Chapter 9 - THE NIGHT MY FATHER DIED
Victoria refused to speak at first.
Then Agent Reyes placed my father’s records in front of her.
Her resistance collapsed.
“I went to the marina.”
My chest tightened.
“The night he died?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“He called me.”
Her voice trembled.
“He said he had proof against Richard Mercer.”
I gripped the table.
“What happened?”
“We argued.”
Victoria looked older suddenly.
“He wanted to go to federal authorities.”
“And you stopped him.”
“I begged him to wait.”
“Why?”
“Because Hart Capital would have collapsed.”
I laughed bitterly.
“Of course.”
“He got on the boat.”
“Was Richard there?”
“No.”
She hesitated.
“At least, I didn’t see him.”
“What happened next?”
“I left.”
“And Dad?”
“His boat exploded twenty minutes later.”
The room went silent.
My eyes filled.
“You never told anyone you were there.”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because I knew how it looked.”
I slammed both hands onto the table.
“You let me believe he died alone.”
Victoria cried.
For the first time in my life, I saw my aunt cry.
“I was afraid.”
“So was I!”
My voice broke.
“I was twenty-two.”
She looked down.
“I know.”
“No, you don’t.”
I wiped my face.
“You went back to work.”
“You became chairwoman.”
“You buried his investigation.”
“And I buried my father.”
Victoria covered her mouth.
Reyes stepped in gently.
“We need facts.”
He asked about Richard.
Victoria admitted he had threatened Hart Capital weeks earlier.
Then she remembered a man near the marina.
Someone wearing a maintenance uniform.
She had thought nothing of it.
Reyes showed her photographs from an old case file.
She pointed immediately.
“That one.”
The man was currently employed by Richard Mercer’s private security company.
My blood went cold.
Then Reyes received a call.
He stepped aside.
When he returned, his expression was different.
“We found Andrew.”
“Alive?”
“Yes.”
My knees nearly buckled.
“Where?”
“Warehouse near the river.”
“Who was with him?”
Reyes looked at Richard Mercer through the glass wall.
“One of Richard’s security contractors.”
Richard was arrested before noon.
Gavin watched his father being led through the lobby in handcuffs.
He looked stunned.
Then terrified.
I approached him.
“You knew.”
“No.”
“You knew your father targeted my family.”
“I knew he disliked your father.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
Gavin swallowed.
“He encouraged me to date you.”
My heart stopped.
“So meeting me wasn’t an accident.”
He looked down.
“At first, no.”
I felt my entire relationship rearrange itself in my memory.
Every first.
Every anniversary.
Every promise.
All poisoned.
“But I did love you.”
I stared at him.
“No.”
“I did.”
“No, Gavin.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I know what love doesn’t look like.”
He said nothing.
I turned away.
Then he whispered:
“There’s still something you don’t know about Tessa.”
I stopped.
“What?”
He looked toward the elevators.
“She wasn’t just my affair.”
My stomach tightened.
“What was she?”
May you like
Gavin’s answer came quietly.
“She was working for my father.”
