Chapter 10 - JONATHAN'S LAST MESSAGE
The flash drive was more than twenty years old.
Rachel Sloan had a digital forensic technician copy it before anyone opened the files.
There were dozens of documents.
Scanned bank records.
Internal Vance Industries memos.
Photographs of ledger pages.
Audio recordings.
And one video.
Jonathan Vance appeared on-screen.
He was thirty-four.
Dark hair.
Serious eyes.
Sarah stared at the father she had never known.
Michael stared at the man he had spent most of his life believing was his uncle.
Jonathan looked directly into the camera.
“If you are watching this, I probably failed to fix things myself.”
Sarah covered her mouth.
Jonathan continued.
“My father has been using Vance subsidiaries to move money through foreign accounts.”
“My brother Samuel knows.”
“He says exposing our father will destroy the company.”
“He may be right.”
“But that doesn't make what they're doing legal.”
Michael looked at the documents beside the laptop.
Jonathan took a breath.
“There is another reason I am recording this.”
“Rebecca is pregnant.”
Sarah began crying silently.
“I love her.”
“I intend to acknowledge our child.”
“I've also learned something about Eleanor's son.”
Michael leaned closer.
Jonathan's expression became uneasy.
“Eleanor believes I am Michael's father.”
“I believed that too.”
“But the timing never made sense.”
“I confronted her.”
“She finally admitted there was another man.”
Michael went rigid.
Sarah looked at him.
Jonathan continued.
“She would not tell me his name.”
“She said revealing it would destroy all of us.”
The recording ended.
Michael stared at the blank screen.
“So my father could be anyone.”
Claire finally spoke.
“Not anyone.”
Everyone turned.
Claire looked uncomfortable.
“Jonathan told me about Eleanor.”
“He said he suspected the other man was connected to the company.”
“Who?”
“He never knew.”
Detective Ortiz began cross-checking old employee records.
Sarah returned to the letter from her mother.
One line suddenly stood out.
I made copies.
Maybe Rebecca had found more than DNA evidence.
They searched the storage boxes again.
Near the bottom of a box containing old Christmas decorations, Ortiz found a photograph taped beneath cardboard.
Eleanor stood beside a young man at a company picnic.
The man was handsome.
Black hair.
Green eyes.
On the back, Rebecca had written one name.
David Mercer.
Michael looked at Rachel Sloan.
“Mercer?”
Rachel stared at the photograph.
“Charles Mercer's son.”
“The attorney's son?”
“Yes.”
Michael searched the name.
David Mercer had died in a car crash in 1998.
But the photograph wasn't enough.
Ortiz obtained archived personnel files.
David Mercer had worked as junior counsel for Vance Industries during 1996.
He had traveled repeatedly with Eleanor while handling charitable foundation matters.
Then a medical record surfaced.
David Mercer had type O-negative blood.
So did Michael.
Jonathan had been A-positive.
Samuel was AB-positive.
Not proof.
But enough to keep digging.
Rachel made a call to David's surviving sister.
She agreed to provide a DNA sample.
The result would take days.
Meanwhile, police located Samuel.
He had been living under the name Stephen Vale in a coastal town near Norfolk.
Before officers could reach his house, he disappeared.
But they found passports.
Cash.
Photographs.
And one recently printed newspaper article.
The headline concerned Michael.
VANCE HEIR AND PREGNANT WIFE SEPARATE.
Sarah stared at the photograph.
“He's been watching us.”
Ortiz nodded.
“Recently.”
Michael frowned.
“Why?”
Then Thomas noticed something else.
A handwritten note beside the clipping.
The baby changes the trust.
Samuel knew about Grace.
Sarah felt a familiar fear return.
“What if Eleanor didn't act alone?”
Michael immediately doubled hospital security.
That night, Eleanor finally agreed to speak.
Ortiz allowed Michael to watch remotely.
Eleanor sat in an interview room wearing gray jail clothes instead of pearls and silk.
For the first time, Michael thought she looked ordinary.
Old.
Tired.
Ortiz placed Jonathan's photograph in front of her.
“Samuel is alive.”
Eleanor closed her eyes.
“I know.”
“He called Michael.”
“I expected he would.”
“Why now?”
“Because Grace survived.”
Ortiz leaned closer.
“What does Grace's birth expose?”
Eleanor looked directly toward the camera recording her.
“Everything.”
“Be specific.”
Eleanor shook her head.
“You think I pushed Sarah because I wanted the trust.”
“Didn't you?”
Eleanor gave a bitter smile.
“I was trying to stop Samuel.”
Michael leaned toward the monitor.
Ortiz frowned.
“You pushed a pregnant woman down stairs to protect her?”
“No.”
“I pushed her because I was terrified and desperate.”
“That isn't protection.”
“I know.”
Eleanor's voice cracked for the first time.
“But if Grace was born and the trust activated, Samuel promised he would come back.”
Ortiz asked.
“And do what?”
May you like
Eleanor stared at the table.
“Kill everyone who could prove Jonathan's death wasn't an accident.”
