Chapter 8 - Fire at the Mercer Estate
Richard forced Adrian downstairs.
Margaret lay unconscious in the library.
Adrian’s heart nearly stopped.
“What did you do to her?”
“She’ll wake up.”
“If she doesn’t—”
Richard laughed.
“What? You’ll ruin me?”
He gestured around the mansion.
“Look around, Adrian. Your family ruined mine thirty years ago.”
“Your family supplied defective steel.”
“My father supplied what Thomas Mercer could afford.”
“And you falsified the reports.”
“To save both companies.”
“You killed Daniel.”
Richard’s smile disappeared.
“Victor killed Daniel.”
“On your orders.”
“That would be difficult to prove.”
“Victor is dead.”
“Exactly.”
Adrian understood.
“You killed him too.”
Richard did not answer.
That was answer enough.
He demanded Thomas’s investigative report.
Adrian told him federal agents had it.
Richard pressed the gun beneath his chin.
“I don’t believe you.”
“You should.”
“Thomas always kept copies.”
“You knew him well.”
“I knew him better than you did.”
That hurt because it might have been true.
Richard looked around the library.
“Your grandfather spent his life pretending to be honorable. Do you know what honorable men are, Adrian?”
“No.”
“Men with enough money to hide their sins.”
Adrian looked at Margaret.
“And what are you?”
“Honest about mine.”
A car approached outside.
Richard turned.
Lena.
She had ignored police instructions again.
This time Detective Alvarez was directly behind her with tactical units.
But Lena reached the front entrance first.
She found it unlocked.
Smoke touched her nose.
“Adrian?”
No answer.
Then she saw Margaret.
She ran toward her.
Richard emerged.
“Stop.”
Lena froze.
Adrian appeared behind him.
“Lena, get out!”
Richard pointed the gun toward her.
“Interesting.”
His eyes moved between them.
“Celeste told me there was something happening here. I didn’t believe her.”
“There isn’t,” Adrian said.
Richard smiled.
“Then you won’t mind watching.”
He pointed the gun at Lena.
Adrian lunged.
The gun fired.
Lena screamed.
The bullet struck the wall.
Adrian slammed Richard into a table.
They fought for the weapon.
Lena ran to Margaret.
“Margaret!”
The older woman stirred.
“Lena?”
“We need to move.”
Smoke thickened.
Richard had set fire to Thomas’s study.
Flames were already climbing the curtains.
Adrian punched Richard.
Richard struck him with the gun.
Lena dragged Margaret toward the entrance.
Then a burning beam collapsed between them and the door.
The room erupted in sparks.
“Adrian!”
He turned.
Richard used the distraction to run.
Police entered through the rear.
Alvarez chased him.
Adrian reached Lena.
“Can you get through?”
“No!”
Smoke filled the ceiling.
Margaret coughed violently.
Adrian looked toward the windows.
“Back!”
He picked up a chair and hurled it through the glass.
Cold night air rushed in.
He helped Margaret through first.
Then Lena.
Outside, firefighters arrived as flames consumed the east wing.
Adrian climbed out last.
Lena grabbed him.
“You’re bleeding.”
“I’m fine.”
“You people really need another sentence.”
Despite the fire, he laughed.
Then Lena hugged him.
It happened before either thought about it.
Adrian wrapped his arms around her.
For a moment, neither cared who was watching.
Margaret did.
She was sitting beneath a blanket beside an ambulance.
And she smiled.
Richard was captured half a mile away.
He had tried to escape through the woods.
Detective Alvarez found him standing at the riverbank with the gun still in his hand.
This time there would be no disappearance.
No private settlement.
No wealthy attorney quietly burying evidence.
Richard Whitmore was arrested for kidnapping, conspiracy, attempted murder, arson and obstruction.
Additional charges followed.
Charles Mercer pleaded guilty to obstruction and conspiracy related to the Richmond cover-up.
He agreed to testify.
Mercer Development publicly released the original Richmond documents.
Adrian insisted.
The board warned it could destroy the company.
“Then it deserves to be destroyed,” he said.
It wasn’t.
The company lost contracts.
Its valuation fell.
Several executives resigned.
But something unexpected happened.
Employees came forward.
Then former employees.
Adrian established an independent ethics commission and opened company archives to investigators.
For the first time in thirty years, the Mercer name stopped protecting itself.
And started telling the truth.
Two weeks later, Lena stood outside Noah’s hospital room.
His surgery had been successful.
The doctor said his prognosis was excellent.
Lena cried harder at that news than she had through everything else.
Adrian found her by the vending machines.
“How is he?”
“Good.”
She smiled through tears.
“He’s good.”
Adrian exhaled.
“Thank God.”
They stood silently.
Then Lena said, “You don’t have to keep checking on us.”
“I know.”
“You don’t have to pay his medical bills.”
“I know.”
“My mother already told Margaret no.”
“I know.”
Lena narrowed her eyes.
“Then why are you here?”
Adrian looked at her.
“Because I wanted to see you.”
Her heart changed rhythm.
“That’s a dangerous answer.”
“I’ve had worse weeks.”
She smiled.
He stepped closer.
“Lena.”
“Yeah?”
“I was wrong in the garden.”
“About?”
“Us.”
She stopped smiling.
He continued.
“I thought wanting you while all this was happening meant I was taking advantage of something.”
“And now?”
“Now I think pretending I don’t want you is just another kind of lie.”
Lena’s breath caught.
“Adrian—”
“I’m not asking you for anything.”
“Good.”
“I’m telling you.”
“That’s worse.”
“Probably.”
She looked at him.
Then she kissed him.
It was brief.
Soft.
Completely unexpected despite everything that had led to it.
When she stepped backward, Adrian looked stunned.
Lena smiled.
“Now you can stop talking.”
He kissed her again.
This time neither hurried.
Then a voice came from Noah’s doorway.
“Seriously?”
They jumped apart.
Noah stood there in a hospital gown.
“I survive surgery and this is what I wake up to?”
Lena turned bright red.
“Go back to bed.”
“I’m telling Mom.”
“You’re sixteen.”
“Exactly. I have nothing else to do.”
Adrian laughed.
For one perfect moment, the world felt light.
But across Manhattan, Celeste Whitmore sat alone in an interrogation room.
Detective Alvarez entered carrying a file.
Celeste looked up.
“Did you find my father?”
“Yes.”
“Is he alive?”
“Yes.”
Celeste closed her eyes.
Relief and disappointment crossed her face simultaneously.
Alvarez sat down.
“Your father says the ballroom incident wasn’t spontaneous.”
Celeste opened her eyes.
“What?”
“He says you struck Lena deliberately.”
“That’s insane.”
“He says you recognized her last name.”
Celeste became still.
Alvarez leaned forward.
“He says you knew who Lena Brooks was before Adrian ever walked into that ballroom.”
May you like
Celeste said nothing.
And suddenly, the story everyone thought they understood changed again.
