Chapter 5 - Naomi Mercer Was Hidden For Decades
Sloan demanded answers.
Phoebe arranged a meeting.
Naomi was sixty-one, almost twenty years older than Sloan’s mother,
Evelyn.
Augustus had fathered Naomi before marrying Sloan’s grandmother.
Naomi’s mother, Ruth Carter, worked as a bookkeeper for Mercer
Development.
Augustus acknowledged Naomi privately but never publicly.
Why?
Ruth had discovered irregular land acquisitions.
When she threatened to report them, company executives accused her of
embezzlement.
Augustus believed the accusation.
He ended the relationship and allowed Ruth to be fired.
Years later, he learned the evidence against her had been fabricated.
By then Ruth had died.
Naomi was an adult and wanted nothing from him.
Augustus spent years trying to repair the damage.
He eventually created the restitution trust partly because Ruth’s
records helped expose the land scheme.
Sloan listened quietly.
Her beloved grandfather had not simply discovered wrongdoing.
He had once believed a lie that helped destroy someone he loved.
Naomi did not soften it.
“He failed my mother.”
Sloan nodded.
“Yes.”
“He later did something useful with the truth.”
“Yes.”
“Both are true.”
That sentence stayed with Sloan.
Naomi explained Vault Four contained original acquisition files,
internal correspondence, and Ruth’s accounting ledgers.
Augustus made Naomi independent trustee because she had no financial
interest in protecting the Mercer reputation.
Sloan asked why nobody told her Naomi existed.
Naomi looked toward Phoebe.
“Augustus left that choice to me.”
Naomi had not wanted family contact.
She appeared now because Flynn accepted custodianship of the vault.
This was legal duty, not reunion.
Sloan respected that.
Then Naomi revealed something else.
One group of files involved the Vale family.
Flynn’s family.
Cordelia’s late husband, Harrison Vale, had worked for the bank that
financed many disputed land purchases.
Cordelia had not spent years chasing Sloan’s lake house merely because
it was beautiful.
May you like
She might have believed something beneath it could expose her own
family.
