Chapter 4 - The Second Video
Daniel stepped under the half-closed storage door.
Blood ran from a cut above his eyebrow.
He dropped a small brass key onto the black ledger.
Three numbers were engraved into it.
4-1-9.
I suddenly remembered seeing those numbers beside my father's name.
“Move,” Rebecca said.
Daniel ignored her.
“Someone followed you.”
“You?”
“No.”
“Then who?”
He glanced behind him.
“We don't have time.”
One security officer appeared in the corridor, holding his shoulder.
“The other guard's unconscious,” he said. “Police are coming.”
Daniel grabbed the storage door and pulled it shut.
Rebecca raised her phone.
“No signal.”
“Jammer,” Daniel said.
“You seem familiar with this.”
“I am.”
I stared at him.
“Start talking.”
He looked exhausted.
For the first time in years, Daniel Mercer looked older than forty-one.
“The people who tried to kill your father know you're here.”
“Who?”
“Watch the second video.”
“You watched it?”
“No.”
“You knew about it.”
“Yes.”
I wanted to hit him.
Instead, I typed Noah again and pressed play.
My father returned to the screen.
“Elena, if you've reached this part, Daniel is probably beside you.”
Daniel flinched.
My father continued.
“You hate him right now. You should.”
Daniel stared at the floor.
“He betrayed you.”
My chest tightened.
“He lied to you about me. He lied about the money. He betrayed your marriage.”
Claudia.
Emma.
Nine years.
Nothing erased that.
“But there is one truth Daniel may still be protecting.”
My father paused.
“Emma is not Daniel's biological daughter.”
I stopped breathing.
Daniel closed his eyes.
Rebecca slowly looked at him.
“What?”
My father continued.
“Claudia told Daniel the child was his because she needed protection.”
I turned toward Daniel.
“You knew?”
“Not at first.”
“How long?”
“Three years.”
The room went silent.
“You let me believe—”
“I needed Claudia to keep believing I would protect Emma.”
“Why?”
“Because Emma's biological father is the person your father was investigating.”
Rebecca whispered, “Oh my God.”
My father's image continued.
“His name is Victor Hale.”
I knew the name.
Everyone in Chicago business circles did.
Victor Hale had been my father's closest friend.
He had delivered the eulogy at my father's memorial.
He had hugged me beside the empty casket.
He had called me “the daughter he never had.”
My knees weakened.
My father continued.
“Victor controlled several financial companies that handled Bennett family assets.”
Rebecca moved toward the files.
“He had access.”
“Yes,” Daniel said.
My father on screen continued.
“When I discovered the theft, Victor arranged my accident.”
I stared at Daniel.
“You knew this?”
“Eventually.”
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Because Charles made me promise.”
“My father doesn't get to control my life from hiding.”
“No.”
Daniel looked at me.
“But Victor had already tried to kill him. Charles believed if you knew, Victor would realize he survived.”
“So you lied.”
“Yes.”
“You slept with Claudia.”
His jaw tightened.
“Yes.”
“You had an affair with a woman who was supposedly part of an investigation.”
“Yes.”
“For nine years?”
Daniel looked away.
“Not continuously.”
I laughed bitterly.
“What a relief.”
“Elena—”
“Don't.”
Rebecca interrupted.
“Why did Claudia say Emma was yours?”
Daniel answered quietly.
“Victor never knew Claudia was pregnant.”
My father's video filled the silence.
“Claudia discovered evidence of Victor's theft while working for him. When she threatened to leave, he became violent. She ran.”
Images appeared.
Claudia younger.
Bruises on her arms.
A police report.
A hospital record.
I felt some of my anger shift.
Not disappear.
Shift.
“Daniel agreed to pretend Emma was his if necessary,” my father said. “At first, the lie existed only to protect the child.”
I stared at Daniel.
“At first.”
His face hardened with shame.
“Yes.”
Then my father said the sentence I had not expected.
“But somewhere along the way, Daniel and Claudia turned the lie into a real affair.”
Daniel looked like he'd been struck.
Good.
I wanted him to feel it.
My father continued.
“That betrayal is his responsibility alone.”
I looked down.
Nothing about conspiracy made the affair less ugly.
Nothing made the hospital confession less cruel.
Daniel had not only betrayed me.
He had exploited my surgery to escape accountability.
My father finished.
“If Victor knows Emma exists, he will use her to control Claudia. If he knows I am alive, he will finish what he started. And if he learns Elena has the financial files, he will come for her too.”
The video ended.
Rebecca looked toward the storage door.
Sirens sounded faintly outside.
Daniel said, “We have to move.”
“No.”
“Elena.”
“I want every truth.”
“You aren't safe here.”
“I haven't been safe for years.”
He stopped.
I pointed at the brass key.
“What is 419?”
Daniel hesitated.
“Elena—”
“What is it?”
“A safe-deposit box.”
“Where?”
“First Metropolitan.”
“What's inside?”
“I don't know.”
“Who does?”
“Your father.”
“Where is he?”
Daniel said nothing.
I walked toward him.
My head pounded.
My legs shook.
But I kept moving.
“You brought divorce papers into my hospital room.”
His face tightened.
“You confessed to an affair before brain surgery because you thought I might forget.”
“I know.”
“You stood there while Claudia held a child and let me believe she was yours.”
“I know.”
“You do not get to protect me with another lie.”
He looked at me for a long time.
Then he whispered, “Your father is in Chicago.”
Rebecca inhaled sharply.
“Where?”
“I don't know anymore.”
“You were in Geneva with him.”
Daniel looked surprised.
“You saw the photo.”
“Yes.”
“That was eighteen months ago.”
“What happened?”
“He stopped trusting me.”
“Smart man.”
Daniel accepted the blow.
“He discovered I'd been taking money.”
“For yourself?”
“Yes.”
“How much?”
“Two million.”
Rebecca laughed without humor.
Daniel continued.
“I told myself I deserved it for what I'd risked.”
“You stole from my family.”
“Yes.”
“And then?”
“Your father cut me out.”
“So you joined Victor?”
“No.”
“Then why forge my name?”
Daniel froze.
Rebecca stepped forward.
“Answer her.”
“I didn't.”
I stared.
“Seventeen million moved through companies carrying my signature.”
“I know.”
“You expect me to believe you weren't responsible?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because those signatures started appearing after your father stopped trusting me.”
A new possibility opened.
Someone else.
Victor.
My father.
Claudia.
Or another person entirely.
Rebecca picked up the brass key.
“We need the box.”
Daniel nodded.
“The bank opens at eight.”
A police officer shouted outside.
The jammer apparently switched off because Rebecca's phone suddenly exploded with notifications.
One message caught her attention.
Her expression changed.
“What?”
She handed me the screen.
A photograph had just been sent from Claudia's number.
Emma was sitting in the back seat of a car.
She looked frightened.
Claudia was nowhere visible.
Below the picture were six words.
YOU WANT THE TRUTH? BRING ELENA.
Then another message.
Daniel's phone rang.
He looked at the caller ID.
His face went white.
“Who?”
He turned the screen toward me.
CLAUDIA.
He answered.
No one spoke at first.
Then a man's voice came through.
Smooth.
Familiar.
A voice I had heard at family dinners, charity galas, and my father's memorial.
May you like
Victor Hale.
“Daniel,” he said pleasantly, “put my daughter on the phone.”
