Chapter 4 - The Enemy Who Knew Her Name
Meline could not move.
"Meline?"
Again.
Older.
Frail.
But unmistakable.
She ran downstairs.
"Meline!" Lorenzo called.
She ignored him.
At the bottom of the stairs stood a woman in a gray coat.
Her hair was almost entirely white.
Her face thinner than Meline remembered.
But those eyes—
Meline knew those eyes.
"Mom?"
Helen Hayes began crying.
Meline stopped several feet away.
Her mother had died seven years ago.
At least, that was what Meline had been told.
A stroke.
A closed coffin because of complications during transport from an overseas trip.
Another coffin.
Another lie.
Helen whispered, "I'm sorry."
Meline's knees nearly failed.
Lorenzo reached her but did not touch her.
Adrian remained near the stairs.
He didn't look surprised.
Meline saw it.
"You knew."
Adrian said nothing.
"You knew she was alive."
"Yes."
Meline slapped him.
The sound cracked through the farmhouse.
Adrian accepted it without moving.
"Fair."
"Don't."
Meline turned toward her mother.
"Seven years."
Helen cried silently.
"You let me bury you."
"I thought it would keep you safe."
"Everybody keeps saying that."
Meline's voice broke.
"Everybody lies to me and calls it protection."
Helen stepped forward.
Meline stepped back.
Her mother's face crumpled.
Good.
Let someone else hurt.
"Why are you here?"
Helen looked toward the metal box.
"Because your father told me someday you'd find that."
"The ledger?"
"There isn't a ledger."
Adrian frowned.
Helen continued.
"Not on paper."
She pointed to the cassette recorder.
"Michael recorded everything."
Meline returned upstairs with the others.
She pressed PLAY.
Static.
Then her father's voice.
"If Meline is hearing this, then the truth survived me."
Meline closed her eyes.
She had forgotten his voice.
The recording continued.
Michael explained the network.
Shell companies.
False invoices.
Corrupt executives.
People inside Moretti Imports.
People inside Vale Meridian.
Lorenzo and Adrian exchanged looks.
Then Michael said something unexpected.
"The man responsible for the network isn't a Moretti."
Lorenzo stiffened.
"He isn't a Vale."
Adrian's expression changed.
"He is someone both families trusted."
Static swallowed several seconds.
Then:
"Daniel Mercer."
Meline stopped breathing.
Her former fiancé.
Impossible.
Daniel had been twenty-six when they dated.
Michael had supposedly discovered the network years earlier.
The dates didn't fit.
Then her father explained.
Daniel's father, Richard Mercer, had created the system.
Daniel inherited it.
Meline remembered Daniel's constant questions about her father's old papers.
She had thought he was interested in her childhood.
He had not been.
"He dated me because of Dad."
Helen nodded.
"Yes."
The cruelty of it landed differently.
Daniel had spent years convincing Meline she was difficult to love.
All while using her.
Then Lorenzo had entered her life under false circumstances too.
Meline looked at her husband.
He understood what she was thinking.
"I became the same thing," he said quietly.
"No," she replied. "You became worse."
Pain crossed his face.
She didn't soften.
Her father's recording continued.
He had hidden copies of the evidence electronically.
The access key had been divided.
One portion with Helen.
One with Adrian.
And one—
with Lorenzo.
Meline looked between them.
"You all had pieces."
Helen whispered, "Yes."
"And nobody trusted me with my own life."
No one answered.
Meline laughed through tears.
"Remarkable."
She stood.
"I'm done."
Lorenzo followed her outside.
"Meline."
"No."
"Listen."
"I've listened for three years."
Rain had stopped.
The night smelled like wet pine.
"I loved you," she said.
Lorenzo's face tightened.
"Past tense?"
"I don't know."
That hurt him more.
Good.
"I don't know what was real."
"Every morning I woke beside you was real."
"The coffee shop wasn't."
"No."
"The first date?"
"Real."
"Did you already know what I would order?"
Silence.
Meline laughed bitterly.
"Of course you did."
"The first month was compromised," Lorenzo admitted. "Everything after—"
"You don't get to draw the line for me."
He nodded.
"You're right."
For once, no argument.
Meline walked toward the car.
Her phone vibrated.
Unknown number.
A text.
YOU FOUND THE RECORDING.
Another arrived.
NOW ASK YOUR HUSBAND WHY DANIEL MERCER IS STILL ALIVE.
Meline stared at the screen.
Daniel had died eighteen months ago.
Car accident.
She slowly turned toward Lorenzo.
His face told her everything.
"You knew."
Lorenzo looked at the message.
"Meline—"
Headlights appeared at the end of the farmhouse road.
One vehicle.
Then another.
Then six.
Adrian came outside.
Helen whispered, "We're too late."
The lead car stopped.
A man stepped out.
Meline recognized him before the light reached his face.
May you like
Daniel Mercer smiled.
"Hello, Mel."
