Chapter 6 - Brothers
Grant Mercer arrived twenty minutes after Daniel called him.
He came through the front door angry.
“What the hell is this?”
Daniel waited in the study.
Victoria sat on the sofa near the window.
Rosa had taken both boys upstairs.
The photograph of the Linden Street property lay on Daniel’s desk.
Grant glanced at it.
His expression did not change.
Daniel noticed.
Victoria noticed too.
“She says it belongs to you,” Daniel said.
Grant laughed.
“What?”
Victoria crossed one leg over the other.
“Tell him.”
Grant looked at her.
“Tell him what?”
“The truth.”
Daniel watched them.
Not like a husband.
Not like a brother.
Like a man examining two witnesses whose stories had not yet been coordinated.
Grant picked up the photograph.
“I’ve never seen this house.”
Victoria smiled faintly.
“Then you should probably stop having your attorney file paperwork for it.”
Grant’s eyes sharpened.
“What paperwork?”
“Malcolm Reed.”
Daniel interrupted.
“Your lawyer is the registered agent for BrightPath.”
Grant turned toward him.
“I don’t control every client Malcolm represents.”
“But you know BrightPath.”
“No.”
Daniel stared at him.
“You lied yesterday.”
Grant threw the photograph onto the desk.
“This is insane.”
“Is it?”
“Yes. Your marriage is falling apart, and somehow I’m in the middle of it.”
Victoria stood.
“You put yourself in the middle.”
Grant turned on her.
“Be careful.”
The threat was quiet.
But Daniel heard it.
Victoria did too.
For the first time, she looked genuinely nervous.
Daniel moved between them.
“What exactly are you two hiding?”
Neither answered.
Daniel’s phone rang.
Evelyn.
He answered.
“What did you find?”
“I traced North Harbor Strategies.”
Grant’s face changed.
Barely.
But Daniel saw it.
Evelyn continued.
“It’s owned by Mercer Strategic Holdings.”
Daniel frowned.
“That’s one of ours.”
“Yes.”
“Who controls it?”
“Grant.”
Silence filled the study.
Daniel did not take his eyes off his brother.
“How much money went from BrightPath to North Harbor?”
“Over eighteen months? Approximately one hundred and ninety thousand.”
Grant stepped forward.
“Daniel, whatever she’s telling you—”
Daniel raised a hand.
Evelyn continued.
“And there’s more. The family office sent $620,000 to North Harbor over the same period.”
“For what?”
“Consulting.”
“What consulting?”
“No supporting documents.”
Grant’s face hardened.
“Get off the phone.”
Daniel ignored him.
“Evelyn, lock every non-operating discretionary family-office account you can legally lock.”
Grant exploded.
“You can’t do that.”
Daniel looked at him.
“Interesting choice of words.”
“You’ll interfere with company obligations.”
“These aren’t company operating accounts.”
“You don’t understand the structure.”
“I founded the structure.”
“And then you stopped paying attention to it.”
The accusation landed.
Grant stepped closer.
“You fly around the country, shake hands, give interviews, and trust everyone else to clean up the details. Don’t suddenly pretend you know how everything runs.”
Daniel felt the old brotherly rivalry beneath the words.
Grant had always believed Daniel got the recognition.
Daniel had always believed Grant preferred control without visibility.
Victoria moved toward the door.
“No one is leaving,” Daniel said.
She stopped.
“I’m not your prisoner.”
“No. But if you walk out, assume every financial record connected to you will be subpoenaed.”
Victoria turned.
“You think threatening me makes you powerful?”
“No.”
Daniel looked at Ethan’s false reports scattered across the desk.
“This makes me angry.”
Grant lowered his voice.
“Daniel. We need to talk alone.”
Daniel glanced at Victoria.
She laughed once.
“Of course you do.”
“Upstairs,” Daniel told her.
“I’m not taking orders from you.”
“Then leave the house.”
Her expression hardened.
“This is my home too.”
“Then stay somewhere else tonight.”
Victoria stared at him.
For several seconds Daniel thought she would refuse.
Then she walked out.
A bedroom door slammed upstairs.
Grant waited until they were alone.
“You have no idea what Victoria has been doing.”
Daniel stared at him.
“That sentence works both ways.”
Grant sank into the chair.
He looked suddenly older.
“There was a bad investment.”
Daniel said nothing.
“Two years ago.”
“How bad?”
Grant rubbed his forehead.
“Six million.”
Daniel’s breathing slowed.
“Company money?”
“No.”
“Whose?”
“Family office funds.”
Daniel stared.
Grant continued quickly.
“It was temporary. I moved capital into a private credit deal. The borrower collapsed.”
“You lost six million dollars.”
“I was going to replace it.”
“With what?”
“Returns from another vehicle.”
Daniel laughed once in disbelief.
“You mean another gamble.”
“It wasn’t a gamble.”
“You hid it.”
Grant slammed his palm against the desk.
“Because you would have destroyed me.”
“You stole money.”
“I borrowed money.”
“Without permission.”
“I kept the family running for fifteen years while you got to be the visionary.”
Daniel looked at the man he had trusted with almost everything.
“And Victoria?”
Grant’s silence answered first.
Daniel felt sick.
“What did she know?”
“She found out.”
“How?”
“She saw paperwork.”
“In my study?”
Grant nodded.
“And then?”
“She threatened to tell you.”
“So you paid her.”
“No.”
“What did you do?”
Grant looked toward the door.
“She wanted security.”
“For herself?”
“For Mason.”
Daniel’s jaw tightened.
Grant continued.
“She said she knew you’d never change your estate plan because everything still revolved around Claire and Ethan.”
“So you helped her?”
“I helped myself.”
“With fake reports about a ten-year-old boy?”
“I never approved that.”
“But you approved BrightPath.”
Grant looked away.
Daniel’s voice dropped.
“You knew.”
“I knew she was documenting Ethan’s behavior.”
“You knew the behavior was fake?”
“No.”
Daniel leaned across the desk.
“Look at me.”
Grant did.
“Did you know she was trying to get him placed outside this house?”
Grant hesitated.
And that hesitation destroyed what remained.
Daniel stepped back.
“Get out.”
“Daniel—”
“Get out of my house.”
Grant stood.
“You freeze those accounts and you could expose everything.”
“That’s the idea.”
“You’ll hurt the company.”
“No.”
Daniel opened the study door.
“You did that.”
Grant walked toward the foyer.
At the front door, he stopped.
“You think Victoria is your biggest problem?”
Daniel said nothing.
Grant turned.
“She has copies of documents that could make the board believe you knew about the missing money.”
Then he walked out.
Daniel remained in the hallway.
Upstairs, somewhere behind a closed door, Ethan laughed softly at something Rosa said.
Daniel looked toward the staircase.
Grant’s final sentence echoed through his mind.
May you like
The conspiracy was no longer just about stealing money.
Someone had prepared a way to blame him for it.
