver box.
I picked up the ledger.
The first page carried my father's signature.
THE MERCER SUCCESSION PROTOCOL
I turned the page.
My father's writing explained everything.
The Mercer empire was not built by him alone.
It had been built through a partnership between Thomas Mercer and Robert Brooks.
Robert Brooks was Daniel's father.
But then the partnership fractured.
Robert wanted control.
Thomas wanted to protect the family.
So Thomas created the trust.
And the secret beneficiary wasn't Daniel.
It was Emma.
I looked at Daniel.
"Your father knew about her."
"Yes."
"And my mother?"
"She manipulated the arrangement."
"How?"
Daniel stared at the ledger.
"She convinced your father that you needed a husband to stabilize the company."
I turned another page.
There it was.
My mother's signature.
She had selected Daniel.
She had arranged introductions.
She had manipulated business deals.
She had engineered opportunities that brought us together.
Four years of what I thought were coincidences.
None were coincidences.
I felt sick.
"Did you know?"
Daniel shook his head.
"Not until later."
"When?"
"After I fell in love with you."
I looked at him.
"You loved me?"
His eyes filled.
"Yes."
"Then why stay?"
"I thought I could dismantle the network before it reached you."
"But it reached me."
"I know."
I stared at the ledger.
A note was attached.
Victor Lang remains active.
My heart stopped.
"Victor is alive."
Marcus nodded.
"Then he may be the real controller."
Sophie pointed to the silver box.
"Open that."
Inside was an old audio recorder.
I pressed play.
My father's voice filled the room.
"If you're listening to this, Victor has returned."
I froze.
"He will try to use my wife."
My mother.
"He will convince her that control of the empire requires sacrifice."
The recording crackled.
"He will tell her Hannah must die."
I looked at Daniel.
The final sentence came through.
"But he will lie."
A woman's voice suddenly screamed through the recorder.
My mother's voice.
"Thomas, stop!"
Then the recording ended.
Nobody moved.
Daniel whispered:
"Your mother was here."
I nodded.
Then I saw something written beneath the recorder.
A date.
The same date my mother supposedly died.
I stared.
"She was never in that car."
Marcus nodded.
"No."
"Then whose body was?"
Marcus didn't answer.
A slow clap echoed through the chapel.
We turned.
Victor Lang stood at the top of the stairs.
Older than in the photograph.
But unmistakable.
He smiled.
"I was wondering how long it would take you."
Daniel stepped forward.
"You."
Victor looked at me.
"You finally found your father's graveyard."
He descended the stairs.
"You should have stayed in bed this morning, Hannah."
"Why?"
"Because you were safer when you were ignorant."
He reached the bottom.
Then smiled at Daniel.
"You were supposed to leave her."
Daniel stepped forward.
Victor's smile disappeared.
"Instead, you fell in love."
Then Victor looked at Emma.
"And now the child is here."
May you like
He pulled a gun from his coat.
"Perfect."
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