Chapter 11 - Evelyn’s Secret
Dad stood between his parents.
One supposedly dead.
One suddenly accused of betraying vulnerable families.
Evelyn didn't deny accessing relocation files.
She denied selling them.
Richard produced Michael Grant's notes.
Access logs repeatedly showed Evelyn's credentials before leaked addresses were discovered.
But Grandma had an explanation.
Her password had been shared.
Terrible security.
Common twenty years ago.
Several employees knew it.
Including Thomas.
Claire.
And Richard himself.
The logs proved access.
Not identity.
Then Evelyn revealed what Richard had omitted.
Michael Grant suspected Richard too.
Richard's name appeared on a second page.
Richard admitted it.
He had concealed that because he believed Michael eventually cleared him.
“Believe?” Dad said.
“You don't know?”
“No.”
Then Sarah produced a copy of Michael's last email.
Three suspects:
Evelyn Mercer.
Richard Sloan.
Thomas Harcourt.
He hadn't determined which one leaked locations.
All three spent two decades suspecting one another.
Meanwhile the actual leak continued.
Until 2007.
Then stopped completely.
What happened in 2007?
A foundation employee died.
Rebecca Stone.
Administrative assistant.
Car accident.
Genuine accident according to records.
Sarah remembered Rebecca had access to all three executives' credentials.
Could she have been the leak?
Investigators reviewed archived financial records.
Rebecca received unexplained payments from a private-investigation firm.
That firm represented several people seeking relocated spouses or family members.
Some had legitimate custody claims.
Others had restraining orders against them.
Rebecca apparently sold information without consistently knowing or caring why people wanted it.
The grand conspiracy suddenly became smaller and uglier.
One employee monetizing secrets.
But then why did Richard fake his death?
Why did Claire disappear?
Why did Thomas fake his death?
Because none of them knew Rebecca Stone was the leak.
They suspected each other.
Their own secrecy magnified the damage.
Then Claire noticed something.
Rebecca Stone's payments continued for six months after her death.
Someone inherited the operation.
Who?
A bank account led to Rebecca's adult son.
Eric Stone.
He had been seventeen when she died.
He later worked in cybersecurity.
And six months earlier, Eric had accessed old Harcourt Foundation servers.
The same period Richard appeared at the bank vault.
Richard claimed he had returned because he detected the access.
Eric wasn't continuing his mother's business.
He was investigating it.
He had discovered her records after her death.
For years he was ashamed and did nothing.
Then he found one victim family still being searched.
The Mercers.
Someone recently requested:
Lily Mercer — current address, school, maternal lineage.
Me.
Dad went cold.
“Who requested it?”
Eric had traced the query to a private investigator.
The client identity was masked.
But payment came from an account connected to the Harcourt Family Foundation.
Angela whispered:
“The foundation barely exists anymore.”
Sarah corrected her.
“The public foundation.”
There was another entity.
Harcourt Legacy Trust.
Controlled by Thomas.
Her supposedly dead father.
Richard looked stunned.
“I thought Thomas was hiding from me.”
Sarah shook her head.
“Maybe he was hiding from all of us.”
Then Angela's phone rang.
Unknown number.
She answered on speaker.
Her father's voice.
“Angela.”
She started crying immediately.
“Dad?”
“I'm sorry.”
“Where are you?”
“Don't look for me.”
“You told me my baby died.”
Silence.
“I know.”
“You let me become friends with the woman raising her.”
“I didn't know Karen had found you.”
“Why are you looking for Lily?”
Thomas went silent.
Dad stepped closer.
“Answer her.”
Thomas whispered:
“Because Lily's mother found something before she died.”
My mother.
Rachel.
“What?”
“A birth certificate.”
“Whose?”
“Lily's.”
Dad frowned.
“I have Lily's birth certificate.”
May you like
Thomas said:
“You have the second one.”
