Chapter 4 - The Woman Who Left Him in Darkness
Grant did not go to Warehouse 14 immediately.
Every instinct demanded it.
He resisted.
That was the difference between the man he had been before blindness and the man darkness had created.
The old Grant attacked problems.
The blind Grant listened until problems revealed themselves.
“Watch them,” he told Elias.
“Already happening.”
“Audio?”
“Not yet.”
“Get it.”
Grant ended the call.
Anna stood near the therapy room door.
“You’re going there, aren’t you?”
“Eventually.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
Grant almost smiled.
“No.”
She folded her arms.
“You’re very bad at lying.”
“So I’ve been told.”
“By people who are afraid of you?”
“Mostly.”
Anna stepped closer.
“Then maybe nobody tells you when you’re being stupid.”
Grant turned toward her.
“Is that part of your housekeeping duties?”
“No. That costs extra.”
He laughed.
The sound surprised both of them.
Over the previous two weeks, something had changed between them.
Anna was no longer simply an employee who disappeared into rooms after cleaning them.
She had become the person beside him during therapy.
Not because Grant asked.
Because Lily insisted.
Every afternoon, Lily arrived with her flashlight.
Anna followed.
Grant learned to detect the window.
Then the lamp.
Then Lily’s flashlight.
Once, he thought he saw Anna’s silhouette.
Not her face.
Just darkness shaped like a person against brightness.
He had never been so grateful for a shadow.
But now Claire had returned.
Anna knew only fragments.
“You loved her?”
Grant considered lying.
“Yes.”
“What happened?”
“She left.”
“Because you were blind?”
“That was the explanation.”
Anna looked away.
“That’s cruel.”
Grant shrugged.
“I was cruel too.”
“That doesn’t make it equal.”
He turned toward the window.
“Claire wanted a family. I became someone who could barely tolerate being touched.”
“You were injured.”
“I was angry.”
“You were grieving.”
“Those aren’t mutually exclusive.”
Anna said nothing.
Grant respected that.
People usually rushed to excuse powerful men.
Anna did not.
His phone rang again.
Elias had audio.
Victor and Claire were discussing something hidden beneath Warehouse 14.
A safe.
Grant remembered no safe.
“What key did she give him?”
“We don’t know.”
“Where did she get it?”
“Grant…”
“What?”
“Claire said your father gave it to her.”
Grant’s father had been dead eight years.
Now Grant did go.
Not alone.
Elias accompanied him.
So did two independent security men.
Anna stayed behind with Lily.
Grant entered Warehouse 14 for the first time since the explosion.
Smell arrived before memory.
Rust.
Oil.
River water.
Old timber.
His body remembered before his mind did.
His pulse accelerated.
His hands became cold.
Then he heard a metallic scrape.
Victor.
“Grant?”
Shock.
Perfect.
Grant smiled.
“You sound surprised.”
Claire whispered his name.
He knew her voice instantly.
Five years could not erase it.
“Hello, Claire.”
“What are you doing here?”
“It’s my warehouse.”
Victor moved.
Grant’s security men blocked him.
“Don’t,” Elias said.
Grant turned toward Claire.
“You gave Victor a key.”
She was silent.
“To what?”
“Grant, you shouldn’t be here.”
He laughed once.
“I’ve heard that sentence before.”
Claire stepped closer.
“You don’t understand.”
“Then explain.”
Victor interrupted.
“We need to leave.”
Grant turned toward him.
“No.”
“Rourke knows we’re here.”
“Good.”
“Grant, listen to me.”
“I listened to you for five years.”
Victor’s voice dropped.
“I kept you alive.”
Grant became still.
“So Cole said.”
“It’s true.”
“By lying to me?”
“Yes.”
The answer surprised everyone.
Victor continued.
“The explosion was supposed to kill you.”
Grant’s jaw tightened.
“I assumed.”
“You were never supposed to leave that warehouse.”
“Rourke?”
Victor hesitated.
Claire answered.
“No.”
Grant turned toward her.
“Who?”
Claire whispered, “Your brother.”
Silence.
Grant’s younger brother, Nathan Mercer, had died six months after the explosion.
Car accident.
At least, that was what Grant had been told.
Grant shook his head.
“No.”
Claire started crying.
“Nathan had debts. Rourke owned them. He convinced Nathan you were going to cut him out of the company.”
“I wasn’t.”
“I know.”
“He tried to kill me?”
“He helped arrange the explosion.”
Grant felt the floor disappear beneath him.
Victor continued.
“Afterward, Nathan panicked. He came to me. He told me Rourke planned to finish you in the hospital if there was any chance you could identify anyone.”
“So you convinced Cole to tell the world I’d never see.”
“Yes.”
Grant stepped toward Victor.
“And later?”
Victor did not answer.
“Later you kept paying him.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because Rourke kept watching.”
“For five years?”
Victor’s silence became confession.
Grant’s anger rose.
“Why did you sell him Terminal Seven?”
Victor looked toward Claire.
Grant heard the movement.
“Don’t look at her. Answer me.”
“To keep him satisfied.”
“With my company?”
“With something he wanted instead of your life.”
“You forged my authorization.”
“Yes.”
Grant lunged.
Elias grabbed his arm.
Grant stopped himself.
His breathing was ragged.
Victor did not move.
“You stole five years from me.”
“I saved five years of your life.”
“You don’t get to make that choice!”
His voice echoed through the warehouse.
For several seconds, Grant stood trembling.
Then Claire spoke.
“That’s why I left.”
Grant turned.
“What?”
“Victor came to me after you left the hospital. He told me Rourke would use me to get to you. He told me if I stayed, you would never stop fighting.”
“So you abandoned me?”
“I made you believe I did.”
Grant laughed bitterly.
“How noble.”
“It wasn’t.”
Claire’s voice broke.
“It was cowardly.”
That answer silenced him.
She did not ask forgiveness.
She simply walked toward a rusted support beam.
“The key opens something your father hid.”
Metal clicked.
A panel opened.
Behind it was an old safe.
Claire inserted the key.
Inside were ledgers, photographs, and a small digital recorder.
Grant’s father had apparently discovered Rourke’s efforts to infiltrate Mercer Maritime years earlier.
He had documented everything.
Names.
Payments.
Judges.
Union officials.
Port contractors.
And Malcolm Voss.
The man behind Northbridge.
Elias examined the documents.
“This could destroy Rourke.”
Victor shook his head.
“Then we need to move now.”
Grant asked, “Why?”
“Because he knows the safe has been opened.”
A faint beep sounded.
Everyone froze.
Elias found a small sensor attached inside the panel.
Victor swore.
“Motion transmitter.”
Grant understood.
Rourke had been waiting.
Not for Grant.
For whoever found the evidence.
“Out,” Victor ordered.
Grant did not argue.
They moved toward the exit.
Then engines roared outside.
Several vehicles.
Doors slammed.
Victor pulled Grant behind a concrete pillar.
Claire whispered, “He’s here.”
Grant listened.
Footsteps surrounded the warehouse.
Then a familiar voice came through a loudspeaker.
Dominic Rourke.
“Grant Mercer.”
Grant’s hand closed around Lily’s flashlight inside his coat pocket.
Rourke laughed.
“I heard a fascinating rumor.”
Grant said nothing.
May you like
Rourke continued.
“They say the blind man has started seeing light.”
