Chapter 7 - THE WOMAN WRITTEN INTO MY FAMILY’S FUTURE
I had never heard Evelyn Mercer’s name.
Yet somehow, she had been written into my family’s future.
Carlo arrived at the estate shortly after sunrise with two attorneys and no security.
Marco searched him before I allowed him into the library.
My uncle looked twenty years older than he had at Lucia’s funeral.
I put the red folder in front of him.
“Start talking.”
Carlo saw Lucia’s handwriting and closed his eyes.
“She found everything.”
“Apparently not everything.”
He sat down.
My father had created a complicated family trust years earlier.
At the time, Evelyn Mercer had been a young attorney working for the firm that structured it.
Her job had included drafting succession provisions.
“If the Moretti heir became incapacitated, disappeared, or was judged unable to care for his children,” Carlo explained, “an independent fiduciary could temporarily assume control.”
“Evelyn.”
“She inserted her firm.”
“You allowed that?”
“I didn’t know until years later.”
“And when you learned?”
Carlo looked ashamed.
“I tried to remove her quietly.”
Lucia had apparently discovered the same provision after the triplets were born.
She started asking questions.
Evelyn learned about it.
“So you helped Evelyn get into my house?”
Carlo shook his head.
“She blackmailed me.”
“With what?”
He looked toward Marco.
I slammed my palm onto the desk.
“What?”
“Money I moved from company accounts years ago.”
Lucia’s records.
Carlo admitted stealing.
Not everything.
But enough.
Evelyn discovered it and used him.
“She made me authorize contractors. Network access. Estate records.”
“The device in my nursery?”
His face changed.
“I swear to you, Adrien, I didn’t know about that.”
Marco stepped behind him.
Carlo removed his car keys and placed them on the desk.
“I realized something was wrong yesterday. That’s why I told you not to use the phone.”
Sophie suddenly appeared at the library entrance with Elena.
“I’m sorry,” Elena said. “She slipped away from me.”
Sophie stared at Carlo.
Then at his keys.
Her little face tightened.
“That’s the noise.”
Everyone froze.
“What noise?” I asked.
She covered one ear.
“The squeak.”
Marco immediately picked up Carlo’s key fob and carried it away from Sophie.
Her shoulders relaxed.
He opened the plastic casing.
Inside was a transmitter smaller than a coin.
Carlo stared at it in horror.
“I’ve never seen that.”
Marco checked the signal.
“It’s the same wireless frequency as the nursery emitter.”
Someone had planted a transmitter on Carlo.
Someone wanted every digital trail to lead straight to him.
Then Marco noticed something else.
May you like
The transmitter was broadcasting live.
And whoever had been listening had just heard our entire conversation.
