Chapter 5 - THE DEAL BEHIND THE DIVORCE
Mercer Tower rose above Boston Harbor like a monument to Marcus’s ego.
Its forty-two floors housed construction firms, investment groups, and the offices of Mercer Development. At the top was a glass conference room where Marcus intended to sign the acquisition agreement with Rhodes Capital.
The closing was scheduled for the next morning.
Julian officially suspended it after discovering Peter’s betrayal, but Marcus continued telling employees and lenders the deal would proceed.
“He needs everyone to believe Rhodes Capital is still buying the company,” I said. “Otherwise his remaining creditors will seize the assets before he can move them.”
Ruiz nodded. “And Peter needs the acquisition completed before his payments are discovered.”
“Then Chloe is leverage.”
“Possibly.”
I studied the photograph police had found in her abandoned car. It showed her father, Andrew Vance, standing outside one of the East Boston buildings.
On the back was a date from ten years earlier.
Claire Bennett, an investigator from the state attorney general’s office, joined us. She had reopened Andrew’s old fraud case after receiving Chloe’s leaked records.
“Andrew Vance owned thirty percent of the waterfront parcels,” she explained. “Mercer wanted them. When Vance refused to sell, evidence appeared showing he had embezzled from his investors.”
“He was framed,” I said.
“Almost certainly. The questionable transfers moved through an account created with his stolen identity.”
Exactly what Marcus later attempted to do to Rhodes Capital.
Exactly what he had done to me during our marriage.
“How did Andrew die?” Julian asked.
“Suicide, nine months after his conviction.”
Chloe had spent a decade blaming Marcus.
But the earliest fraudulent transfer carried the authorization code of Raymond Mercer—Marcus’s father.
Raymond died six years ago, leaving the company to Marcus.
“Marcus may not have started the scheme,” I said.
“He continued it,” Claire replied. “And expanded it.”
Daniel entered the room.
“We located Peter’s vehicle beneath Mercer Tower.”
Julian stood.
“I’m going.”
“So am I,” I said.
“No.”
“Peter asked for me.”
“Which is why you’re staying here.”
“Julian, that tower contains forty-two floors of financial records I understand better than anyone else in this room. Marcus may also be holding Chloe.”
“She threatened our child.”
“Yes. And then she warned us Peter knew Emma’s location. She may be dangerous, but she is also the only witness who can connect him to the stolen drive.”
Ruiz supported my decision under one condition: I would remain behind the tactical team.
We entered Mercer Tower through an underground garage shortly after midnight.
The building appeared empty.
Then the elevators activated simultaneously.
Every floor indicator lit.
The fire doors locked behind us.
Peter’s voice came through the lobby speakers.
“Evelyn and Julian take the executive elevator. Everyone else stays where they are.”
Ruiz signaled for technicians to override the system.
Nothing responded.
Peter had isolated the building’s network.
A video appeared on the lobby display.
Chloe sat tied to a chair in the top-floor conference room. Blood marked one side of her face.
Marcus stood beside her.
He was not restrained.
“Come upstairs,” Marcus said. “We can finish this privately.”
Julian and I entered the executive elevator wearing concealed microphones. Ruiz’s team began climbing the emergency stairs.
The elevator rose.
On the twenty-first floor, it stopped.
The doors opened onto Mercer Development’s accounting department.
Every computer screen displayed the same document: a transfer agreement moving the East Boston properties and their environmental liabilities to Rhodes Capital.
The authorization line carried Julian’s electronic signature.
“It’s forged,” he said.
“Peter had access to your certificate.”
“He still needs board approval.”
“Not if he creates records showing approval occurred yesterday.”
We searched the server room.
Hard drives had been removed, but one terminal remained active. A countdown showed twenty-seven minutes until thousands of files would be erased.
I connected to the terminal.
“Can you stop it?” Julian asked.
“Not without Peter’s administrative key.”
A second screen displayed a message.
THE KEY IS ON THE FORTY-SECOND FLOOR.
The elevator continued upward.
When the doors opened, Marcus waited inside the conference room holding a pistol.
Peter stood behind Chloe.
“Close the doors,” Marcus ordered.
Julian did.
I looked at Chloe.
“Did you send the messages about Emma?”
“No.”
“The doll?”
“No.”
Peter tightened his hand on her shoulder.
“She became sentimental after meeting the child.”
Chloe laughed bitterly. “Four years pretending to love Marcus didn’t bother me. Threatening a little girl did.”
Marcus looked at her.
“You never loved me?”
“You destroyed my father.”
“Your father was a thief.”
“Your father framed him, and you buried the evidence.”
Marcus’s face shifted.
That accusation was true.
Peter placed the encrypted drive on the table.
“Evelyn opens this. Julian signs the acquisition agreement. Chloe records a statement claiming she fabricated every allegation. Then everyone leaves.”
“No one leaves,” Marcus said.
Peter looked at him.
“What?”
Marcus raised his pistol toward Peter.
“You became expensive.”
Peter shoved Chloe aside and reached for his weapon.
Julian pulled me behind the conference table as gunfire shattered the glass wall.
Chloe crawled toward the drive.
Marcus shot Peter in the shoulder.
Peter returned fire.
Marcus fell.
For one suspended second, no one moved.
Then Peter grabbed Chloe by the hair and pressed his weapon against her neck.
“Open the drive,” he ordered me.
I sat at the laptop and entered the first password.
A second authentication request appeared.
Marcus laughed weakly from the floor.
“She doesn’t know it.”
I looked at him.
“What is the second password?”
“My father created it.”
“Then how did you access the files?”
“I never could. That’s why I needed you.”
The truth clicked into place.
Marcus had not spent five years hunting the drive because he knew what it contained.
He feared what his father had hidden there.
I remembered a phrase Raymond used during dinners when he toasted business success.
Family protects the foundation.
I entered FOUNDATION.
The drive opened.
Its contents were far more devastating than any of us expected.
The first file was a video recorded five years earlier.
It showed Marcus and Chloe together in my kitchen on the night I discovered their affair.
Before I entered, Marcus looked toward a hidden camera and said, “Once Evelyn sees us, she’ll leave. Then we take the drive before she realizes the affair was staged.”
Chloe had not destroyed my marriage by seducing my husband.
Marcus had recruited her.
May you like
The betrayal was never about love.
My divorce had been engineered to keep me from discovering the crime buried inside his father’s files.
