Chapter 9 - THE DAY SEBASTIAN CRANE CAME TO ASK
Sebastian Crane came to Andrew’s office personally.
No bodyguards inside.
No theatrics.
Fifty-two.
Immaculate suit.
Perfect posture.
The kind of man who had never been told no without charging interest.
Andrew sat behind the conference table.
Daniel beside him.
Samantha on the other side with counsel.
Michael present.
Julian.
Independent trustee representatives.
No Ivy.
Never Ivy.
Sebastian looked at Daniel.
“You look better.”
Daniel smiled.
“You look disappointed.”
Sebastian ignored that.
He placed a proposal down.
$600 million settlement package.
Callahan branches bought out.
Daniel nominee interest refinanced.
Ivy’s trust converted into diversified securities.
Samantha receives separate $25 million family-support fund.
Michael gets executive exit package.
Andrew receives release from all historic Mercer-Crane claims.
Clean.
Expensive.
Tempting.
Then Samantha asked:
“What happens to the harbor workers?”
Sebastian looked at her.
“What?”
“The unpaid claims Patrick found.”
“They’re being resolved.”
“How?”
No answer.
Michael opened another report.
Environmental remediation.
Foundation defects.
Insurance reserves.
Crane’s deal shifted too much liability to municipal partners.
Exactly what Patrick feared.
Then Daniel pushed the settlement back.
“No.”
Sebastian stared.
“You haven’t read all of it.”
“I read enough.”
“Four hundred million of your own money—”
“Still no.”
Sebastian looked at Andrew.
“Control your brother.”
Andrew leaned back.
“There’s the problem.”
“What?”
“He was never mine to control.”
Daniel looked at him.
Small smile.
Then Michael rejected his branch buyout.
Ivy’s trustee rejected conversion.
Three noes.
Crane refinancing stalled.
Sebastian’s composure cracked.
“You think this ends because you found paperwork?”
Andrew said:
“No.”
“Good.”
Sebastian stood.
“Because Patrick Callahan was not protecting Ivy from me.”
Samantha went still.
“Then who?”
Sebastian looked at her.
“Ask your husband.”
“He’s dead.”
“Exactly.”
Andrew’s eyes narrowed.
Sebastian continued.
“Patrick recorded more than one video.”
“We found the locker.”
“That wasn’t the important copy.”
“What was?”
“His home server.”
Samantha shook her head.
There was no server.
Sebastian smiled.
“There was.”
Then he looked at Andrew.
“Patrick discovered who ordered Daniel hidden.”
“Your family?”
“No.”
“Who?”
Sebastian paused.
“Lucia Mercer.”
They already knew Lucia arranged the initial false death.
Sebastian shook his head.
“Not initial hiding.”
“What then?”
“The continued sedation.”
Andrew’s face hardened.
“You’re lying.”
“Maybe.”
Sebastian looked at Daniel.
“Ask him who signed the annual medical authorization.”
Daniel stared.
He had never seen those forms.
Then Sebastian placed copies.
Authorized family representative:
LUCIA MERCER.
Years after Lucia died.
Signatures continued.
Forgery.
Or someone using her identity.
Then:
Secondary authorization:
A. MERCER.
Andrew stopped breathing.
His initials.
He had never signed.
But the signatures looked remarkably similar.
Then Julian saw the document dates.
Some occurred while Andrew was overseas.
Easy to challenge.
But one date?
Andrew was in Brooklyn.
No obvious alibi.
Sebastian smiled.
“You see?”
Andrew stared.
“What are you trying to prove?”
“That someone inside your office had access to your signature for years.”
Caleb immediately began searching.
Who?
Executive assistants.
Trust counsel.
Family office.
Then Sebastian delivered the real blow.
“Your own company paid Ashwood.”
Andrew went still.
No.
Invoices:
Mercer Protective Holdings.
Quarterly “family medical confidentiality” payments.
Total:
$3.6 million over eight years.
Authorized through Andrew’s corporate family office.
Not Andrew personally.
But his money.
His company.
His infrastructure had financed Daniel’s captivity without him knowing.
Daniel looked at his brother.
Andrew felt sick.
“I didn’t know.”
Daniel studied him.
“I believe you.”
That hurt worse.
Then Sebastian said:
“Find who did.”
He left.
Why help them?
Maybe self-preservation.
If hidden payments traced to someone other than Crane, blame shifted.
Then Caleb found the approving executive.
Name:
Rebecca Sloan Mercer.
Andrew’s aunt.
His father Vincent’s younger sister.
Family office controller for seventeen years.
Retired three years ago.
Alive.
Florida.
Andrew stared.
Aunt Rebecca had practically raised him after Lucia died.
She handled family accounts.
Trusted by everyone.
Why would she pay Ashwood?
They called.
No answer.
Then one email surfaced.
Rebecca to Ashwood administrator:
Continue D.M. protocol. A.M. must not be informed.
A.M.
Andrew Mercer.
His hands went cold.
She had intentionally hidden Daniel from him.
Then another:
Lucia was right. Andrew will burn Brooklyn to find him.
Daniel almost laughed.
“Again. They weren’t entirely wrong.”
Andrew did not.
Then the final email.
If Samantha Callahan interferes, notify Crane immediately.
Samantha stopped breathing.
Rebecca knew her.
Before Ashwood.
Before Daniel woke.
Why?
Then Caleb traced older correspondence.
Rebecca Mercer and Patrick Callahan had exchanged encrypted emails years earlier.
They were working together.
Until suddenly they weren’t.
The final email from Patrick:
I KNOW WHO IVY’S REAL GRANDFATHER IS.
Andrew stared.
Samantha whispered:
“What?”
Patrick’s next line:
IF REBECCA FINDS OUT I HAVE THE DNA FILE, SHE WILL MOVE AGAINST US.
No one spoke.
Ivy’s grandfather should have been Thomas Callahan through Patrick.
Unless Patrick had discovered his own paternity was different.
But modern DNA already confirmed Thomas was Patrick’s biological father.
So “real grandfather” had to mean Samantha’s side.
Her father.
Samantha went pale.
“My father died when I was twelve.”
Name:
James Holloway.
Schoolteacher.
Or so she believed.
Then Caleb found the file Patrick had referenced.
DNA folder.
J.H. vs. S.C.
S.C. = Samantha Callahan?
Maybe.
The result was missing.
May you like
But the metadata showed Rebecca Mercer had opened it four years earlier.
Two days before Patrick’s car crash.
