Chapter 4 - THE MAN BEHIND THE MONEY
Marcus Vale had worked for Victor longer than Ethan had been alive. He knew the company history and every dark corner hidden inside it.
Detective Ortiz brought him in for questioning.
“You said Victor suspected someone inside the family,” she said.
Marcus nodded.
“Who?”
“Daniel.”
Ethan listened from the hallway.
Daniel Mercer had supposedly died in a boating accident fifteen years earlier. The family had held a funeral. There had been flowers, mourners, and a closed casket.
Marcus explained that Daniel had fought Victor over the company years before his disappearance. Daniel believed he deserved control. Victor bought him out and cut him off.
“He swore he would come back,” Marcus said.
“Why didn't you tell me?” Ethan asked.
“Because Victor wanted you protected.”
“Protected from my uncle?”
Marcus looked away.
“At first, I thought he was protecting you from Daniel. Later I realized he was also protecting you from yourself.”
Ethan hated the sentence because he knew what it meant.
Meanwhile, Victor's attorneys opened the first sealed part of his estate plan.
The will was even harsher than expected. If Victor died suspiciously within five years of signing it, the inheritance would be frozen and diverted to the Mercer Foundation.
Ethan understood the trap.
If he killed Victor, he would get nothing.
But someone else might still profit.
Ortiz discovered that the suspicious accounts had been created more than a year before Victor's stroke. Someone had been preparing the ground long before Ethan ever wheeled his father toward the pool.
Then a security technician found a hidden camera in Victor's office.
It contained dozens of recordings.
Victor meeting Daniel.
Victor meeting Marcus.
Victor meeting Claire, Ethan's mother, who had supposedly died eight years earlier.
Ethan stared at the screen.
“That's my mother.”
Marcus closed his eyes.
Victor's face on the video looked younger and harder.
Claire was alive.
Or someone wanted Ethan to believe she was.
Detective Ortiz asked Victor to identify the woman.
He moved one finger.
Yes.
Ethan whispered, “Why did everyone tell me she was dead?”
Victor's eyes closed.
He could not answer.
But he moved his finger again.
One.
Then two.
Maya translated the pattern.
TRAP.
The woman in the photograph was real.
The death was not.
May you like
Victor's office had once been Ethan's favorite room. As a child, he would sit under the enormous desk while his father worked late, listening to the clicking keyboard and the sound of rain against the windows. Now the room felt like the center of a maze. Marcus showed him contracts Ethan had never seen and investment structures he had never understood. Every answer produced another question. Why had Victor created the trust? Why had he recorded meetings with Claire? Why had he kept Daniel's old photograph? Ethan realized that his father's silence had not been emptiness. It had been strategy. The thought frightened him. Victor had been planning for betrayal long before Ethan committed it.
Ethan confronted Marcus in the parking garage. “If Dad suspected you, why are you still here?” Marcus answered, “Because he believed even a compromised person could make one honest choice.” Ethan looked at him. “Did you?” Marcus nodded. “Today.” The answer did not absolve him, but it showed Ethan that guilt could either become another excuse or become the beginning of responsibility.
