Chapter 7 - The Woman in the Photograph
Nathan brought the photograph to his mother, Margaret Mercer.
She lived twenty minutes away.
The moment she saw it, her coffee cup stopped halfway to her lips.
“Who gave you this?”
“Who is Sarah?”
Margaret set the cup down.
“Nathan—”
“Don’t.”
His voice was quiet.
That frightened her more than shouting would have.
“My daughter was hidden from me. Grace was threatened. Grandma discovered forged documents. Victoria and Harold have been covering something up.”
He placed the photograph on the table.
“Who is Sarah?”
Margaret looked suddenly old.
“She was your father’s sister.”
Nathan stared at her.
“My aunt?”
“Half sister.”
Nathan had never heard her name.
Margaret explained that Charles Mercer’s father had another child before his marriage.
Sarah.
The Mercer family refused to acknowledge her publicly.
Evelyn later regretted it.
Years after Nathan was born, Evelyn secretly reconnected with Sarah.
“And the locket?”
“Evelyn had two made.”
Nathan’s heart beat faster.
“One for Sarah?”
Margaret nodded.
“And one she kept.”
“Then Lily has Grandma’s.”
“I assume so.”
Nathan studied his mother.
“You’re hiding something.”
Margaret’s eyes filled.
“Your father signed an agreement.”
Nathan remembered the anonymous message.
ASK YOUR FATHER WHAT HE SIGNED.
“What agreement?”
Before Margaret could answer, the front door opened.
Victoria walked in.
Nathan rose instantly.
“What are you doing here?”
Margaret looked horrified.
“I called her.”
Nathan couldn’t believe it.
“Why?”
“Because this needs to stop.”
Victoria’s bruised cheek had faded to yellow.
She looked at Nathan with controlled desperation.
“You’re destroying your family over a woman who slept with you once.”
Nathan stepped toward her.
“No. You destroyed my family when you erased my messages and helped threaten the mother of my child.”
Margaret gasped.
Victoria looked at her.
That single glance told Nathan everything.
His mother hadn’t known that part.
“You told me Grace took the money,” Margaret whispered.
Victoria’s face tightened.
Nathan turned toward his mother.
“What money?”
Margaret began crying.
“Two million dollars.”
Nathan stared at Grace’s supposed payment records that Margaret retrieved from a locked cabinet.
The recipient account bore Grace Bennett’s name.
But Nathan immediately spotted something wrong.
The account had been opened three days before the transfer.
Grace had never received two million dollars.
May you like
Someone had created a financial identity in her name.
And Victoria had just made the mistake of bringing Nathan directly to the evidence.
