Chapter 12 - Evelyn Was Waiting at Pier
Fog hung over the Hudson.
Claire wore a wire beneath her coat.
Ruiz’s team stayed back.
Marcus remained in the surveillance van.
Adrian had been ordered to stay behind.
He did not.
Claire saw his car two blocks away and nearly screamed.
But there was no time.
She walked toward the abandoned warehouse at Pier 46.
Inside, a single work light burned.
Eli sat in a chair.
He was not tied.
Evelyn stood behind him.
Claire’s heart broke in a new place.
“Mom.”
Evelyn began crying.
“Claire, I’m sorry.”
Daniel stepped out from the shadows.
He held no gun.
That surprised Claire.
He held a folder.
“Bring the tape.”
Claire lifted the envelope.
“Let Eli go.”
Daniel shook his head.
“First we settle this.”
Eli looked at his mother.
“I’m okay.”
Claire nearly sobbed.
Even now, he was trying to protect her.
Evelyn placed a hand on his shoulder.
“I would never hurt him.”
Claire stared at her.
“You brought him here.”
“I was trying to stop Daniel.”
Daniel laughed.
“You’ve been trying to stop people for thirty years.”
Claire looked between them.
“What does Lauren’s mother have to do with this?”
Evelyn closed her eyes.
Then told the truth.
Lauren Hayes was Eleanor Mercer’s daughter.
Vanessa’s half-sister.
Claire felt the world shift.
“No.”
Evelyn nodded.
“Eleanor had Lauren when she was nineteen. Her parents raised the baby. Later, Eleanor married and had Vanessa.”
Claire thought of the tape.
Lauren’s voice.
Young.
She had been there because Eleanor had brought her.
“She knew Eleanor was her mother?”
“Eventually.”
Daniel smiled bitterly.
“She learned at sixteen.”
Claire looked at him.
“And you married her knowing?”
“Yes.”
Vanessa’s infiltration into Adrian’s life.
Lauren’s rise inside Bennett.
Daniel’s control of Meridian.
The pieces finally began fitting.
This had never been a simple affair.
Never a simple board coup.
It was a family war built on old crimes.
Claire’s voice shook.
“Where is Lauren?”
Daniel looked toward the warehouse doors.
“She’s coming.”
Then another voice echoed from the entrance.
“No, I’m already here.”
May you like
Lauren stepped into the light.
And she was holding the real Tape 17.
