Chapter 13 - Forty-Eight Hours to Save Mercer Freight
The company was beginning to bleed.
Two major clients paused contracts.
A bank suspended a credit line.
News vans parked outside headquarters.
Employees began receiving calls from competitors.
Mercer Freight had forty-eight hours before payroll processing.
If lenders froze additional funds, eight hundred employees could miss checks because four executives had stolen from the company.
Daniel refused to let that happen.
He joined the board remotely from the hospital.
Martin’s seat was empty.
Alan’s seat was empty.
Vanessa’s seat had been removed.
Daniel spoke for eleven minutes.
“No bonuses.”
“No dividends.”
“No executive distributions.”
He looked into the camera.
“Use every available reserve to protect payroll and active deliveries.”
One board member objected.
“Our share value could collapse.”
Daniel did not hesitate.
“Then it collapses.”
Silence.
“People who had nothing to do with this fraud are not paying the price before I do.”
The motion passed unanimously.
Then Irene Foster presented her handwritten ledger.
She had documented enough discrepancies to help auditors identify $4.1 million that had not yet left intermediary accounts.
Federal authorities froze those funds.
Another $2.3 million was located in Silver Track accounts.
By Saturday morning, investigators had identified almost the entire stolen amount.
But discovery did not mean recovery.
Some money had moved overseas.
Some had purchased real estate.
Some had paid debts.
Some had disappeared.
Daniel spent Saturday beside the twins while taking calls.
Elena watched him.
“You haven’t slept.”
“I’m fine.”
“You’re lying.”
He looked at her.
“So are you.”
She smiled faintly.
They were both exhausted.
For the first time, Daniel admitted something he had not said aloud.
“I keep thinking about Tuesday.”
Elena’s expression softened.
“If I had arrived ten minutes later.”
“You didn’t.”
“If the camera hadn’t uploaded.”
“It did.”
“If Sophie—”
“Daniel.”
He stopped.
Elena took his hand.
“We cannot live inside every version of what almost happened.”
He looked at her.
“We live inside the one that did.”
Daniel nodded.
Then his phone rang.
Rachel.
“We have a problem.”
He stood.
“What now?”
“Vanessa’s attorney filed a motion.”
“For what?”
“She claims the morality clause in your father’s estate documents is invalid.”
Daniel’s jaw tightened.
“That’s her priority?”
“If she keeps her shares, she still has leverage.”
“She’s in custody.”
“Ownership survives custody.”
Daniel knew she was right.
Twenty-two percent of Mercer Freight was worth more than Vanessa had stolen.
If convicted, she could potentially sell those shares through legal representatives.
Worse, a hostile buyer could acquire them.
Rachel continued.
“We need the missing letter from your father.”
“Page fifteen.”
“Yes.”
“Vanessa probably destroyed it.”
“Maybe.”
Daniel heard something in Rachel’s voice.
“What?”
“Your father’s binder used sequential notary seals.”
“So?”
“Page sixteen references an attachment.”
Daniel remembered the folder.
“What attachment?”
“A video statement.”
Daniel stopped moving.
Rachel’s voice became quieter.
“Your father recorded something before he died.”
“And where is it?”
May you like
“That’s what we have forty-eight hours to find.”
*
