Chapter 7 - THE FATHERS
Marcus punched his father.
Anthony stumbled against the counter.
Nobody intervened.
Then Marcus grabbed his shirt.
“Eight years.”
Anthony did not fight back.
“I know.”
“You don’t know.”
Marcus’s voice finally broke.
“You don’t get to know.”
Ruby looked away.
This belonged to a son who had attended an empty funeral.
Anthony wiped blood from his mouth.
“You’re right.”
That stopped Marcus more effectively than resistance would have.
Anthony explained.
Eight years earlier Richard Mercer had threatened to expose enough criminal evidence to send Marcus to prison for operations Anthony himself had authorized.
Marcus had been young, recently taking responsibility inside the family business.
Richard intended to make him the public face of everything.
“So you disappeared,” Marcus said.
“I made Richard believe I was dead, then spent eight years dismantling the evidence he controlled.”
“You could have told me.”
“If you knew, Richard could make you prove it.”
Marcus laughed bitterly.
“You protected me by making me hate you.”
“Yes.”
“That wasn’t your choice to make.”
Anthony’s eyes lowered.
“No.”
Across the room, Ruby looked at Daniel.
Her father understood the accusation too.
Their fathers had called abandonment protection.
Their children had lived with the consequences.
Ruby opened the blue ledger.
“Enough family history. Evan died because of this. Where’s Richard?”
Anthony looked at Elaine.
“Your father is going to the pension office.”
Elaine shook her head.
“He can’t authorize anything.”
“He can if he has my code.”
Marcus stared.
“You gave it to him?”
“I gave him a code.”
Anthony removed a folded paper.
“A trace code.”
If Richard used it, the transfer would lock and identify every destination account.
Ruby understood.
“You’re trapping him.”
“Yes.”
“Without telling anyone.”
Anthony looked at Marcus.
“Old habits.”
Marcus’s stare could have cut steel.
“Those end today.”
They went to the pension administration building.
No dramatic raid.
No army.
Ruby insisted.
“If Richard sees Varela men everywhere, he walks.”
So Ruby, Calvin and Margaret entered first.
Richard Mercer was waiting in the boardroom.
He looked older than his photographs.
Smaller too.
Ruby had expected a monster.
Instead she saw a seventy-year-old man with shaking hands and an oxygen inhaler beside his laptop.
That frightened her more.
Monsters were easy.
Ordinary people could justify anything.
Richard smiled at Calvin.
“Son.”
Calvin stopped.
“Don’t call me that.”
Richard looked at Elaine.
“You took my ledger.”
“Yes.”
“For him?”
Elaine stood beside her husband.
“For myself.”
Richard seemed disappointed.
Then he looked at Ruby.
“You have Evan’s eyes when you’re angry.”
“Don’t say his name.”
“I liked your brother.”
Ruby felt disgust.
“You killed him.”
Richard’s expression changed.
“I struck him.”
“That killed him.”
“No.”
Ruby went still.
Richard turned the laptop.
A traffic camera image showed Evan beneath the overpass.
Timestamp: 10:14 p.m.
Richard’s car left at 10:16.
At 10:23, another vehicle arrived.
Danner had claimed he arrived at 10:31.
Someone else had been there for eight minutes.
Ruby stared.
“Who?”
Richard smiled sadly.
“That is the question your brother died trying to answer.”
Answer one.
Open two.
Richard had attacked Evan.
But he might not have delivered the fatal injury.
“Who was in the car?”
“I never knew.”
Anthony entered.
“I did.”
Richard’s face changed.
Anthony placed the signet ring on the table.
“The car belonged to Varela Shipping.”
Marcus entered behind him.
Richard smiled.
“There’s the prince.”
Marcus ignored him.
Anthony continued.
“It was assigned to my executive office.”
Ruby looked between father and son.
“Who had access?”
Anthony answered.
“Luis Ortega.”
Silence.
Marcus turned slowly.
Luis stood in the doorway.
For the first time since Ruby met him, Luis looked afraid.
“Marcus.”
Marcus’s voice was barely audible.
“Tell me he’s wrong.”
Luis closed his eyes.
“I went there.”
Ruby’s heart pounded.
“Did you kill Evan?”
“No.”
“What did you do?”
Luis looked at her.
“I found him alive.”
Ruby felt the room tilt.
Again.
Everyone had found Evan alive.
Everyone had left pieces out.
“I tried to help him. He grabbed my coat and told me not to call Marcus.”
“Why?”
“Because he thought someone inside Varela Shipping was helping Richard.”
Marcus stared.
“And you believed it was me?”
“No.”
Luis swallowed.
“I believed it was Anthony.”
Anthony’s face hardened.
Luis continued.
“Evan gave me something.”
From his wallet, Luis removed a small photograph, worn soft at the edges.
Ruby recognized herself.
She was seventeen.
Evan had taken it at their mother’s birthday dinner.
On the back were four words:
KEEP RUBY AWAY FROM DANIEL.
Ruby looked at her father.
Daniel’s face went gray.
“No.”
Ruby backed away.
“Evan was afraid of you.”
Daniel shook his head.
“No, sweetheart.”
“Don’t call me that.”
Richard began laughing quietly.
Everyone turned.
Daniel stared at him.
“You.”
Richard smiled.
“You still haven’t told her, Daniel?”
Ruby’s voice shook.
“Told me what?”
Richard looked directly at her.
“Why Evan was really investigating the fund.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
Richard answered for him.
“He wasn’t trying to prove Daniel innocent.”
May you like
A pause.
“He was trying to prove your father started the theft.”
