Chapter 3 - Chloe’s Contract
My goal was to determine what Chloe knew.
Her phone was copied under audit authority because Mercer Family Holdings received company funds.
Messages with Julian showed flirtation.
Affair.
No indication she knew they were related.
Messages with Arthur were different.
ARTHUR:
Stay close to Julian.
CHLOE:
Why?
ARTHUR:
He trusts people who admire him.
CHLOE:
That sounds manipulative.
ARTHUR:
It’s business.
Then payments.
Mercer Family Holdings received $4.3 million.
Chloe said her company provided event branding and hospitality services.
Some invoices were real.
Most were inflated.
Who prepared them?
Beatrice.
I stared at her.
“What?”
Beatrice said:
“I managed family image.”
That was not an answer.
Then we found a consulting contract signed by Chloe.
Scope:
Public relations advisory.
Signature genuine.
But a second version stored in Arthur’s office replaced the first page.
Scope:
Succession alignment and relational access to Julian Vance.
Chloe had not signed that version.
Document substitution.
Then a voice memo on Chloe’s phone.
She recorded Arthur secretly after becoming suspicious.
Arthur:
“Once Clara’s child is out of the line, your position becomes secure.”
Chloe:
“What position?”
Arthur:
“You don’t need to understand yet.”
She genuinely did not know.
Then another message from Beatrice.
BEATRICE:
If Clara confronts you publicly, don’t back down.
CHLOE:
About what?
BEATRICE:
Julian.
Beatrice had encouraged rivalry.
Why?
If Chloe and Clara fought, family scandal grew.
If Julian divorced Clara before birth, succession became vulnerable.
Then William Mercer entered the picture.
Chloe’s maternal uncle.
He had run Mercer Family Holdings before Chloe.
Bank records showed he met with Arthur monthly.
Then the audit found Arthur had paid William Mercer for decades.
Not merely support.
“Custodial maintenance.”
What custody?
The old Nathan Vance record.
Nathan may have been raised by the Mercer family.
Then William Mercer was subpoenaed.
He admitted Nathan Vance did not die.
He was renamed Daniel Mercer.
Chloe’s legal father.
The man whose DNA Arthur submitted.
That meant Daniel Mercer was Arthur’s son.
Chloe’s father was Arthur’s son.
Then Arthur could not also be Chloe’s biological father.
Contradiction.
Fresh DNA had said Arthur-Chloe parent-child.
Something was wrong.
The audit team checked sample labels.
Arthur’s fresh sample had been collected under supervision.
Chloe’s too.
No chain issue.
Then Rebecca realized the relationship model could also fit grandfather-granddaughter at very high certainty depending on markers.
The initial quick report had been oversimplified.
Full kinship analysis returned:
Arthur — biological grandfather.
Daniel Mercer/Nathan Vance — biological father.
Chloe was Arthur’s granddaughter.
Julian’s niece.
Still incestuous relationship.
Still concealed.
But different succession.
Then Beatrice whispered:
“Oh God.”
She knew more.
Arthur looked at her.
“Don’t.”
Too late.
Beatrice admitted Nathan was born from Arthur’s affair with Elaine Mercer.
Beatrice forced Arthur to give the baby to Elaine’s family to avoid scandal.
Nathan grew up as Daniel Mercer.
Years later, he had Chloe.
So Chloe was Arthur’s granddaughter.
Why hide all of that?
Because Nathan had a stronger claim under Arthur’s father’s trust than Julian.
Nathan was older.
Then Nathan died.
Chloe became his descendant.
Alternate heir.
That made the fraudulent succession setup coherent.
If my baby was pushed out, Chloe became next.
But did Chloe know?
No evidence.
Then we found one letter Daniel/Nathan left before he died.
To Chloe.
Unopened.
Held by William Mercer.
He had never given it to her.
The letter began:
Chloe, one day they may tell you you’re a Mercer. You are also a Vance.
I thought Chloe had willingly joined a plan to steal my family position—but her father had tried to tell her the truth before someone buried the letter.
May you like
**Chloe’s own father had warned her about the Vance bloodline years before the affair, but the letter was deliberately withheld from her.**
*The person who ordered William Mercer to hide that letter turned out to be the same person who applauded when Julian punched me.*
