Chapter 14 - The Woman in the Photograph
“Linda Mercer.”
Daniel stared at his father.
His mother.
“No.”
Richard smiled.
Claire bent down slowly to pick up the folder.
Michael whispered, “Mom?”
Their mother had died thirteen years earlier.
Cancer.
Daniel had sat beside her hospital bed.
Held her hand.
Watched her breathing slow.
There was no fake death.
No disappearance.
No secret tunnel.
Nothing.
Richard watched their faces.
“She found the first accounts.”
Daniel frowned.
“You said she started it.”
“She did.”
Claire looked at Richard.
“Explain.”
Richard leaned back.
“Linda discovered where the money was coming from. She had two choices. Report me and destroy her family, or help me keep control.”
Daniel felt sick.
“And she helped you?”
“At first.”
Michael shook his head.
“No.”
Richard ignored him.
“Then she grew a conscience.”
Claire opened the folder that had fallen.
Inside was an old photograph.
Linda Mercer.
Arthur Vale.
Richard.
And a woman Daniel didn’t know.
Standing together outside the old mill.
Claire held it up.
“Who is she?”
Richard’s smile vanished.
Daniel noticed.
“Who?”
Richard looked away.
Grant took the photo.
Vanessa, sitting nearby in cuffs, suddenly whispered:
“That’s my mother.”
Arthur’s wife.
The woman Vanessa said had died when she was a baby.
Vanessa stood.
“Her name was Evelyn.”
Claire stared at the photo.
“She’s the one who sent me the first documents.”
Daniel looked at her.
“What?”
“Four years ago. An envelope arrived with no return address.”
Michael sat up despite the paramedic’s protest.
“You never told me.”
“I didn’t know who sent it.”
Vanessa’s face went white.
“My mother is alive?”
Richard said nothing.
Vanessa stepped toward him.
“Answer me.”
“Sit down.”
“Is she alive?”
Richard looked at Daniel.
“That’s your problem with women, son. Eventually they start asking questions.”
Daniel nearly hit him.
Grant stepped between them.
Vanessa laughed.
Not because anything was funny.
Because something inside her had finally cracked.
“All my life, Dad told me my mother died in a car accident.”
Claire shook her head.
“She didn’t.”
“How do you know?”
Claire reached into the evidence box.
She pulled out a letter.
“I found this beneath the mansion.”
Vanessa stared at the handwriting.
Her knees buckled.
Claire read softly.
“Vanessa, if you ever find this, I need you to know I did not leave you willingly.”
Vanessa covered her mouth.
Daniel looked at Richard.
“You people built an entire family out of graves that weren’t real.”
Richard said nothing.
Claire kept reading.
“Arthur discovered that I was helping Linda Mercer copy the accounts. He locked me away until I agreed to tell him where the copies were.”
Vanessa shook her head.
“No…”
Claire looked toward Daniel.
“There’s an address.”
“Where?”
“Vermont.”
Grant took the letter.
“We’ll send people.”
Vanessa turned toward Claire.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
Claire’s face hardened.
“You were keeping me in a room under my children’s home.”
Vanessa looked down.
There was nothing she could say to that.
Daniel stepped away from everyone.
His phone vibrated.
Unknown number.
He answered.
“Hello?”
A woman spoke.
Older.
Weak.
“Daniel Mercer?”
“Yes.”
“My name is Evelyn Vale.”
Everyone in the room went silent.
Daniel looked at Vanessa.
Her face went blank.
The voice continued.
“I heard Arthur is dead.”
Daniel swallowed.
“Yes.”
A shaky breath came through the phone.
“Then maybe I can finally come home.”
Vanessa began crying.
But Evelyn wasn’t finished.
“There’s something you need to know before Richard starts talking.”
Daniel looked at his father.
Richard’s face had lost all color.
“What?”
Evelyn whispered:
“Richard Mercer didn’t kill your mother.”
Daniel frowned.
“I know. Cancer did.”
“No.”
A pause.
May you like
Then:
“Linda was poisoned.”
