Chapter 7 - THE MAN WHO FOLLOWED TWO CARTERS
Grant Pike had not always been a reputation consultant.
Eight years earlier, he worked security for Whitmore Strategic Holdings.
He claimed he had followed Dad but never touched him.
“Who ordered surveillance?” the detective asked.
Grant stared at the table.
“Edward Whitmore.”
“Why?”
“Daniel had copies of financial records.”
“Did you know he would die?”
“No.”
“Did Edward?”
Grant hesitated.
“I heard him say the problem needed to disappear.”
It was not a murder confession, but it was something.
Vanessa arrived with attorneys and refused questions.
Outside, reporters waited because the birthday video had gone viral. I hated how headlines turned humiliation into entertainment.
My delivery account was suspended pending “conduct review.”
We had forty-three dollars left, and Mom’s dialysis copay was due Friday.
Dominic offered help.
I said no.
Mom called me an idiot.
“He owes your father.”
“That doesn’t mean I become dependent on him.”
“It means if a billionaire offers to pay a medical bill after his family helped ruin ours, maybe let capitalism apologize.”
I laughed despite myself.
Then the clinic called.
Our insurance had been canceled.
I stood in the kitchen holding the phone.
“What do you mean canceled?”
“Employer coverage terminated yesterday.”
“I don’t have employer coverage.”
The clerk paused. “The policy shows a corporate sponsor.”
“Which company?”
“Whitmore Family Foundation.”
My blood ran cold.
We had never applied for Whitmore assistance.
Mom looked at me.
“What?”
I put the call on speaker.
The clerk explained the foundation had secretly paid part of Mom’s coverage for six years.
Why?
Nobody knew.
Then Mom sat down.
“I do.”
I stared.
She whispered, “Edward came to see me after your father’s funeral.”
My entire body went still.
“What did he want?”
“To buy my silence.”
“And you took the money?”
“No.”
She looked ashamed anyway.
“He paid the insurance whether I agreed or not.”
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Then she added something worse.
“He told me if I ever reopened Daniel’s case, you would lose more than your father.”
