Chapter 13 - Malcolm’s Offer
I put the phone on speaker.
Grace listened beside me.
Police had already begun tracing the call.
“What belongs to you?”
Malcolm laughed softly.
“Your father’s private documents.”
“They belonged to him.”
“And now they belong to investigators.”
His voice remained calm.
“You always were emotional, Daniel.”
“My wife is dead.”
“My father may have been murdered.”
“My brother is under arrest.”
“And you think emotion is the problem?”
“You still don’t understand your family.”
“Then explain it.”
Malcolm paused.
“Richard asked me to protect Mercer Holdings.”
“By stealing from it?”
“By keeping it alive.”
“Claire disagreed.”
“Claire was idealistic.”
“She believed laws were more important than legacy.”
I felt disgust.
“She was better than all of us.”
“Yes.”
For the first time, Malcolm sounded sincere.
“That was precisely the problem.”
Grace stared at the phone.
Police signaled that they needed more time.
I kept him talking.
“What do you want?”
“The journals.”
“You already had them.”
“Not all of them.”
My heart changed rhythm.
“What are you talking about?”
“One journal is missing.”
I looked at the red box.
There were twelve journals.
Apparently there should have been thirteen.
“What’s in it?”
Malcolm chuckled.
“If I knew, I wouldn’t be calling you.”
Then his tone changed.
“Give me the journal if you find it.”
“And?”
“I disappear.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“I will provide enough evidence to ensure Victoria and Ethan spend decades in prison.”
“You’re offering to sacrifice them.”
“Ethan sacrificed himself years ago.”
I looked at Grace.
“What about Noah?”
“He was never supposed to be harmed.”
My voice became cold.
“You used a woman who bruised his wrist.”
“That was Victoria’s stupidity.”
“You tried to steal his inheritance.”
“I intended to control it.”
“There’s a difference?”
“To men who build empires, yes.”
I wanted to keep him talking.
“Why kill Claire?”
Silence followed.
Then Malcolm said something unexpected.
“I did not kill Claire.”
“Ethan said you were with her.”
“I was.”
“She was alive.”
“Yes.”
“What happened?”
Another silence.
“Claire made a choice.”
“What choice?”
“She refused medical help until I promised Noah would be protected.”
I nearly shouted.
“You expect me to believe you?”
“No.”
His voice softened.
“But you should ask Grace why Claire called her after the crash.”
I turned toward Grace.
She looked confused.
“She called me before.”
Malcolm laughed.
“No.”
“She called you twice.”
Grace went pale.
“One call was deleted from the phone records.”
Police signaled.
They had the location.
Malcolm was calling from an old Mercer factory outside the city.
Officers moved immediately.
Before the call ended, Malcolm spoke once more.
“Daniel.”
“What?”
“If you find Claire’s thirteenth journal, do not read the final page in front of Noah.”
The line disconnected.
Twenty minutes later, police entered the abandoned factory.
Malcolm was gone.
But they found Paul Reeves chained inside an office.
And beside him was a photograph of Grace entering the Mercer estate two years earlier.
May you like
Someone had written four words across it.
SHE KNOWS WHERE IT IS.
