Chapter 15 - MY MOTHER’S FINAL DEAL
Samuel Price had been hiding for six years.
Arthur paid him to disappear.
Eleanor had helped him prepare for it long before her death.
“She knew Arthur would eventually turn on everyone.”
Samuel said.
“Including me.”
“What did Mom want from you?”
I asked.
“To preserve the real books.”
He led us into a basement.
Behind a false wall were boxes of records.
Not copies.
Originals.
Invoices bearing Arthur’s handwriting.
Inspection reports.
Private contracts.
Bank authorizations.
Enough to rebuild twenty years of corruption.
I stared at Samuel.
“Why didn’t you come forward?”
“Because your mother made me promise not to until all three of you were free of Arthur.”
I almost laughed.
“We weren’t free.”
“No.”
Samuel said sadly.
“That took longer than she expected.”
He opened a safe.
Inside were bank records for the forty-seven million.
The funds had been transferred into a trust created by Eleanor.
My mother.
Not Arthur.
“Why?”
I asked.
Samuel handed me a document.
The trust was designated for the families of the Meridian crew.
Arthur had discovered it after her death but could never seize it legally without proving why the money existed.
So he buried the account.
The recent transfer had not stolen the money.
It had activated my mother’s instructions.
When ownership of Ashford Maritime changed, the trust automatically funded.
I stared at the pages.
“She knew.”
Samuel nodded.
“She planned for the day someone finally took the company away from him.”
My eyes filled.
Even after twelve years, my mother had still been fighting.
But Samuel had promised another truth.
“What am I not ready to hear?”
His expression changed.
“Eleanor was preparing to leave Arthur.”
“I know.”
“She wasn’t planning to take you with her.”
The words hit unexpectedly.
“What?”
“She planned to leave alone.”
“Why?”
“Because she believed Arthur would hunt her if she took you.”
I sat down.
“She intended to expose everything first.”
Samuel continued.
“Then come back.”
“So she abandoned us?”
“No.”
He shook his head.
“She sacrificed being with you because she thought distance would keep you alive.”
The parallel was brutal.
My mother had left to protect us.
I had left because Arthur forced me out.
And in both cases, he had rewritten the story.
Samuel reached inside another box.
“There is one final record.”
A medical report.
My mother’s autopsy.
The original.
Not the version submitted to the county.
Cause of death.
Internal trauma following a fall.
Contributing factor.
Delayed emergency response.
At the bottom was a handwritten note from the medical examiner.
Possible interference requested by Arthur Ashford and David Mercer.
I looked at Reed.
“This puts Mercer back in it.”
“Yes.”
Samuel said.
“Mercer has been telling you half-truths.”
My phone rang.
The hospital.
May you like
David Mercer had disappeared from his room.
And the security officer assigned to his floor had been found unconscious.
