Chapter 7 - THE NAME ON THE TAPE
The name on Claire's recording was Thomas Vane.
To Evie, it meant almost nothing.
To everyone older than forty in the room, it meant too much.
Thomas Vane had been Noah Mercer's closest friend, his attorney, and the executor of the original Mercer estate.
He had also been the man who walked eight-year-old Evie into the church at her mother's funeral.
Evie remembered his hand around hers.
She remembered him kneeling to straighten her black coat.
She remembered him whispering that her mother was finally at peace.
Now Claire's recorded voice said Thomas had helped Graham Blake create false psychiatric complaints and had intercepted legal documents meant for Noah.
The tape ended before explaining why.
Evie sat perfectly still.
Thomas Vane was seventy-four now and still alive.
He was also chairman emeritus of the law firm that represented the Mercer Trust.
Sebastian looked like he had aged ten years in ten minutes.
“I trusted him.”
Evie laughed bitterly.
“My father trusted you.”
Sebastian absorbed the accusation.
Daniel had stopped struggling.
He looked frightened in a new way.
Not caught.
Cornered.
Evie noticed.
“You know Thomas.”
Daniel looked at her.
“Everyone knows Thomas.”
“No.”
She pointed at him.
“You reacted before the tape said his name.”
Daniel's face tightened.
“You lunged for the recorder.”
“I didn't know what was on it.”
“Exactly.”
Evie stepped closer.
“You were afraid of whatever my mother had recorded.”
Daniel glanced at Sebastian.
That tiny movement was enough.
Sebastian saw it too.
“What did Thomas tell you?”
Daniel said nothing.
Sebastian's voice cracked like a whip.
“What did he tell you?”
Daniel finally shouted back.
“That you were going to destroy me!”
The room went silent.
Daniel's chest heaved.
He looked around and realized he had opened a door he could not close.
“He said you never intended to let me lead the company.”
Sebastian stared at him.
“That is true.”
Daniel flinched as if slapped.
Sebastian continued.
“I intended to let you earn it.”
“You gave Evie control.”
“Noah gave Evie control.”
“You let him structure it that way.”
“Because they were his shares.”
Daniel laughed wildly.
“Our name is on the building.”
“And there is your problem.”
Sebastian's voice dropped.
“You think a name is ownership.”
Daniel looked at Evie.
“Thomas said if the trust activated after the baby was born, I could spend my whole life asking my wife for permission to run my own company.”
Evie felt a strange calm settle over her.
“So you decided to make me legally incompetent.”
Daniel shook his head.
“That was not supposed to happen.”
“What was supposed to happen?”
“A separation.”
“Engineered by sleeping with Lauren.”
Daniel looked away.
“You were supposed to get angry.”
“I did.”
“You were supposed to leave.”
“I didn't.”
“So you escalated.”
“No.”
“The fake psychiatric report.”
“That was Thomas.”
“The pills.”
“I don't know about the pills.”
“The threat to my baby.”
“I would never hurt my child.”
Evie almost believed the last sentence.
That was what made it worse.
Daniel had divided the world into things he considered harm and things he considered strategy.
He could terrify her, humiliate her, discredit her, and strike her, while still believing he loved the baby.
Lauren spoke from the back of the room.
“He told me the same thing.”
Daniel spun toward her.
Lauren continued.
“He said Evie would leave, the board would panic, and Sebastian would restructure the shares.”
She looked at Evie.
“I believed him.”
“That does not make you innocent.”
“I know.”
The answer disarmed Evie more than another excuse would have.
A detective's phone rang.
He listened, then looked at Sebastian.
“Brennan is awake.”
Everyone turned.
“He says he did not steal the medication.”
“What did he steal?” Sebastian asked.
“The black case.”
“On whose orders?”
The detective paused.
“Thomas Vane's.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
Evie felt the last doubt disappear.
Thomas was not an old secret.
He was an active one.
The detective continued.
“Brennan says Vane contacted him six months ago and paid him to recover materials from the tunnel.”
“Why did he tie Brennan up?” Evie asked.
“He says Vane did not.”
“Then who did?”
“He never saw the attacker's face.”
The unidentified person in the tunnel remained loose.
Then came another detail.
Brennan claimed Daniel had asked him for copies of the mansion's security logs, but Daniel never knew Brennan was also working for Thomas.
That meant Daniel's scheme and Thomas's scheme overlapped without being identical.
Evie hated the complexity because it meant danger could come from more than one direction.
Sebastian asked the obvious question.
“Where is Thomas now?”
The detective answered.
“His house is empty.”
“Car?”
“Gone.”
“Phone?”
“Off.”
Evie felt the baby shift again.
A sharp pressure moved low across her abdomen.
She gripped the back of a chair.
Helen was beside her instantly.
“Pain?”
“Just pressure.”
Helen checked her watch.
“Tell me if it happens again.”
Evie nodded, though fear had already begun to spread.
The pressure came again seven minutes later.
Then five minutes after that.
Helen's face changed.
“We're going to the hospital.”
Daniel stepped forward.
“Is the baby coming?”
“No one asked you,” Sebastian said.
Evie did not have the energy to fight them.
As officers cleared a route to the car, Lauren moved close enough to whisper.
“Evie.”
Evie turned.
Lauren looked terrified.
“There's something I haven't told the police.”
“What?”
“Daniel met Thomas yesterday.”
Evie stared.
“Where?”
“At the old Mercer boathouse.”
The word boathouse struck like ice.
Her father had died in a boating accident.
May you like
Lauren's next sentence made the corridor tilt.
“Thomas told Daniel that if Sebastian opened the black case, the truth about your father's death would come out too.”
