Chapter 16 - THE LAST LEVER

Daniel's mother, Eleanor Mercer, lived twelve minutes away.

Daniel made it in seven.

Police surrounded the property but remained outside because Celia had called first.

She had Eleanor.

Daniel's phone rang as he stepped from the car.

"Come in alone," Celia said.

"No."

"Then your mother pays for your stubbornness."

Daniel looked at Marcus.

Marcus shook his head.

Daniel went anyway.

Inside, the house was strangely neat.

Celia sat in the living room beside Eleanor, holding a gun low against the older woman's ribs.

Eleanor looked furious rather than frightened.

"Daniel," she said, "I told her you're terrible at following instructions."

Celia shoved the gun harder into her side. "Quiet."

Daniel stopped ten feet away.

"What do you want?"

"Arthur's drive. All copies. And a public statement saying Vivian acted alone."

"No."

"You don't negotiate well."

"Neither did you. That's why everything is falling apart."

Celia's eyes flashed.

"I built my family from nothing. Men like your father smiled at me while they controlled every door."

"So you stole from children."

"I took what power refused to give me."

"And left my father on the floor."

Her jaw tightened.

"He would have destroyed Vivian's future."

"You did that yourself."

Eleanor suddenly drove her heel down on Celia's foot.

The gun jerked.

Daniel lunged.

Celia fired.

A lamp shattered behind him.

Eleanor dropped to the floor.

Daniel hit Celia's arm. The gun slid beneath a table.

They crashed into a bookcase.

Celia clawed for his face, screaming, "You ungrateful little prince!"

Police burst through the front door.

Celia froze with Daniel's hand locked around her wrist.

For the first time, she looked small.

Then Eleanor, still on the floor, pointed beneath the table.

"Officer," she said calmly, "before anyone gets dramatic, could somebody please pick up the loaded gun?"

Celia was arrested.

But as detectives led her away, she looked at Daniel and smiled.

"You think Vivian told you everything?"

Daniel's stomach tightened.

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Celia leaned closer.

"Ask her why she chose you in the first place."