Chapter 5 - THE NIGHT THE TRUTH RAN
The first shot sent everyone to the floor.
The second shattered a window.
Then security moved.
Fast.
Professional.
The guests screamed.
Chairs overturned.
Champagne glasses crashed across the marble floor.
Ethan grabbed my arm.
"Down!"
I dropped behind a table.
My heart was pounding so hard I could barely hear.
Chloe was somewhere to my left.
My mother was screaming her name.
Security officers began moving guests toward the interior hallway.
Another window shattered.
I looked toward Ethan.
"This isn't random."
"No."
"Mercer?"
He didn't answer.
He didn't need to.
A voice came through one of the officers' radios.
"Possible suspect moving east side."
Then—
"Wait!"
My mother's voice.
I turned.
She was running.
Not away from danger.
Toward it.
"Mom!"
I chased her.
Ethan cursed behind me.
I reached the service corridor just in time to see my mother disappear through an emergency exit.
Chloe was behind me.
"Natalie, let her go!"
I ignored her.
Outside, rain hammered the parking lot.
My mother was standing beside a black SUV.
A man stood in front of her.
Older.
Gray-haired.
But alive.
Daniel Mercer.
Chloe stopped behind me.
"Dad?"
Mercer looked at her.
And his expression changed.
For one brief second, he looked human.
Then he looked at my mother.
"You told them."
She shook her head.
"They found out."
He grabbed her arm.
I stepped forward.
"Let her go."
He looked at me.
"Natalie Carter."
"You know who I am?"
He smiled.
"I've known exactly who you are since you joined the Army."
My blood froze.
Ethan's voice came from behind me.
"Natalie. Move back."
Mercer laughed.
"The famous fiancé."
His eyes moved between us.
"You two really thought you could investigate this quietly?"
I stared at him.
"What happened to my father?"
Mercer's smile disappeared.
"Your father made a mistake."
"What mistake?"
"Thinking loyalty mattered."
I stepped closer.
"Did you kill him?"
My mother screamed, "Natalie, stop!"
Mercer looked at me.
And then he said the words I had spent nineteen years needing to hear.
"No."
Everything stopped.
"What?"
"I didn't kill Thomas."
My mother began sobbing.
Mercer released her arm.
"But I know who did."
Before I could answer, he shoved my mother toward me and ran.
Security shouted.
Ethan moved.
Men surrounded the SUV.
Mercer jumped inside.
The vehicle tore out of the parking lot.
A pursuit began.
I watched the taillights disappear into the rain.
Then I looked down.
Something was in my mother's hand.
A small flash drive.
She stared at it.
"No."
I took it.
She grabbed my wrist.
"Don't."
I looked at her.
"Why?"
Her voice broke.
"Because if you see what's on that drive, you'll never forgive me."
For years, I thought forgiveness was the thing she wanted from me.
Now I understood.
It was the thing she had feared most.
I pulled my hand away.
"You're right."
I walked back inside.
And plugged the drive into Ethan's secured laptop.
The first video appeared.
The date was nineteen years ago.
My father sat at a table.
Across from him—
my mother.
Robert.
And a younger Daniel Mercer.
My father's voice filled the room.
"If anything happens to me, Natalie gets the files."
Everyone went silent.
Then Dad looked directly into the camera.
And said something that made my entire body go cold.
"Margaret, if you're watching this, it means you chose them."
My mother collapsed.
May you like
And the video continued.
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