Chapter 6 - Elaine Mercer
Elaine Mercer agreed to speak after Lucas found her.
She lived outside Wilmington, North Carolina.
Daniel and company attorney Helen Ward flew down.
Elaine was eighty-two.
Sharp-eyed.
Cautious.
When Helen placed the 2004 notarized document before her, Elaine touched the page.
“I remember this.”
Daniel leaned forward.
“Did my mother sign it in front of you?”
Elaine looked at him.
“No.”
The room became silent.
“Then why did you notarize it?”
Elaine closed her eyes.
“Because I was stupid.”
She had worked for Gordon Cross for seventeen years.
In 2004 Gordon brought her a stack of documents.
He said Margaret had already signed them during a meeting but the notary had forgotten to complete acknowledgment.
“Did my father know?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did Gordon?”
“Yes.”
“You’re certain?”
Elaine looked angry now.
“At my age, young man, I don’t need to protect his reputation.”
She explained that two years later, during an internal audit, she realized several documents had been notarized improperly.
She confronted Gordon.
“He told me no one had been harmed.”
“What did you do?”
“Nothing.”
“Why?”
“I had three years until retirement and a husband with cancer.”
Daniel understood fear.
He hated understanding it.
“Did you ever meet my mother?”
“Once.”
“When?”
“1997.”
“Did she ever tell you she planned to give up Alderwick?”
Elaine laughed.
“No. She called that estate her insurance policy.”
Daniel frowned.
“Insurance against what?”
“Your father’s ambition.”
On the flight home, Daniel stared out the window.
His father became less simple with every document.
Not monster.
Not hero.
A man.
Ambitious.
Loving.
Dishonest when frightened.
Generous when comfortable.
Controlling when threatened.
Daniel recognized too much of himself.
Helen broke the silence.
“If Elaine provides a sworn statement, the title issue becomes serious.”
“Could Mom take Alderwick?”
“Possibly. We need the full agreement, payment history, statutes, later transactions, and whether claims were waived.”
“She knew for years.”
“That matters.”
Daniel looked at her.
“So does the fraud.”
“Yes.”
When they landed, Vivian was waiting at Daniel’s office.
He considered leaving.
Instead he let her in.
She placed something on his desk.
The engagement ring.
“I don’t want this while you’re deciding whether I’m a criminal.”
Daniel looked at it.
“I never called you a criminal.”
“You look at me like one.”
“You knew about your father’s debt.”
“Yes.”
“Did you know about the Riverstone leverage?”
“No.”
“I have an email.”
“I know.”
“How?”
“My father told me this morning.”
Daniel stared.
Vivian sat.
“He thinks Lucas is trying to destroy the merger.”
“Lucas found a document.”
“My father says Mason has a legitimate claim.”
“Maybe.”
Vivian looked exhausted.
“I came to tell you something before you hear it from someone else.”
Daniel waited.
“I sent your mother the merger schedule.”
He stared.
“What?”
“I mailed it.”
“Why?”
“Because you stopped questioning anything.”
“That is not true.”
“You were rushing.”
“We were supposed to get married.”
“Exactly.”
Daniel stood.
“You secretly sent confidential documents to my estranged mother instead of talking to me?”
“I tried.”
“When?”
“Every time I asked whether Bennett could survive Riverstone without us.”
“You framed it as salesmanship.”
“Because if I told you my father was hiding liabilities, you would ask how I knew.”
“How did you know?”
Vivian looked down.
“I accessed his financial files.”
Daniel almost laughed.
“Everyone in our lives just steals documents?”
“My father was lying to me too.”
She explained.
Gordon told her Cross Development’s financial stress was temporary.
Then she discovered internal forecasts showing potential covenant defaults within six months.
Without the Bennett merger, Cross might have to sell assets quickly.
Maybe even file restructuring proceedings if markets worsened.
“I wanted you to see the numbers before signing.”
“Why anonymous?”
“Because I was afraid.”
“Of your father?”
“Yes.”
“And me?”
Vivian’s eyes filled.
“Yes.”
Daniel sat again.
“Why my mother?”
“Because of something my father said.”
“What?”
“He said, ‘If Margaret finds out, she’ll stop this the way she stopped James.’”
Daniel’s breath caught.
“When?”
“Three weeks ago.”
Vivian looked at him.
“I didn’t know what he meant.”
Daniel did now.
His mother had stopped something before.
Something involving his father.
May you like
And Gordon Cross was still afraid of her doing it again.
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