Chapter 13 - The Missing Fifteen Minutes
By two in the morning, the Mercer library looked like a war room.
Natalie had pulled every property record dating back to the disastrous wedding day. Eleanor’s note had specified a diversion, and now the puzzle pieces began to lock together with terrifying logic.
"Think back to that day, Dad," Natalie said, pacing between the floor-to-ceiling bookshelves. "The fight in the reception hall lasted roughly twenty minutes. Mother was drenched. The staff scrambled for towels. You confronted Vanessa, took off your jacket, confronted Charles Bellamy, and called the security team. Where was Charles during the first ten minutes?"
Daniel closed his eyes. The memory, preserved in sharp sensory fragments, flared in his mind. The stench of stagnant mop water on Eleanor’s lilac silk dress. The collective gasp of one hundred elite guests. Vanessa’s venomous sneer.
"Charles wasn't beside Vanessa when the bucket fell," Daniel whispered, his eyes snapping open. "He arrived from the east corridor with a fresh drink in his hand, pretending to be shocked."
"The east corridor leads directly to your father’s private study," Mia said, tapping the floor plans on the table. "Where the original Mercer Trust master charter was kept."
Mia turned to the vintage cassette player they had unearthed from the storage closet and pressed *Play*.
A hiss of static filled the room, followed by the faint rustle of clothing and the muffled, rapid sound of footsteps. Then Eleanor’s voice came through—calm, breathless, but sharp as a diamond.
*“He took the blind trust addendum,”* Eleanor’s recorded voice whispered into the microphone. *“Charles Bellamy’s pocket was bulging when he walked back into the reception room. He thinks he stole the real charter. He doesn't know Michael gave me the true duplicate three days before his passing. But Daniel... if you are listening to this, you must understand why Charles risked everything for that document. The Bellamy fortune was built on stolen Mercer bonds from the Depression. If Charles's heirs ever discover the truth, they won't just sue you. They will burn the port to the ground to hide their grandfather’s fraud.”*
May you like
The tape ended with the loud click of an iron vault door swinging shut.
---
