Chapter 8 - The Fifth Floor
Emergency lights flickered on.
Elena looked toward the dark stairwell.
“That was Matthew.”
“You don’t know that,” Adrian said.
“I know his voice.”
Mara contacted security.
“No signal.”
Adrian checked his phone.
Nothing.
Someone had intentionally created a dead zone or shut down the building’s internal repeaters.
One of Adrian’s security men approached the stairwell.
“Mr. Mercer, stay behind us.”
Adrian ignored the instruction.
They climbed.
Second floor.
Third.
Fourth.
No sound.
When they reached the fifth-floor landing, the door stood partly open.
Light spilled through the gap.
Adrian pushed it carefully.
The entire floor was under renovation.
Plastic sheets hung from temporary framing.
Construction lamps cast long shadows.
“Matthew?”
Elena called.
No response.
They moved deeper.
Then Elena saw blood.
Only a small amount.
A streak across the concrete beside an overturned chair.
Her stomach twisted.
“Matthew?”
A shape moved behind plastic.
Security rushed forward.
Matthew Cole stumbled out.
His shirt was torn at the shoulder.
A bruise darkened one side of his face.
But he was standing.
“Elena.”
She rushed toward him.
“What happened?”
“They were waiting.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know.”
Adrian looked around.
“Where are they?”
“Gone.”
Matthew leaned against a column.
“I got here twenty minutes ago.”
“Someone hit me from behind.”
“They took my phone.”
Mara frowned.
“Then who sent Elena the message?”
Matthew looked confused.
“What message?”
Elena’s skin prickled.
“You didn’t text me?”
“No.”
“Someone used your number.”
Matthew’s expression changed.
“Then this was a setup.”
Adrian turned to security.
“Get us out.”
Matthew grabbed his sleeve.
“No.”
Adrian looked at him.
“The box.”
“What about it?”
“It isn’t at the bank anymore.”
Mara stared.
“What?”
Matthew pointed toward the floor.
“When Grantwell acquired this building, Union Federal still had legacy storage beneath the old vault.”
“Several unclaimed boxes were transferred here temporarily before the merger.”
“Box 417 was one.”
Elena looked around.
“So it’s in this building.”
Matthew nodded.
“Or it was.”
Adrian’s jaw tightened.
“Take us there.”
They descended through a service stairwell.
The basement smelled of metal and concrete.
Matthew led them through two locked doors.
At the end of a narrow corridor stood an old vault.
Its round steel door had been permanently fixed open.
Inside were hundreds of empty metal compartments.
Matthew walked to the back wall.
The box remained in place.
Elena held up the brass key.
Matthew nodded.
“That’s it.”
Mara photographed everything before Elena inserted the key.
It turned.
Adrian pulled the box out.
They carried it to a table.
Inside were three sealed folders.
A flash drive.
A ledger.
And another letter from Ava.
Elena opened the letter first.
Her hands trembled.
Ava’s handwriting filled two pages.
ELENA,
IF YOU ARE READING THIS, THINGS GOT WORSE THAN I HOPED.
I NEED YOU TO KNOW I AM SORRY I DIDN’T TELL ADRIAN MYSELF.
I WANTED TO.
BUT I FOUND OUT SOMEONE WAS TRACKING HIS CALLS AND EMAILS THROUGH THE FAMILY OFFICE.
I BELIEVED CONTACTING HIM WOULD LEAD THEM TO YOU.
Elena stopped.
Adrian stared.
“They were monitoring me?”
Mara looked at Matthew.
He nodded reluctantly.
“The Mercer family office had extraordinary access.”
“Julian controlled IT security at the time.”
Adrian’s expression became lethal.
Elena continued reading.
I ALSO FOUND SOMETHING ABOUT DANIEL.
HE WAS NOT ONLY WORKING FOR VIVIAN.
HE WAS REPORTING TO JULIAN.
Elena looked at Adrian.
They already suspected that.
The next lines were worse.
JULIAN KNOWS THE BABY IS ADRIAN’S.
HE OBTAINED A COPY OF YOUR EARLY PRENATAL RECORD THROUGH SOMEONE AT THE CLINIC.
HE IS NOT TRYING TO PROTECT THE FAMILY.
HE IS TRYING TO CONTROL WHO COUNTS AS FAMILY.
Adrian gripped the table.
Mara opened the first folder.
Inside were bank transfers totaling nearly twelve million dollars.
Payments ran through shell corporations.
Daniel Reed appeared repeatedly.
So did Mark Ellison.
Several Grantwell entities.
And one recipient that made Vivian’s story suddenly more complicated.
V.M. CONSULTING.
Adrian stared.
“Mother.”
Matthew shook his head.
“Maybe.”
“What does maybe mean?”
“V.M. Consulting wasn’t Vivian’s company.”
“Whose was it?”
Matthew hesitated.
“Victoria Mercer.”
Adrian frowned.
“There is no Victoria Mercer.”
Matthew looked at him.
“There was.”
The room became silent.
Adrian stared.
“My grandfather had another daughter.”
“What?”
“Your father’s younger half sister.”
“No.”
“He never had a sister.”
“He did.”
Matthew opened the ledger.
“Victoria Mercer was removed from almost every official family record after a lawsuit thirty years ago.”
Mara searched her laptop offline.
“Why?”
Matthew answered.
“Because she challenged the trust.”
Adrian’s phone suddenly regained signal.
A dozen notifications appeared.
One came from Vivian.
CALL ME IMMEDIATELY.
Another came from hotel security.
URGENT.
Adrian called.
The security chief answered.
“Sir.”
“What happened?”
“Mrs. Mercer is safe.”
“And the children?”
A pause.
Adrian’s blood went cold.
“Where are the children?”
“They’re here.”
Elena grabbed his arm.
“What happened?”
The chief continued.
“But someone tried to enter the suite using hotel credentials.”
Adrian’s eyes sharpened.
“Who?”
“We detained him.”
“Name?”
“He says his name is Daniel Reed.”
Elena stared.
Daniel had been with them less than two hours earlier.
Adrian asked one more question.
“Why was he trying to enter my children’s room?”
The security chief hesitated.
“He says he came to warn them.”
“Warn them about what?”
May you like
The answer changed everything.
“He says Vivian Mercer is lying.”
