Chapter 5 - AUNT ALICE
Alice Whitmore lived in a private assisted-living residence forty miles west of Boston.
Richard had told Adrian she wanted no visitors.
That was the first lie.
When Adrian entered her room, Alice looked up from a crossword and said, "It took you long enough."
Adrian stopped.
"You know why I'm here?"
"Daniel is dead. Thomas is dead. Richard is still breathing. Eventually somebody had to become curious."
Marissa sat beside Adrian with Owen asleep against her chest.
Alice stared at the baby.
Her eyes filled.
"Thomas's grandson."
Marissa stiffened.
"You knew Daniel?"
"I knew about him from the day he was born."
Alice explained that Thomas wanted to acknowledge Daniel in his twenties. Their father refused. Richard warned that admitting another heir would fracture voting control and expose old tax structures.
Thomas chose the company.
Again and again.
Years later, Daniel became a structural engineer and unknowingly joined Whitmore Infrastructure through a subcontractor.
"When Thomas recognized his name, he panicked," Alice said. "Then he started watching him."
"Watching his own son?" Adrian asked.
"Guilt makes cowards behave like spies."
Alice met Daniel secretly after Thomas died because Daniel had found evidence of falsified materials at Harbor Point.
"He didn't care about the trust at first," she said. "He cared about the concrete."
Marissa's voice broke.
"That sounds like him."
Alice gave her a small brass key.
"He made me promise this went to you if anything happened."
"What does it open?"
"Archive locker seventeen. Old South Yard."
Adrian knew the yard. Whitmore had closed it six years earlier.
Alice grabbed his wrist before he stood.
"Do not call Richard."
"I wasn't going to."
"Good. Because Daniel called me from Harbor Point the night before he died."
Adrian waited.
Alice's voice fell.
"He said Richard had offered him five million dollars to forget he was a Whitmore."
Marissa went pale.
"And Daniel said no?"
May you like
Alice nodded.
"He said, 'I don't want his money. I want him to stop building things that can kill people.'"
