Chapter 5 - EIGHTEEN MILLION DOLLARS
Julia stared at the number until it blurred.
Eighteen million dollars.
Thomas sat at the breakfast table eating toast like money had nothing to do with him.
To him, it didn’t.
He wanted a second glass of milk.
He wanted Emily to stop asking whether he liked dinosaurs.
He wanted the front door locked twice.
Julia wanted to burn the Mercer name to the ground.
Detective Ortiz arrived with a financial crimes investigator named Owen Park.
Park studied the trust documents.
“This account was created by your father-in-law.”
“Before he died?”
“Six weeks before Thomas was born.”
Julia frowned.
“Why?”
Park scrolled.
“The trust pays out to the first surviving child of Daniel Mercer.”
Julia looked toward Thomas.
“And if the child dies?”
Park’s face hardened.
“Control passes temporarily to the trustee until another eligible child turns twenty-five.”
“Grant.”
“Yes.”
Emily was seven.
That meant Grant had years of control left if Thomas remained legally dead.
Park continued.
“There’s more.”
Over eleven years, Grant had borrowed against trust-held assets.
Julia whispered, “He needed my son gone.”
Ortiz corrected her.
“He needed your son to appear gone.”
Thomas suddenly dropped his spoon.
Everyone looked at him.
“What?” Julia asked.
He stared at Grant’s photograph on Park’s tablet.
“I remember a room.”
Julia moved closer.
“What room?”
“White walls.”
“A fish sticker.”
“And Aunt Diane yelling at him.”
“At Grant?”
Thomas nodded.
“She said, ‘You promised I wouldn’t have to keep doing this.’”
Ortiz leaned forward.
“What did he say?”
Thomas squeezed his eyes shut.
“He said, ‘Until the boy is old enough that nobody will recognize him.’”
Julia felt sick.
Then Thomas opened his eyes.
“And Diane said somebody else knew.”
“Who?”
Thomas swallowed.
“Dad.”
Julia went still.
Thomas looked frightened.
“She said Dad found us.”
May you like
A pause.
“And Uncle Grant said he would take care of him.”
