Chapter 6 - The Night Everything Came Back
Lucas called police before he called Emma.
Within minutes, patrol cars surrounded the house.
Lucas arrived shortly afterward.
Emma opened the door.
"What happened?"
He showed her the photograph.
Her face went white.
"We're leaving."
"Where?"
"Somewhere secure."
Lucas moved Emma and the twins to a protected apartment owned by Rebecca's firm.
For once, Emma didn't argue.
The photograph changed everything.
This wasn't corporate intimidation anymore.
It was a threat involving children.
Federal investigators joined the case after evidence suggested financial crimes crossed state lines.
Charles disappeared the next morning.
His attorney claimed he was traveling.
Nobody believed it.
Lucas remained with Emma and the twins.
Noah sensed the tension.
"Are bad people looking for us?"
Lucas crouched.
"Some grown-ups are having a disagreement."
"Are you scared?"
Lucas considered lying.
"Yes."
Noah looked surprised.
"Dads get scared?"
"All the time."
"What do they do?"
"They make good choices while they're scared."
Noah nodded as though storing that information for later.
Lucas wished someone had taught him the same lesson six years earlier.
That afternoon, Margaret arrived with investigators.
She had found something.
An old phone.
Charles had given it to her years earlier for "private family communications."
She had kept it in a drawer.
Messages remained.
Most were mundane.
Some weren't.
One message, sent the day Emma came to Carter Holdings pregnant, read:
Keep Lucas upstairs. I'll handle her.
Another:
Vale confirms he won't question the result.
And another:
Once the succession issue is neutralized, everything stabilizes.
Then came a message dated the morning Lucas's father died.
He found the mechanic.
Lucas stared at Margaret.
"What does that mean?"
"I don't know."
Investigators took the phone.
Hours later, they located the mechanic.
His name was Peter Garrison.
Retired.
Living in New Hampshire.
He agreed to speak.
His testimony broke the case.
Charles had paid him to sabotage a tire.
Not to cause an immediate crash, Garrison insisted, but to create a failure that would frighten Lucas's father into abandoning a planned trip.
It was a ridiculous justification.
A man had died.
Garrison had lived with guilt for years.
He had saved payment records.
Charles Mercer was now wanted for conspiracy, fraud, obstruction and suspected involvement in the death of Lucas's father.
The revelation shattered Margaret.
"I brought him into our family."
Lucas sat across from her.
"You didn't kill Dad."
"I trusted the man who did."
"So did I."
Margaret cried silently.
It was the first time Lucas remembered seeing his mother cry since the funeral.
"I'm sorry," she whispered.
"I know."
"For Emma. For the boys. For you."
Lucas looked toward the room where his sons were sleeping.
"I can't give you absolution because you're hurting."
"I don't expect it."
"Then do the work."
She nodded.
"I will."
Two days passed.
Charles remained missing.
Then Emma disappeared.
Lucas returned from meeting investigators and found Rebecca standing in the apartment.
"Where is she?"
Rebecca held out a note.
Lucas,
Charles contacted me. He says he has evidence that can end everything, but he'll destroy it unless I meet him.
Don't follow me.
I'm sorry.
Emma.
Lucas swore.
"How long?"
"Twenty minutes."
"Phone?"
"Left here."
Lucas thought.
Emma wasn't reckless.
If she had gone, she had a reason.
"What evidence?"
Rebecca shook her head.
Lucas examined the note.
Then he noticed something.
The final period after "sorry" had been pressed hard enough to puncture the paper.
Emma used to do that when leaving him grocery lists.
A habit.
But underneath the note was a page from Noah's drawing pad.
Lucas lifted it.
Indented writing appeared.
He shaded it lightly with a pencil.
An address emerged.
Emma had left it deliberately.
"She wanted us to follow."
Police moved.
The address led to an abandoned Carter Holdings warehouse near the harbor.
Lucas was ordered to remain behind.
He refused.
Rebecca grabbed his arm.
"You said fathers make good choices while scared."
Lucas looked at her.
"Damn Noah."
He stayed with the command team.
Police entered.
Charles was inside.
So was Emma.
The confrontation lasted twelve minutes.
No shots.
No injuries.
Charles surrendered after discovering every exit was blocked.
Emma emerged wrapped in a police blanket.
Lucas ran to her.
"You left the address."
"Of course."
"You could've been killed."
"I knew he wanted leverage, not me."
"That's not comforting."
She laughed shakily.
Then hugged him.
Lucas held her.
"I thought I'd lost you again."
Emma pulled back.
"You didn't."
Charles had brought documents.
He intended to exchange them for Emma's promise to convince Lucas not to pursue certain claims.
Instead, the documents became evidence.
They included records proving the fertility fraud.
Payments to Vale.
Instructions to intercept Emma's correspondence.
The forged legal memorandum.
And correspondence related to Lucas's father's car.
Charles's empire collapsed in forty-eight hours.
But the most painful part came afterward.
Lucas had to explain pieces of the truth to his sons.
Not everything.
Only what five-year-olds could understand.
"Somebody kept us from meeting," Lucas told them.
Eli frowned.
"Why?"
"Because he made bad choices."
"Is he sorry?"
Lucas looked at Emma.
"I don't know."
Noah climbed onto Lucas's lap.
"Are you staying now?"
Lucas hugged him.
"Yes."
Later, Emma found Lucas on the balcony.
"It's over," she said.
"Almost."
"What isn't?"
"Us."
Emma went still.
Lucas faced her.
"I'm not asking you to pretend six years didn't happen."
"Good."
"I'm not asking you to marry me again."
Her eyebrows rose.
"Also good."
He smiled.
"I'm asking whether I can take you to dinner."
Emma stared.
"A date?"
"A terrible first date with an ex-husband."
"That sounds objectively disastrous."
"Probably."
She smiled.
"When?"
"Whenever you're ready."
Emma considered him.
"Friday."
Lucas blinked.
"Really?"
"Don't make me reconsider."
He laughed.
Then his phone rang.
Rebecca.
He answered.
"Lucas, we have a problem."
"What?"
"The investigators searched Charles's office."
"And?"
"They found another sealed file."
Lucas's smile disappeared.
"What's in it?"
Rebecca hesitated.
"Your name isn't on it."
"Whose is?"
A pause.
May you like
Then she answered.
"Noah and Eli."
