Chapter 10 - Paul Mercer Names a Second Person
Mercer admitted following Thomas.
He admitted tampering with Thomas’s car.
But he claimed he did not act alone.
A woman met him before the crash.
She supplied Thomas’s schedule.
Claire immediately thought of Evelyn.
Then Mercer gave the name.
Diane Cross.
Adrian went pale.
“My mother.”
Claire stared.
Adrian and Julian’s mother had died five years earlier.
Diane Cross had served as chairwoman of Cross Meridian.
Mercer claimed she knew about Julian’s theft.
Not because she opposed it.
Because she had helped hide earlier losses.
Thomas threatened the entire family empire.
Diane wanted him stopped.
Julian arranged it.
The mother approved it.
Claire felt sick.
This was no longer one corrupt brother.
It was a family system built on silence.
Adrian sat down.
“My mother knew.”
Claire said nothing.
He looked at her.
“I spent years blaming Julian.”
“You should blame the evidence.”
He looked confused.
Claire continued.
“Not the version that hurts least.”
That sentence stayed with him.
Mercer also revealed something about Evelyn.
She confronted Diane after Thomas died.
Diane offered her money.
Evelyn refused.
Then someone began following Claire to school.
That was when Evelyn disappeared.
Not because she abandoned her daughter.
Because Diane threatened to make Claire the next pressure point.
Claire covered her face.
Her mother had let her believe she was dead to keep her invisible.
It was love.
May you like
And it was a wound.
Both could be true.
