The next morning, Daniel placed every document from the railway station across the dining table.
Mara sat opposite him with a notebook.
Samuel stood by the window.
The name Richard Mercer remained at the center of everything.
Daniel had spent his childhood hearing stories about his uncle.
Richard had been charming, successful, and generous.
He had brought Daniel expensive birthday gifts.
He had taught him how to swim.
He had been the relative everyone trusted.
That was precisely what made the new evidence so difficult to accept.
“People don't become different because we find a document,” Mara said.
Daniel looked at her.
“They don't.”
“But sometimes the document shows us which parts we never knew.”
Samuel placed a bank statement beside the others.
“These transfers began before Victor died.”
Daniel studied the dates.
The earliest payment had been made twenty-nine years earlier.
Three months before Daniel was born.
Mara noticed the connection.
“That's when Victor discovered Elena was pregnant.”
Daniel nodded.
Richard had been involved from the beginning.
They spent the morning tracing the payments.
Most went through companies that no longer existed.
One company, however, remained active.
Its name was Mercer Agricultural Holdings.
Daniel recognized it.
“My uncle's old company.”
Samuel shook his head.
“It never really disappeared.”
“What does that mean?”
“The company was transferred.”
“To whom?”
Samuel turned the page.
The current owner was listed under a trust.
The trustee's name was unfamiliar.
But the address was not.
Daniel knew it immediately.
“That's the old Hale residence.”
Mara looked at him.
“My father's house.”
They drove there that afternoon.
The property had been empty since Victor's death.
Mara had avoided it for years.
She stood at the gate for several seconds before opening it.
“I haven't been here since I was a child.”
Daniel took her hand.
“You don't have to go inside.”
“I do.”
The house smelled of dust and closed rooms.
Mara walked slowly through the hallway.
She stopped beside the staircase.
“This is where I remembered the door.”
Daniel looked at her.
“The night Victor died.”
“Yes.”
She touched the banister.
“I used to think the memory was incomplete because I was young.”
“What do you remember now?”
“A man's voice.”
“Whose?”
“I don't know.”
They searched Victor's old office.
Behind a row of books, Mara found a wooden panel.
Inside was a small notebook.
The first page contained only initials.
R.M.
Daniel opened it.
The entries described meetings between Richard Mercer and Arthur Vale.
They had been working together.
But Richard had not been the mastermind.
Someone else had been giving instructions.
Mara read the next entry aloud.
“Richard says the boy must remain under Daniel Mercer's name.”
Daniel looked at her.
“Boy?”
She turned the page.
“Victor wants the child. Richard says that cannot happen.”
The next entry was worse.
Arthur had been instructed to make sure Victor never gained legal control over Daniel.
Richard had arranged the payments.
But the person issuing the instructions remained unnamed.
Then Mara found a note written in a different hand.
I will not allow Victor to use the boy against Elena.
Daniel stared.
“That sounds like Dad.”
Mara shook her head.
“It isn't his handwriting.”
Samuel compared it with the letters.
“No.”
They searched the notebook for a signature.
There was none.
Then they heard a floorboard creak upstairs.
All three looked toward the ceiling.
Samuel motioned for them to stay back.
He went upstairs.
A minute later he called.
“There's someone here.”
Daniel followed.
They found an elderly woman standing in the hallway.
She held a cane.
She looked frightened.
Mara recognized her.
“Mrs. Bell?”
The woman nodded.
She had worked as Victor's housekeeper.
“I knew someone would come eventually.”
Daniel approached slowly.
“Do you know what happened to Victor?”
“I know what I saw.”
“Why didn't you tell anyone?”
Mrs. Bell looked toward the window.
“Because your father asked me not to.”
Daniel froze.
“My father?”
“Yes.”
She sat down.
“Your father came here the morning after Victor died.”
“What did he say?”
“He told me that if anyone asked, I had to say I had seen nothing.”
“Why?”
“Because he believed Arthur would kill me.”
Daniel sat opposite her.
“Did you see Arthur that night?”
“No.”
“Who did you see?”
Mrs. Bell looked at Mara.
“Her mother.”
Mara leaned forward.
“My mother?”
“She came to the house.”
“When?”
“Before the shooting.”
Daniel's pulse quickened.
“Why?”
“She wanted to take Mara away.”
Mara looked confused.
“Why?”
“Because Victor had told her something.”
“What?”
Mrs. Bell hesitated.
“He told her that Daniel wasn't the only child he had hidden.”
The room became silent.
Daniel stared.
“Another child?”
Mrs. Bell nodded.
Mara's face changed.
“Who?”
“I never learned the name.”
Samuel asked, “Was the child alive?”
“Yes.”
Daniel felt a chill.
“Where?”
Mrs. Bell shook her head.
“Victor kept records.”
“Where are they?”
“Richard took them.”
Daniel looked at Mara.
“So Richard knew.”
Mrs. Bell nodded.
“He knew everything.”
Daniel asked the question that had been haunting him.
“Who gave Richard his orders?”
Mrs. Bell closed her eyes.
“Your grandmother.”
Daniel stopped breathing.
“My grandmother?”
“Your father's mother.”
Mara looked at him.
Daniel's grandmother had died when he was a teenager.
She had always been kind to him.
Mrs. Bell continued.
“She believed Victor was dangerous.”
Daniel shook his head.
“That doesn't make sense.”
“She believed Elena was trapped.”
“What did she want?”
“To keep Victor away from both children.”
Daniel stood.
“Both children?”
Mrs. Bell nodded.
“Victor had another child before you.”
Mara whispered, “Who?”
Mrs. Bell looked at her.
“I don't know.”
Then she reached into her handbag.
She removed a photograph.
A young woman stood beside Victor.
In her arms was a baby.
On the back was a date.
Twenty-eight years earlier.
Daniel looked at the woman's face.
He did not recognize her.
But Mara did.
“That woman worked at the house.”
Mrs. Bell nodded.
“She was Victor's secretary.”
“What happened to her?”
“She disappeared.”
Samuel examined the photograph.
“There is a name written here.”
Daniel read it.
Clara Bennett.
Mara frowned.
“I've heard that name.”
“Where?”
“My mother used to mention her.”
Daniel looked at the photograph.
The unknown child had been born before him.
Victor had hidden him.
Richard knew.
Arthur knew.
And Daniel's grandmother had known.
The story had grown larger.
But Mrs. Bell had one final piece.
“Clara didn't disappear,” she said.
Daniel turned.
“What?”
“She left the country.”
“Where?”
Mrs. Bell looked at him.
“Canada.”
Mara's expression tightened.
“Do you know where?”
Mrs. Bell nodded.
“I kept the address.”
She handed Daniel a small card.
There was a name.
Clara Bennett.
And beneath it, a Canadian address.
Daniel looked at Mara.
“We need to find her.”
Mara nodded.
“But why?”
Daniel looked at the photograph again.
“Because she may know who the other child is.”
Samuel picked up the notebook.
“And if Richard's account is still active, that child may be connected to it.”
Daniel stared at the address.
The family secret they had thought ended with Victor had just opened another door.
This time, there was no dead man to question.
There was a living woman who had carried the truth for nearly three decades.
Click Here to continue read next: PART11: Clara Bennett Returns With the Missing Piece of Victor’s Past, Revealing a Family Connection That Forces Daniel and Mara to Reconsider What They Thought They Knew
On the Wedding Steps, a Groom Notices His Mother Holding His Hand Too Tightly, as Though She Already Knows the Ceremony Cannot Continue
Part 10 of 16
