Chapter 5 - THE DEAD UNCLE
Gregory Mercer's death certificate said pancreatic cancer.
Private clinic.
Closed funeral.
No public viewing.
Dominic had been in Montreal handling a port dispute when Gregory supposedly died.
He came home to an urn.
No cremation permit.
Only a private physician certification signed by Dr. Elias Vaughn.
The same doctor who signed Catherine Mercer's final competency evaluation.
"Find Vaughn."
He was already missing.
His Rhode Island office had been emptied overnight.
Brooke remained in the mansion under no formal detention. Dominic had given her a choice to leave without access to Mercer resources.
That told Emma more than any speech.
At noon Brooke entered the dining room as if breakfast had never happened.
"Dominic, we should talk privately."
"We are."
Natalie, Emma, Sarah, and Gabriel were all present.
"This is humiliating."
Natalie answered, "You tried to make me sign away my son's home before sunrise."
"Your sister is unstable from grief."
"Careful."
Brooke opened her phone and displayed medical records.
Natalie's therapy notes.
Prescription history.
A psychiatrist's draft recommending temporary guardianship review for Noah.
Natalie went white.
"How do you have that?"
Brooke said, "Preston gave it to me because someone has to think about the child."
Dominic looked at the psychiatrist's name.
Dr. Elias Vaughn.
The missing doctor.
Sarah scanned the records.
"These notes are altered."
One paragraph described Natalie threatening self-harm.
She never had.
Another described alcohol misuse.
False.
The plan widened.
If Natalie would not sign away the cottage, they would make her legally unfit and take control through Noah.
Her face changed.
"I didn't create those records."
"But you used them."
"I was protecting what we're building."
"By threatening my widowed sister with forged psychiatric files?"
"You have done worse things for this family."
Dominic did not deny it.
Then Gabriel's phone rang.
The brake line had been cut.
May you like
And the final person authorized to access the vehicle before the crash was not Preston.
It was Malcolm Harrington.
