Chapter 19 - WHAT I TOOK BACK
I took back my name, my apartment, my surviving accounts, and after six weeks of hearings, my Mercer Urban voting shares.
I did not take the company from my father. I took control with him watching.
The board meeting lasted eleven hours.
Three directors resigned, outside auditors came in, Victor-linked projects were frozen, and we created a restitution fund for people harmed by the fraud.
And I sold the private jet.
Dad looked wounded by that one.
“You hate flying,” I reminded him.
“That’s not the point.”
For the first time in years, I laughed.
The biggest decision concerned Mara Ellis.
Her mother, Denise, came to see me in the same conference room where Victor once approved fake transfers.
“I buried an empty box,” she told me. “For three years, I thought my daughter had just left us.”
“I’m sorry.”
She looked at my scars. “So am I.”
We did not try to compare pain.
Mercer Urban paid for Mara’s burial under her own name and established a fund for her younger son.
Victor was indicted for arson, fraud, conspiracy, obstruction, and crimes tied to Mara’s death. Peter and Nolan agreed to testify.
Juliette pleaded guilty to fraud, obstruction, and falsifying estate records. Her final sentence would come later.
Grant moved out of the penthouse they had planned to share. He sent me one message:
I hope you build something better than what they tried to preserve.
I saved it.
On a cold Friday afternoon, Dad and I returned to the ruined Mercer estate.
Workers were preparing to demolish the east wing.
I stood before the service door that had once trapped me.
The chain marks were still visible on the metal.
Dad asked, “Do you want them to keep it for evidence?”
“No.”
“What do you want?”
I looked at the wreckage of the house where everyone had decided I died.
“Take it down.”
May you like
The excavator moved forward.
And the wall finally began to fall.
