Chapter 6 - The Nurse Who Vanished
Linda Mercer lived forty minutes away.
She had never moved across the country.
She had never changed her name.
She had simply been afraid.
Samuel arranged a video call.
When Linda’s face appeared on Daniel’s laptop, Rocky refused to look at the screen.
She was sixty-two now.
Gray-haired.
Tired.
And visibly shaken when she saw him.
“Rocky.”
“Don’t say my name like you know me.”
Linda ignored him.
Daniel sat beside Maya.
Emma had finally fallen asleep upstairs after eating a proper meal.
“Ms. Mercer,” Daniel said, “did you notarize a letter revoking my mother’s trust?”
Linda’s eyes filled.
“Yes.”
Rocky smiled.
“There. Done.”
Linda continued.
“But Evelyn never signed it.”
The smile vanished.
Daniel leaned forward.
“What?”
“Your father brought me a document after Evelyn was already sedated.”
Rocky shouted, “Liar.”
Linda flinched.
“He said she had signed it earlier and needed me to notarize it.”
“Why would you do that?”
Linda looked ashamed.
“Because he threatened me.”
“With what?”
“My son had a drug conviction. Rocky knew the hospital administrator. He said he would make sure I lost my nursing license.”
Maya looked toward Rocky.
The same man who had called her daughter trash had bullied a nurse into falsifying estate documents.
Daniel’s hands clenched.
“Why didn’t you tell anyone?”
“I tried.”
Linda disappeared from the video for a moment.
Then returned holding an old flip phone sealed inside a plastic evidence bag.
“I recorded him.”
Rocky’s chair scraped violently across the floor.
“No.”
Everyone turned.
That one word was almost a confession.
Linda continued.
“I was scared he’d deny everything. So the next time he came to my apartment, I turned on my phone.”
Daniel whispered, “Do you still have the recording?”
“Yes.”
Rocky surged forward and slammed the laptop shut.
Maya jumped.
Daniel grabbed his father’s wrist.
“Don’t touch it again.”
Rocky finally exploded.
“You think your mother was some saint? She was giving away everything we built!”
Daniel stared at him.
“We?”
“I ran that company for thirty years!”
“Mom owned fifty-one percent.”
“She didn’t earn it!”
Maya went still.
There it was.
Not denial.
Resentment.
Rocky realized what he had said.
Too late.
Daniel reopened the laptop.
Linda was still connected.
“Send the recording to Samuel.”
“I already did.”
Rocky’s face changed.
Samuel’s voice came through another phone.
“And I’ve saved multiple copies.”
For the first time, Maya saw Rocky truly cornered.
But he wasn’t finished.
He looked at Daniel.
“You want to hear recordings?”
A strange smile appeared.
“I have one too.”
Daniel frowned.
Rocky reached inside his cardigan.
Pulled out his phone.
And pressed play.
Maya heard her own voice.
Crying.
Then saying:
“If Daniel ever learns the whole truth, I could lose everything.”
Daniel turned slowly toward her.
Maya’s blood went cold.
May you like
She recognized the conversation.
But Rocky had cut out the sentence before it.
