Chapter 5 - What Derek Hid in Delaware
...the Mercer account.”
Mara stopped the recording.
“What Mercer account?”
Thomas did not know either.
For the first time, Mara saw genuine confusion on her father’s face.
Rebecca traced the reference through old banking records.
Before Sloan Urban existed, Thomas had established an education trust for Mara.
At twenty-five, she received control of the remaining funds.
$120,000.
Mara remembered withdrawing $60,000.
She had invested it in the company.
But records showed the entire $120,000 had eventually reached Sloan Urban.
“I didn’t transfer the rest.”
Derek had.
Using an authorization Mara had signed for a narrower transaction.
The discovery transformed the dispute again.
Derek had not merely minimized Mara’s contributions.
He may have misused her separate assets.
Rebecca confronted Charles privately.
By evening, Derek offered forty million dollars.
Mara declined.
“This stopped being about a number.”
“What is it about?” Rebecca asked.
“My name.”
At the next hearing, Mara entered through the same courtroom doors where Thomas had appeared days earlier.
Her cheek was healing.
Derek sat at the opposite table.
He did not look at her.
Judge Ramirez addressed the assault first.
Then discovery.
Then the emergency asset freeze.
Rebecca introduced the original ownership agreement.
Charles attacked its interpretation but not its authenticity.
That mattered.
Next came Caleb.
Under oath, he admitted participating in the removal of Mara from corporate histories.
Derek stared at him with pure hatred.
Caleb testified about Grayline.
About the emails.
About the instruction to destroy records.
Charles cross-examined aggressively.
“You lied for years, correct?”
“Yes.”
“You benefited financially?”
“Yes.”
“So why should anyone believe you now?”
Caleb looked toward Mara.
“They shouldn’t believe me because I became honest. They should believe the documents because I was cowardly enough to keep proof.”
Even Judge Ramirez paused.
After court, reporters surrounded Mara.
She gave them one sentence.
“I am not asking anyone to choose between my husband and me. I am asking for the record to show what happened.”
Then she walked away.
That evening Sloan Urban’s board placed Derek on administrative leave.
He called Mara despite the no-contact restriction.
She did not answer.
He left a voicemail.
“You’re killing the company we built.”
Mara listened twice.
Then forwarded it to Rebecca.
We built.
It was the first time in years he had used the word.
The next morning, Savannah vanished.
Her apartment was empty.
Her phone disconnected.
Rebecca feared intimidation.
Daniel found a flight reservation to Miami but no evidence Savannah boarded.
Then a courier arrived at Rebecca’s office.
Inside was Savannah’s cream-colored phone.
And a note.
IF SOMETHING HAPPENS TO ME, OPEN THE HIDDEN FOLDER.
Daniel extracted the folder.
It contained photographs of Derek meeting a man outside a Delaware law office.
Rebecca recognized the man.
Martin Keene.
A corporate attorney who had drafted the Grayline structure.
One photograph showed Derek handing Keene a red folder.
Another showed Keene placing it in a briefcase.
Daniel located Keene.
He refused to talk.
Until Rebecca mentioned the asset freeze.
Then he hired his own attorney.
Two days later, Keene requested immunity discussions with federal investigators.
Mara realized the divorce had become something far larger.
But the most disturbing discovery was personal.
Savannah’s phone contained hundreds of messages with Derek.
Among them was one from eleven months earlier.
The night Mara caught them together.
Derek had written:
She found us. Good. Now she’ll finally file.
Savannah replied:
You planned this?
Derek:
I need her to initiate. It plays better.
Mara stared at the screen.
Even the affair had been weaponized.
She had thought she had discovered Derek’s betrayal.
Derek had arranged to be discovered.
Then Daniel found one more deleted message.
Sent by Savannah three days before she disappeared.
I KNOW WHAT YOU DID TO MARA’S MOTHER’S FILE.
Derek responded immediately.
CALL ME. NOW.
Mara felt cold.
“What file?”
No one knew.
Thomas did.
Evelyn’s probate file.
After Evelyn died, certain financial papers disappeared before the estate closed.
At the time, everyone assumed they had been misplaced.
Thomas looked at Mara.
“There was one document your mother told me she had prepared.”
“What document?”
“A declaration about Sloan Urban.”
“Where is it?”
“It vanished.”
Mara whispered, “What did it say?”
Thomas shook his head.
“She never told me.”
Then his phone rang.
He listened.
His face changed.
“What?”
Mara stood.
Thomas ended the call.
“Savannah has been found.”
“Is she okay?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
Thomas looked toward the courthouse entrance.
“She just walked into the U.S. Attorney’s Office.”
Rebecca exhaled.
“Why?”
Thomas answered slowly.
“Because she brought Evelyn’s missing declaration.”
Mara stared at him.
“And she says Derek didn’t steal it.”
“Who did?”
Thomas hesitated.
“Savannah says the person who took it has been sitting beside Derek in court every single day.”
Mara turned toward the courtroom doors.
May you like
Charles Voss was walking toward them.
And in his hand was the red folder that...
