Chapter 6 - Northstar
Maya stared at the incorporation record for almost a minute.
Then she said:
“I created it.”
There are moments when betrayal doesn’t feel like anger.
It feels like gravity disappearing.
“You lied.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because Northstar was supposed to protect you.”
“From whom?”
“Your family.”
Fourteen months earlier, Maya had discovered Eleanor was using one of my authorized cards to pay Mark’s business debts.
Not hundreds.
Thousands.
Then tens of thousands.
She confronted Chloe privately.
Chloe begged her not to tell me.
Maya agreed on one condition:
It stopped.
It didn’t.
So Maya quietly created Northstar with an attorney and began documenting transfers involving my family.
“You investigated them behind my back.”
“I tried telling you first.”
I remembered.
Mom’s spending is getting strange.
Chloe keeps asking questions about your company.
Maybe Mark shouldn’t have access anymore.
And my answers.
They’re family.
Mom would never hurt us.
You’re overthinking it.
Maya looked away.
“I stopped asking.”
That hurt more than the lie.
“What about the $480,000?”
“I didn’t move it.”
“Then who knew about Northstar?”
“My attorney.”
“Who?”
She hesitated.
“Ethan.”
I stood.
“Ethan is your attorney?”
“No. He introduced me to one.”
Of course he did.
Another thread leading back to him.
But Maya had one more secret.
Northstar contained a dead-man switch.
If someone attempted to seize Maya’s trust after Liam’s birth, certain documents would automatically be sent to regulators.
“What documents?”
“Evidence against your mother.”
My phone rang before she could explain.
Ethan.
This time I answered.
“You have ten seconds.”
“Check the security footage from December twenty-first, 4:18 a.m.”
“Why?”
“Because your mother thinks I’m helping her.”
“Are you?”
Pause.
“I needed her to think I was.”
I opened the footage remotely.
4:18 a.m.
Ethan stood alone in my kitchen.
He opened a cabinet.
Removed something.
Then walked directly beneath the camera.
And deliberately looked into it.
He held up a folder.
On the front:
MERCER FAMILY TRUST.
Then Ethan mouthed two words.
Find Chloe.
The recording ended.
I called my sister.
Straight to voicemail.
Again.
Nothing.
Then Mark called me.
He was crying.
Not angry.
Terrified.
“David.”
“What happened?”
“Chloe’s gone.”
“What do you mean gone?”
“She left the hotel.”
“With Mom?”
“No.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know.”
May you like
Then he whispered:
“She took Eleanor’s passport, Ethan’s laptop... and every document from the safe.”
