Chapter 4 - DANIEL’S LAST GIFT
We named her Grace Margaret Mercer.
Grace for the thing I desperately needed.
Margaret for the woman who had answered the phone when my world was collapsing.
Because she was premature, Grace stayed in the neonatal unit for observation.
The doctors were cautiously optimistic.
I spent the first night moving between sleep and memories of Daniel.
At 7:10 the next morning, Margaret entered my room.
She was sixty-one, silver-haired, and normally impossible to rattle.
That morning, she looked furious.
She placed a leather folder beside me.
“You need to see this.”
“What happened?”
“Your father has hired an attorney.”
“That was fast.”
“He is claiming you invited him to manage the estate because grief made you mentally incapable of handling financial decisions.”
I stared at her.
“He assaulted me.”
“I know.”
“He forged my signature.”
“We have evidence.”
“And his defense is that I’m unstable?”
Margaret gave me a grim smile.
“Richard has always believed confidence can replace facts.”
She opened the folder.
“Daniel prepared for that too.”
Inside was a notarized statement dated seven months earlier.
Margaret read part of it aloud.
“If any person attempts to challenge Emily Mercer’s competence following my death, Margaret Sloan is authorized to release my attached declaration.”
My throat tightened.
Margaret turned the page.
Daniel’s words filled the paper.
Emily is the most capable person I have ever known.
She understands our finances, our property, and our business interests.
No family member has authority to override her decisions.
Richard Hale specifically has no authority to act for Emily unless she personally grants that authority in writing before two independent witnesses.
I covered my eyes.
“He knew.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t he tell me?”
“Because he hoped none of this would ever become necessary.”
Margaret sat beside the bed.
“There is one more thing.”
She removed a small black drive.
“Daniel left this in my office safe.”
“What is it?”
“I don’t know everything on it.”
“You never opened it?”
“I was instructed not to unless Richard challenged the trust.”
She placed the drive in my hand.
“He challenged it yesterday.”
I stared at the tiny object.
“What’s on here?”
Margaret looked toward the hospital window.
“Daniel called it insurance.”
My phone rang.
Richard.
I almost rejected it.
Margaret stopped me.
“Answer.”
I put the phone on speaker.
Richard’s voice filled the room.
“Emily, we need to end this misunderstanding.”
I stared at Margaret.
Then I said the words my father had never expected to hear from me.
“There is no misunderstanding.”
A pause.
“You attacked me.”
“Emily—”
“You tried to steal my house.”
“That house should never have been Daniel’s to control.”
“It wasn’t.”
May you like
Silence.
“It was mine.”
