Chapter 14 - The Woman on the Camera
Grant stared at the screen until his eyes hurt.
Impossible.
Caroline had died three days earlier.
Her body had been identified.
DNA confirmed after the accident.
So the woman could not be Caroline.
Nathan watched the footage.
“She looks exactly like her.”
Almost.
Then the woman turned.
A small scar crossed her chin.
Caroline had no scar.
Grant remembered someone.
Caroline's sister.
“Rebecca.”
Caroline had mentioned an older half-sister named Rebecca Bennett.
Grant met her once at their wedding.
Then she moved abroad.
The woman was Rebecca.
Why enter Grant's house after Caroline died?
Rebecca was located in London.
She agreed to video call.
She admitted it.
Caroline had given her the alarm code years earlier.
After the death, Rebecca flew home.
She entered at night because she did not want Grant to know she was there.
Why?
“To get Grace's letters.”
Grant froze.
Caroline kept letters written to Grace after her death.
Private grief.
Rebecca feared Grant would find them before learning Grace existed.
She removed them.
Grant felt anger.
“Everyone decided what I was ready to know.”
Rebecca nodded.
“Yes.”
“Did you take anything from the vase?”
“No.”
Footage supported her.
Rebecca never approached it.
Then Grant noticed the timestamp.
At 2:19 a.m., Rebecca stopped.
Looked toward the hallway.
Someone else was inside the house.
A man stepped into frame.
David Cross.
Rebecca backed away.
They spoke.
No audio.
David pointed toward the security camera.
Rebecca looked directly at it.
Then David disabled recording.
Rebecca explained.
David told her he worked for Grant.
Said Grant had sent him to collect Caroline's documents.
She believed him.
She gave him one envelope.
What was inside?
Caroline's final letter to Grant.
David claimed he destroyed it.
Investigators searched his storage unit.
They found it.
Unopened.
Grant held the envelope for an hour.
Then opened it.
Caroline wrote about Grace.
Nathan.
Charles.
Her first meeting with Grant.
Everything.
No final hidden child.
No new fortune.
Just truth.
Then the last paragraph:
There is one person I haven't told you about because I don't know whether she wants to be found.
Grant sighed.
Of course.
Her name is Olivia Bennett.
Grant frowned.
Caroline had no daughter named Olivia.
Rebecca did.
Her daughter.
Grant's niece by marriage.
Why matter?
Caroline continued:
Olivia worked for Haven Bridge.
She is the person who first discovered Charles's dormant trusts.
Grant stared.
Everyone credited Vivienne.
Wrong.
Vivienne received the files from Olivia.
What happened to Olivia?
Rebecca went silent when asked.
Then:
“She disappeared two years ago.”
Police report?
None.
“She asked us not to file one.”
That made no sense.
Then Rebecca explained.
Olivia had joined a federal financial investigation.
Her disappearance might have been voluntary and protected.
No one knew for certain.
Caroline's final sentence:
If Olivia returns, believe her before you believe any Mercer.
Three days later, Grant's doorbell rang.
A woman in her late twenties stood outside.
She held a Mercer Financial ledger.
“Grant?”
“Yes?”
“I'm Olivia.”
Grant stared.
She looked exhausted.
“Where have you been?”
Olivia glanced at the security camera.
May you like
Then said:
“Trying to find out why your father created Noah's trust before you were born.”
