Chapter 4 - The Woman Buried Seven Years Ago
The room went silent.
I stared at Madeline.
“What did you say?”
She swallowed.
“Your mother isn't dead.”
I laughed.
Not because it was funny.
Because I couldn't process another impossible thing.
“My mother died in a hospice.”
“I know.”
“I attended the funeral.”
“I know.”
“I saw her body.”
Madeline looked at Nathaniel.
“She wasn't your mother.”
My entire body went cold.
Nathaniel turned to her.
“Explain.”
Madeline placed a photograph on Grant's desk.
A woman.
Gray hair.
Sitting in a wheelchair.
Alive.
My face drained of color.
“That isn't possible.”
“It was taken two months ago,” Madeline said.
“Where?”
“Blackwater Island.”
Nathaniel stared at the picture.
“Who took this?”
“My father.”
Daniel stepped toward me.
“Amelia, listen.”
“No.”
I backed away.
“Everyone keeps telling me things about my life as if I'm the last person who deserves to know it.”
Nathaniel reached for my hand.
I stepped back.
He stopped.
The pain in his face hurt me.
But I couldn't stop.
I needed answers.
I needed them now.
Madeline continued.
“My father has been moving money through your mother's trust for years.”
“Why?”
“Because your mother built the trust to protect Evan Mercer.”
Nathaniel's eyes hardened.
“My brother died seven years ago.”
Madeline shook her head.
“He disappeared seven years ago.”
Nathaniel stared.
“What?”
“My father told me that Evan wasn't killed.”
The room seemed to freeze.
Daniel whispered, “Then where is he?”
Madeline looked toward the door.
“In the same place as Amelia's mother.”
Nobody spoke.
Nathaniel moved first.
“Blackwater Island.”
Madeline nodded.
“There's a private medical facility there.”
I looked at Daniel.
“You knew?”
“I suspected.”
“You suspected my father might be alive?”
“Yes.”
“And you still went through with the gala?”
Daniel's expression broke.
“I didn't know how to stop them.”
I turned away.
The betrayal was becoming unbearable.
Nathaniel approached me carefully.
“Amelia.”
I looked at him.
“Don't ask me to trust you yet.”
“I won't.”
“Then help me find them.”
His answer was immediate.
“Yes.”
That night, a helicopter carried us toward Blackwater Island.
The sea beneath us was black.
Wind shook the aircraft.
Nathaniel sat across from me.
For the first time, he looked vulnerable.
“Evan was my older brother.”
“I know.”
“He disappeared after telling me he found someone moving money through our family trust.”
“My mother?”
“Yes.”
“Do you think they're alive?”
“I do now.”
I held the photograph.
“Why would everyone fake their deaths?”
“To protect themselves.”
“And me?”
“To protect you.”
I looked at him.
“Why did my mother never tell me?”
“Because if you knew, someone could use you to find them.”
I looked down.
That answer made sense.
But it didn't make the pain disappear.
We landed.
The facility was surrounded by trees and cliffs.
Security guards emerged.
Nathaniel walked forward.
“I'm here for Evan Mercer and Rose Bennett.”
A guard looked frightened.
Then lowered his weapon.
“Mr. Mercer.”
We entered.
The facility smelled like antiseptic and old medicine.
A doctor led us downstairs.
The last door opened.
A man sat near the window.
He had silver at his temples.
A scar along his jaw.
But Nathaniel recognized him instantly.
“Evan.”
The man stood slowly.
Nathaniel froze.
The brothers stared at each other.
Then Nathaniel crossed the room.
They embraced.
I looked away.
I couldn't watch without crying.
A second figure rolled into the room.
My mother.
I forgot how to breathe.
“Mom?”
She looked at me.
And smiled.
“Amelia.”
I fell beside her.
She touched my face.
“You got so tall.”
I laughed through tears.
“I'm twenty-four.”
“I know.”
“I thought you were dead.”
“I know.”
“You let me mourn you.”
Her eyes filled.
“I thought it would keep you alive.”
“You could have told me.”
“I wanted to.”
She looked at Nathaniel.
“I wanted to tell you both everything.”
Evan sat beside her.
“The people who took over Blackridge were watching every move we made.”
Nathaniel's voice was hard.
“Who?”
My mother answered.
“Arthur Reeves.”
Daniel went pale.
“My father.”
“Yes.”
He shook his head.
“No.”
My mother looked at him with sadness.
“Your father ordered Evan's disappearance.”
Daniel stepped backward.
“Why?”
“To obtain control of the trust.”
“And the gala?”
“Was the final step.”
I frowned.
“What final step?”
My mother looked at me.
“They needed you to sign something.”
“Me?”
“The account you manage contains the authorization key to the trust.”
I remembered the payroll documents.
The strange requests.
The transfers.
Daniel's insistence.
Madeline's proposal.
Everything connected.
My mother continued.
“Once Daniel married Madeline, the Reeves family would control the Cross properties.”
“And I?”
“They intended to frame you for stealing the missing money.”
Nathaniel's face went cold.
“They planned to make her the scapegoat.”
“Yes.”
Daniel looked sick.
“That was why my father wanted her fired.”
My mother nodded.
“Exactly.”
I sat back.
The humiliation suddenly felt different.
Daniel had not only rejected me.
The ceremony had been a trap.
They wanted hundreds of witnesses to see me humiliated, angry, unstable.
Then they wanted the records to show that the rejected employee had stolen millions.
Madeline looked at me.
“My father knows where the original ledger is.”
“Where?”
“The Blackridge estate.”
Nathaniel stood.
“Then we go back.”
My mother caught my hand.
“Amelia.”
I looked at her.
“There's one more thing.”
“What?”
She glanced toward Evan.
Then Nathaniel.
“The person who helped Arthur build the fraud network…”
She hesitated.
“…is someone you trust.”
My stomach tightened.
“Who?”
May you like
My mother whispered one name.
“Grant Holloway.”
