Chapter 3 - The Call
Uncontrolled anger helps no one. I learned that in courtrooms long before Grant Mercer ever mistook my calm for weakness.
The last time I had seen Claire this terrified, she was nine years old and separated from me in a crowded train station. When she heard my voice, she ran straight into my arms.
Now she sat inches away, too frightened to reach for me.
That told me the house had taught her consequences.
I unlocked my phone beneath the table and sent one message to a number I had not used in six months.
Come immediately. Bring the board members. Bring Daniel Ross. Ask the police commissioner to come as well.
Then I placed a quiet call.
“Dr. Patel,” I said softly. “Please remain available. I may need your help tonight.”
Grant watched me with amusement. “You’re calling a doctor because Claire fell?”
Beside me, Claire whispered, “I didn’t fall.”
Grant’s expression changed instantly.
Evelyn set down her wineglass with a sharp click. “She became hysterical. Grant had to hold her back. A wife should know better than to jeopardize her husband’s future.”
There it was.
The first useful detail.
“What future?” I asked.
Grant’s confidence returned almost immediately. Pride is a reflex in men like him.
“I’m being named chief operating officer tomorrow.”
“Of Mercer Dynamics?”
He smiled. “You’ve heard of the company?”
I turned toward Claire.
Tears filled her eyes.
“Yes,” I said. “I know it very well.”
Grant mistook my restraint for ignorance.
He had no idea Mercer Dynamics had survived only because my late husband and I rescued it from bankruptcy twenty-two years earlier.
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He had no idea our family trust still controlled thirty-eight percent of the voting shares.
And he had no idea I was the sole trustee.
