Chapter 3 - SOMEONE INSIDE
Claire left the hospital against the recommendation that she rest overnight.
Deputy Reed did not try to stop her.
Instead, he arranged for San Francisco police to meet them at the condominium building.
Maya came with Claire.
Neither woman spoke during most of the drive.
Claire stared through the passenger window at the lights passing across the bay.
Every memory of her marriage was beginning to feel contaminated.
Birthdays.
Anniversaries.
Vacations.
Arguments she had once believed were normal.
Adrian had always complained that Claire was too protective of her independence.
He criticized her separate accounts.
He mocked her insistence on keeping the condominium solely in her name.
He called it emotional distance.
Now she understood.
He had not wanted intimacy.
He had wanted access.
When they reached the building, two police cruisers were waiting.
The concierge looked terrified.
“Mrs. Mercer, I’m so sorry.”
“Who entered my unit?”
He checked the computer.
“Your husband.”
Claire frowned.
“Adrian is still at the vineyard.”
The concierge turned the screen toward her.
A temporary access authorization had been entered three hours earlier.
Authorized user: Adrian Mercer.
But beneath it was a second name.
Nathan Mercer.
Claire stared.
“He never had permission.”
The elevator ride felt endless.
Police entered the condominium first.
Claire waited in the hallway.
After several minutes, an officer returned.
“No one is inside.”
“Was anything taken?”
“We need you to check.”
Claire stepped through the doorway.
At first, everything appeared normal.
Then she noticed the desk in her study.
One drawer was open.
Claire rushed toward it.
Her property deed remained inside.
Her passport remained inside.
But the small encrypted backup drive she kept behind a stack of tax files was gone.
Her chest tightened.
“That drive contained financial records.”
Maya appeared behind her.
“What records?”
“Taxes.”
“Contracts.”
“Investment statements.”
“Copies of my trust documents.”
Maya covered her mouth.
Claire turned slowly.
“They needed information from those files.”
One officer pointed toward the bookshelf.
A framed photograph was lying facedown.
Behind it, a small wall safe had been opened.
Claire stared.
Only three people knew the code.
Claire.
Her attorney.
And Adrian.
Inside the safe, several folders had been disturbed.
One was missing.
A blue folder.
Claire knew exactly what it contained.
Documents relating to a family trust established by her late father.
The trust was worth considerably more than Adrian’s family realized.
At least, she had always believed they did not know.
Maya whispered.
“What was in that folder?”
Claire answered carefully.
“Something Adrian could never legally control.”
A police technician entered.
“We found fingerprints near the office window.”
“Whose?”
“We’ll need to compare them.”
Then Maya noticed something beneath the desk.
A torn corner of paper.
She reached for it.
The officer stopped her and collected it with gloves.
Only three handwritten words remained visible.
Mercer Legacy Fund.
Maya stared at the name.
“I’ve heard that before.”
Claire turned.
“Where?”
“Nathan said Charles created it.”
“What is it?”
Maya’s expression changed.
“I thought it was an investment fund.”
She swallowed.
“But last Christmas, I overheard Charles telling Adrian something strange.”
“What?”
“He said the fund would be safe as soon as your father’s money was inside it.”
Claire stopped breathing for a second.
Her father had been dead for eleven years.
And almost no one knew that Claire still controlled the trust he had created.
Almost no one.
Except Adrian.
Claire looked toward the empty space in her safe.
The stolen folder suddenly mattered far more than the forged condo transfer.
They were not trying to steal three million dollars.
They were trying to reach everything.
Then Claire’s phone rang.
This time the caller ID appeared.
ADRIAN.
She answered.
His first words were whispered.
“Claire, whatever the police found, it was my father.”
Claire said nothing.
Adrian continued.
“I can prove it.”
Then his voice dropped even lower.
“But you need to get to me before Nathan does.”
May you like
The call disconnected.
---
