Chapter 10 - THE SECRET MY MOTHER PUT IN MY NAME
Megan agreed to speak with Elliot.
Under supervision.
No private meeting.
No threats.
No old-family nonsense.
I hated every second.
She chose anyway.
Elliot sat behind glass.
Older than I remembered.
Smaller.
Power does that when separated from rooms it owns.
He looked at Megan.
“Claire’s daughter.”
Megan folded her arms.
“You don’t get to say her name like you knew her.”
“I knew her very well.”
“No.”
She leaned closer.
“You knew what scared her.”
Good.
Elliot’s smile faded.
“What did she leave you?”
“Nothing.”
“She did.”
“Then tell me.”
He laughed.
“Your name.”
Megan frowned.
Her name?
Claire Foster had chosen Foster after leaving Atlanta.
Not random.
Foster.
A surname.
The trust attorney searched.
There was an old corporation.
FOSTER DEVELOPMENT GROUP.
Dormant.
Created by my father twenty-one years ago.
Sole shareholder:
Claire Delaney.
Then transferred to:
Megan Foster.
At age eighteen.
Megan had technically owned a company for sixteen years without knowing.
The company held one asset.
Land beneath Mason Warehouse District South.
My organization’s most valuable logistics property.
Worth hundreds of millions.
I stared.
“My father gave your mother the land.”
Why?
Protection.
If Elliot seized Mason companies, the land beneath them remained outside family control.
Claire could shut down operations.
Leverage.
Insurance.
Megan looked horrified.
“I own land worth that much?”
“On paper.”
“I have eleven dollars.”
“Formerly.”
She glared.
“Not funny.”
Fair.
Then Elliot said:
“Claire never wanted the money.”
Megan replied:
“Neither do I.”
“Good.”
He smiled.
“Because keeping it makes you a target.”
Megan did not flinch.
“Then maybe I’ll keep it just to annoy you.”
I nearly laughed.
Elliot’s face hardened.
Then he dropped the final piece.
“Your mother planned to transfer the land.”
“To who?”
“To Marcus.”
Our newly discovered half-brother.
No.
Megan looked at him through the glass.
“Why?”
“Because Claire wanted all of Gabriel Mason’s children protected equally.”
Me.
Marcus.
Maybe more?
I felt cold.
“All?”
Elliot smiled.
“There’s another.”
Of course.
Another child.
My father apparently had one more daughter.
Name:
Elena Mason.
Age thirty-six.
Current occupation:
May you like
Assistant District Attorney for Fulton County.
The same prosecutor currently handling Elliot’s case.
