Chapter 10 - The Chief's Price
Jenna told us everything.
Mercer had arrived an hour before Richard.
He didn't threaten her directly.
He didn't need to.
He placed photographs on her table showing her younger brother outside a nightclub where he'd once been questioned in a drug investigation.
No charges.
No conviction.
Just photographs.
“Imagine what people will think,” Mercer had said.
Then he asked for my files.
That was his method.
Not movie-villain violence.
Leverage.
Shame.
Fear.
Dad asked Jenna to write down every word she remembered before memory blurred.
She agreed.
Richard paced behind us.
“You're all insane.”
Jenna suddenly stood.
“No. I'm done being scared of you.”
His face twisted.
“You begged me for help.”
“And you used it.”
Richard grabbed his jacket.
Dad didn't stop him.
Neither did I.
That surprised Richard.
“You're letting me leave?”
“This isn't your patio,” Dad said. “Nobody needs to hit you.”
Richard's face reddened.
He walked out.
We preserved Jenna's doorbell footage showing Mercer and Richard arriving separately.
Then my attorney contacted the state-level public integrity office rather than local police.
Dad insisted on that.
Mercer controlled too many relationships locally.
By midnight, we had a clearer financial picture.
Mercer Strategic Consulting belonged to the chief's adult son.
Over eighteen months, companies connected to Cole Development had paid it nearly $600,000 for vague “security consulting.”
Then Evelyn found something worse.
Three trust-transfer attempts involving my property had been accompanied by notarized acknowledgments.
Same notary.
Same witness.
Same office address.
The address belonged to Richard's sister, Caroline.
I stared at the paperwork.
His entire family had treated my inheritance like a project.
But one name appeared repeatedly in handwritten approval notes.
Not Richard.
Not Mercer.
Edward Cole.
Richard's father.
The man who had toasted me at my wedding and called me “the daughter I never had.”
Dad leaned back.
“This started above Richard.”
My phone buzzed.
Edward was calling.
I answered.
His voice was calm.
“Lily, sweetheart, Richard has made a terrible mess.”
I said nothing.
“Come see me alone.”
“Why?”
“Because there's something about your mother Thomas never told you.”
Dad's face tightened.
May you like
Then Edward added:
“And once you hear it, you may not want your father sitting beside you.”
