Chapter 13 - The Last DinnerSome betrayals are planned at boardrooms. The worst ones happen at dinner tables.
We staged the meeting at an abandoned estate outside Harrisburg.
Margaret arrived with four men.
Lucy was beside her.
Alive.
Terrified.
I carried the will in a leather case.
Michael stayed hidden upstairs.
Rebecca was waiting outside with Detective Reed.
Margaret smiled when she saw me.
“Daniel.”
“Margaret.”
“You look like your father.”
“I've been told.”
“That's why he chose you.”
“I don't want his empire.”
She laughed.
“Everyone wants an empire.”
“No.”
I looked at Lucy.
“Some people just want their child back.”
Margaret's smile disappeared.
“You've made this emotional.”
“It's personal.”
She gestured toward the table.
“Sit.”
We sat.
The room had been arranged like a formal dinner.
White plates.
Silverware.
Candles.
It reminded me of my father's dining room.
Margaret poured wine.
“To Thomas Mercer.”
I didn't drink.
“He would be proud.”
“No.”
She looked at me.
“He'd be disappointed.”
“Why?”
“Because he built a machine.”
I leaned forward.
“And machines break.”
I placed the case on the table.
Margaret opened it.
The will appeared.
She looked satisfied.
Then her phone rang.
She answered.
A voice came through the speaker.
Michael.
“The document is fake.”
Margaret froze.
Michael stepped from the shadows.
Two armed men raised their weapons.
Detective Reed appeared behind them.
“Drop them.”
Nobody moved.
Then another voice came through the room.
Rebecca.
“You're surrounded.”
Margaret laughed.
“You think this changes anything?”
She looked at Lucy.
Then pulled a small remote from her pocket.
“One button.”
I stood.
“Don't.”
“Your father's network doesn't end with me.”
“What happens if you press it?”
“The evidence burns.”
I looked around.
“What evidence?”
Margaret smiled.
Then every screen in the room turned on.
Thousands of documents appeared.
Bank records.
Birth records.
Property deeds.
Surveillance footage.
Everything.
I stared.
“Where did you get those?”
Rebecca stepped through the doorway.
“You forgot one person.”
Margaret's face changed.
Rebecca held up a flash drive.
“Your assistant.”
Margaret went pale.
I looked at Rebecca.
She nodded.
“She worked for us for six years.”
“Six years?”
“She knew I was alive.”
The room fell silent.
Margaret's hand tightened around the remote.
“Then you'll all die.”
She pressed it.
Nothing happened.
She pressed again.
Nothing.
Lucy suddenly smiled.
“The batteries are gone.”
Everyone turned.
She had taken the remote earlier.
A child.
A nine-year-old child.
With $2.17.
She had outsmarted the woman who had controlled half my family for twenty years.
Margaret lunged for her.
I moved first.
I pulled Lucy behind me.
Michael tackled Margaret.
The police entered.
Sirens filled the night.
For the first time, the Mercer empire cracked open.
But the files revealed one final problem.
My father's network had a successor.
And his name wasn't Michael.
It wasn't Margaret.
May you like
It wasn't me.
It was Rebecca.
