Chapter 5 - The Second Recording
They didn’t return to Claire’s apartment.
Daniel took Claire and Rachel to Mercer Capital’s offices.
The twenty-third floor had private security and restricted elevator access.
Rachel connected Eleanor’s flash drive to an isolated computer.
There was one audio file.
No title.
No date.
Daniel pressed play.
Richard Cole’s voice filled the room.
“You had one job.”
A second voice answered.
“I scared him.”
“You were supposed to stop him from meeting Mercer.”
Claire looked at Daniel.
The recording continued.
“I didn’t know his heart was that bad.”
Richard went silent.
Then:
“Where are the copies?”
“I couldn’t find them.”
“You’d better.”
Claire’s hands began trembling.
The second man spoke again.
“What about the daughter?”
Richard answered immediately.
“She doesn’t know anything.”
A pause.
“Keep it that way.”
The recording ended.
Claire sat completely still.
Daniel turned off the computer.
Rachel spoke first.
“This needs to go to law enforcement.”
Claire nodded.
“My father didn’t just have a heart attack.”
“We don’t know exactly what happened yet,” Rachel said.
“But someone confronted him before he died.”
Daniel looked furious.
Claire stood and walked toward the window.
Twenty-three floors below, people moved through the city as if nothing had changed.
But everything had.
Her father had died believing his daughter might someday hear that recording.
Daniel approached quietly.
“There’s something else you need to know.”
Claire turned.
“What?”
“Your father didn’t only give me evidence.”
Daniel opened a drawer.
He removed a legal folder.
“He transferred something.”
Claire stared at it.
“What?”
“Shares.”
“In Cole Development?”
Daniel nodded.
“How many?”
“Thirty-one percent.”
Claire actually laughed.
Not because it was funny.
Because it sounded impossible.
“My father didn’t own thirty-one percent.”
“Not publicly.”
Daniel handed her the documents.
“He held them through three private entities.”
Claire looked at the numbers.
Her heart began pounding.
“With your father dead, those shares passed to you.”
Claire slowly looked up.
Daniel continued.
“Richard currently controls forty-two percent.”
Claire understood.
“With my shares…”
“He no longer has unquestioned control.”
Rachel closed the laptop.
“And there’s a board meeting tomorrow morning.”
Claire looked at her.
“What happens there?”
Daniel’s expression hardened.
“Richard expects them to approve the Mercer rescue package.”
“But you canceled it.”
“Yes.”
Claire looked down at her father’s signature.
For months, Vanessa and her family had made Claire feel powerless.
They had ruined her reputation.
Taken her job.
Turned friends against her.
And less than twenty-four hours earlier, Vanessa had thrown water in her face while an entire restaurant watched.
May you like
Claire closed the folder.
“I’m going to that meeting.”
