Chapter 4 - Grant did not confront his father in public.
Not yet.
He took Emma home.
Fed her dinner himself.
Macaroni and cheese.
Apple slices.
Chocolate milk.
She ate slowly at first.
Grant noticed she kept looking toward the doorway.
“Emma.”
She looked up.
“You can eat as much as you want.”
“Even if I’m bad?”
Grant’s throat closed.
“You are not bad.”
“Miss Dana said—”
“Miss Dana was wrong.”
Emma stared at him.
“Grown-ups can be wrong?”
Grant almost smiled.
“Very.”
She considered that.
Then took another bite.
Grant stayed until she finished.
That meal mattered more than any board dinner he had attended in years.
After Emma fell asleep, Grant went downstairs.
Melissa.
Leo.
Two forensic technicians.
And Charles.
Grant had ordered his father brought to the house.
Charles looked furious.
“You had security search my apartment?”
Grant stared.
“You had my dead wife’s hidden box.”
Charles’s anger disappeared.
“I did not.”
Leo placed it on the table.
Blue wood.
Tiny painted flowers.
Rachel’s box.
Grant remembered buying it for her at a roadside antique shop during their honeymoon.
Rachel laughed because it was cheap compared with everything around them.
“That’s why I like it,” she said.
Grant touched the lid.
For a second, grief nearly swallowed him.
Then he opened it.
Letters.
Bank documents.
A flash drive.
One photograph.
Rachel standing beside Martin Vale.
The missing attorney.
On the back:
MARTIN IS SCARED.
Grant inserted the drive.
A video file appeared.
Rachel sat inside her car.
Alive.
Grant’s breathing stopped.
She wore the blue sweater he remembered from the week before she died.
“Grant.”
Her voice filled the study.
Emma’s mother.
His wife.
His best friend.
Grant gripped the desk.
“I hope you never see this.”
Rachel smiled sadly.
“Because if you do, I probably failed to fix this quietly.”
Grant closed his eyes.
Melissa touched his shoulder.
Rachel continued.
“Your mother’s shares were never supposed to remain under Charles’s voting agreement after her death.”
Charles stiffened.
Rachel held up documents.
“Margaret changed her estate plan six months before she died.”
Grant looked at his father.
Charles whispered:
“I didn’t know.”
Rachel continued.
“She transferred seventeen percent of Holloway Global to a family trust for our future children.”
Grant’s eyes shifted toward Charles.
His father looked genuinely shocked.
Maybe.
Rachel continued.
“That means Emma—not Charles—should eventually control those shares.”
Grant already knew part of that.
But then Rachel’s voice changed.
“Someone buried Margaret’s amendment.”
Grant leaned forward.
“Martin Vale helped me find it.”
Charles stared at the screen.
Rachel continued.
“Martin says he did not bury it.”
Grant thought of the forged documents.
“If Martin is telling the truth, someone inside the family office used his credentials.”
Rachel held up another page.
“I traced access to three people.”
Grant’s heart pounded.
“Charles Holloway.”
Charles swore quietly.
“Martin Vale.”
Expected.
“And Eleanor Westcott.”
Grant stared.
Emma’s grandmother.
Melissa whispered:
“No.”
Rachel continued.
“I don’t believe Eleanor knew what her access was being used for.”
Grant looked at Charles.
“Then who?”
Rachel answered as though hearing him.
“There is a fourth person.”
Grant leaned closer.
“One I didn’t know existed until yesterday.”
Rachel looked frightened.
That scared Grant more than anything.
She rarely looked frightened.
“Her name is Celeste Holloway.”
Grant frowned.
Charles went completely pale.
Grant saw it.
“Who is Celeste?”
Charles whispered:
“Turn it off.”
Grant slowly turned.
“What?”
“Grant.”
His father looked terrified.
“Turn that video off.”
Grant’s blood chilled.
“Who is Celeste Holloway?”
Charles said nothing.
Grant returned to the screen.
Rachel continued.
“According to sealed family records, Celeste is Charles’s daughter.”
Grant stopped breathing.
Melissa stared at Charles.
Grant’s voice came out flat.
“My sister?”
Charles closed his eyes.
Rachel continued.
“She was born six years before Grant.”
Grant laughed once in disbelief.
“You have another child.”
Charles whispered:
“Yes.”
Grant stood.
“Where is she?”
“I don’t know.”
“Who is her mother?”
“Her name was Diane Mercer.”
Grant froze.
Mercer.
Dana Mercer.
The housekeeper.
No.
He looked at Leo.
Leo saw it too.
Grant returned to the video.
Rachel continued.
“Diane Mercer died when Celeste was young.”
Grant’s heart pounded.
“Celeste was raised by Diane’s sister.”
Dana’s mother?
Rachel continued.
“Celeste later changed her name.”
Grant leaned forward.
“I believe Celeste Holloway is currently using the name Dana Mercer.”
Silence.
Grant stared at the screen.
The housekeeper who had terrorized Emma—
was Grant’s half-sister.
Charles sat down slowly.
Melissa whispered:
“Oh my God.”
Grant felt sick.
“You recommended her.”
Charles shook his head quickly.
“I didn’t know Dana was Celeste.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“She contacted me through an agency.”
“You gave her the job!”
“She had excellent references.”
“Because she built them.”
Grant’s anger exploded.
“You put your secret daughter inside my home with my four-year-old child.”
Charles slammed his hand down.
“I DIDN’T KNOW.”
Silence.
Grant stared.
His father’s voice cracked.
“I hadn’t seen Celeste since she was eleven.”
Grant saw shame.
Real shame.
“What happened?”
Charles looked at the floor.
“I was twenty-one.”
“Mom?”
“I hadn’t met your mother yet.”
Grant waited.
Charles continued.
“Diane became pregnant. My father paid her to disappear.”
Grant felt disgust.
“Did you try to find your child?”
“Yes.”
“Hard?”
Charles didn’t answer.
That was answer enough.
Rachel’s video continued.
“I don’t know what Dana wants.”
Grant sat.
“But she has accessed Holloway family records repeatedly for fifteen years.”
Fifteen years.
This was bigger than one job.
Rachel continued.
“Martin thinks Dana believes Charles stole an inheritance from her.”
Charles looked up sharply.
“No.”
Grant turned.
“What?”
“There was no inheritance.”
Rachel continued.
“But the documents suggest Diane Mercer was promised five percent of Holloway Industries before it became Holloway Global.”
Charles whispered:
“My father made that promise.”
Grant stared.
“Did he honor it?”
“No.”
“So Celeste believes part of the company belongs to her.”
Charles nodded.
Rachel continued.
“That still doesn’t explain the insurance policy on me.”
Grant’s pulse increased.
“Or why someone is trying to make Emma look unsafe.”
Rachel looked directly into the camera.
“Grant, I think Dana is working with someone.”
A knock sounded in the video.
Rachel glanced behind her.
Her expression changed.
“Martin’s here.”
The recording ended.
Grant stared at the blank screen.
“Where’s the rest?”
Leo checked.
Another file.
Audio only.
Grant played it.
Rachel’s voice.
“Martin?”
Then a man answered.
But it wasn’t Martin Vale.
Charles stood so suddenly the chair fell over.
“No.”
Grant looked at him.
“You recognize the voice.”
Charles stared at the speakers.
The man in the recording said:
“You should have left the trust alone, Rachel.”
Rachel answered:
“You’re the one who created the insurance policy.”
“Yes.”
Grant’s fists tightened.
Rachel’s breathing sharpened.
“You’re using Dana.”
The man laughed.
“Dana thinks this is about her inheritance.”
Grant’s blood chilled.
Rachel whispered:
“What is it really about?”
The man answered.
“Emma.”
Grant leaned forward.
Rachel said:
“She’s four.”
“Exactly.”
The recording ended.
Grant stared at Charles.
“Who is that?”
Charles’s face had gone gray.
“My brother.”
Grant frowned.
“Uncle Robert?”
Charles nodded.
Grant had not seen Robert Holloway in seven years.
The family called him the failure.
Bad investments.
Drinking.
Estranged.
Grant barely thought about him.
Charles whispered:
“Robert disappeared after Rachel died.”
Grant stood.
“No one in this family disappears anymore.”
Leo’s phone buzzed.
He read something.
His face changed.
“Sir.”
“What?”
“We found Dana.”
Grant’s pulse jumped.
“Where?”
“Airport.”
“Stop her.”
Leo shook his head.
“She isn’t leaving.”
“Then what?”
“She just met someone arriving from London.”
Grant already knew.
“Robert.”
Leo turned the screen.
Airport security photograph.
Dana.
Beside an older man.
Robert Holloway.
Grant’s uncle.
May you like
And in Robert’s hand—
was Rachel’s missing laptop.
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