Chapter 5 - Caroline’s Promise
Grant felt betrayed.
Again.
Caroline had known he had a brother.
She never told him.
Nathan explained.
Caroline contacted him seven months before her death.
She wanted proof.
DNA confirmed the relationship.
Then Nathan asked her not to tell Grant immediately.
“Why?”
Nathan looked embarrassed.
“Because I was angry.”
At Grant?
“At everyone named Mercer.”
Nathan had grown up knowing Charles Mercer surrendered him.
Rebecca loved him.
He had a family.
But knowing someone chose not to keep you could still hurt.
Nathan built a life.
Became an accountant.
Married.
Divorced.
Then learned Mercer Children's Foundation had retained an account in his birth name.
Approximately $2.8 million.
A disability and education trust Charles established before the placement.
Nathan never received it.
Where did the money go?
Haven Bridge.
The old children's foundation eventually became the fertility nonprofit.
Nathan's trust had been absorbed during restructuring.
Potentially illegally.
That was what Caroline was investigating.
Not Noah's DNA.
Not Grant's childhood for curiosity.
Money belonging to Nathan.
Grant asked:
“Why did Caroline say to question myself?”
Nathan gave him another letter.
Caroline's handwriting.
Grant,
If Nathan's money was taken, it happened through Mercer Financial while you were on the board.
Grant's stomach dropped.
He had approved Haven Bridge restructuring seven years earlier.
Hundreds of pages.
Lawyers.
Accountants.
Grant signed.
He never knew Nathan existed.
But his signature authorized consolidation of dormant trusts.
One was Nathan's.
Legally complicated.
Morally devastating.
Grant had unknowingly signed away his brother's money.
Nathan watched him.
“I don't think you knew.”
“That doesn't change my signature.”
“No.”
Grant respected that answer.
Then Caroline's investigation discovered something else.
Nathan's account was not the only one.
Fourteen dormant child trusts had been absorbed.
Some beneficiaries had died.
Some could not be located.
Some were very much alive.
Haven Bridge had been built partly from money belonging to people who never knew they had it.
Vivienne discovered this first.
Caroline joined her.
Tessa verified records.
Three women in the photograph.
Working together.
So what broke them apart?
Nathan answered:
“Vivienne.”
Grant's jaw tightened.
“What did she do?”
“She sold the information.”
To whom?
Not the Mercers.
A litigation investment firm.
Vivienne offered confidential beneficiary information in exchange for $600,000.
She claimed she wanted money to disappear.
Nathan believed she simply got greedy.
Vivienne denied completing the sale.
Bank records showed she received $90,000.
She said it was an advance she later tried to return.
The truth would require investigation.
Caroline discovered the payment.
Their alliance ended.
Then Caroline hid the memory card.
Two weeks later, she died.
Again, no evidence the crash was caused intentionally.
Weather was bad.
Another driver lost control.
Caroline's death was tragic.
Not automatically murder.
But after her death, someone entered Grant's house.
Security logs showed the alarm disabled using Caroline's old code.
The antique vase was moved.
Someone knew evidence was inside it.
Who?
Tessa shook her head.
Not her.
Vivienne denied it.
Nathan was in Philadelphia.
Then Grant remembered something.
Only one other person knew Caroline's alarm code.
May you like
His mother.
Eleanor Mercer.
