Daniel reached St. Vincent Medical Center eleven minutes after the ambulance.
Richard drove because Daniel was in no condition to.
During the entire trip, Daniel heard Gregory’s sentence repeating in his mind.
It wasn’t Anna they were supposed to kill.
Rain streaked the windshield.
Traffic lights changed too slowly.
Daniel called Sophie’s security team and doubled protection at the house without explaining why.
Then he called Claire.
“Do not move until Marcus gives permission.”
“Daniel, what happened?”
“I’ll tell you when I know.”
“That means something happened.”
“Yes.”
“Is Sophie okay?”
“Yes.”
“For now?”
Daniel hated the fear in her voice.
“She’s protected.”
“Anna would want you with her.”
“I know.”
Yet if Gregory was dying with the truth, Daniel could not wait.
At the hospital, two uniformed officers stood outside the emergency department treatment corridor.
Marcus met Daniel and Richard near the elevators.
“Possible poisoning,” he said.
Daniel stopped.
“Poison?”
“That’s what the doctors suspect.”
“How?”
“They found a medication bottle in his coat that doesn’t belong to him.”
“What medication?”
“Blood-pressure pills. High dose.”
“Could he have taken them intentionally?”
Marcus shook his head. “His wife says he has no prescription and no history of self-harm.”
Daniel looked toward the guarded room.
“Someone tried to kill him.”
Marcus kept his voice low. “We don’t know that yet.”
Daniel looked at him.
Marcus amended, “But I told police about the investigation.”
“Good.”
Richard asked, “His luggage?”
“Secured.”
“Phone?”
“Missing.”
Daniel’s attention sharpened.
“Missing from where?”
“His wife said he left home with two phones. Airport security recovered only one.”
“Company?”
“Yes.”
“What about personal?”
“Gone.”
Daniel looked toward the room.
“Can I see him?”
Marcus hesitated.
“The doctor said family only.”
Richard said, “We can have counsel request—”
A nurse stepped through the door.
“Mr. Mercer?”
Daniel turned.
“Gregory is asking for you.”
The nurse looked uncertain.
“He’s not fully stable. You’ll have a few minutes.”
Daniel entered alone.
Gregory Shaw looked twenty years older than he had the last time Daniel saw him.
His skin was gray. An oxygen tube rested beneath his nose. Monitors surrounded the bed. His eyes were half-closed until Daniel approached.
Then they opened.
“Daniel.”
Daniel stopped beside the bed.
“Who did this?”
Gregory swallowed.
“I’m sorry.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
“I should have told you.”
“About Anna?”
Gregory’s breathing changed.
“About everything.”
Daniel leaned closer.
“Was her accident deliberate?”
Gregory closed his eyes.
“Yes.”
The word nearly emptied the room of air.
Daniel gripped the bedrail.
“Who ordered it?”
Gregory opened his eyes again.
“I don’t know.”
“Don’t lie to me now.”
“I don’t know his real name.”
“Then tell me what you do know.”
Gregory’s hand moved weakly.
Daniel almost recoiled when Gregory reached toward him.
Instead he allowed the older man to catch his wrist.
“They weren’t trying to kill Anna.”
Daniel’s jaw tightened.
“Who were they trying to kill?”
Gregory looked directly at him.
“You.”
Everything stopped.
Daniel heard the monitor.
A distant cart in the hallway.
His own breathing.
Nothing else.
“Me?”
Gregory nodded faintly.
“The car was yours.”
Daniel understood.
Three years earlier, he and Anna had driven identical black sedans leased through Bellmont.
Anna’s had been in service that week.
She had taken Daniel’s.
He remembered now.
She had complained about a warning light.
Daniel had handed her his keys.
A meaningless domestic exchange.
Except it wasn’t meaningless anymore.
“Why?”
Gregory struggled for breath.
Daniel pressed the call button.
Gregory tightened his grip.
“No.”
“You need a doctor.”
“Listen.”
Daniel leaned closer.
Gregory whispered, “Your father made an agreement when Bellmont was small.”
“What agreement?”
“Funding.”
“With whom?”
“Private investors.”
“Who?”
Gregory’s face tightened in pain.
“Voss knows.”
“Charles Voss?”
“Yes.”
“What does he know?”
“The original contract.”
“Anna said pages were missing.”
Gregory looked startled.
“She found them?”
“She found enough.”
Gregory closed his eyes.
“God.”
“Who wanted me dead?”
“They needed control.”
“Who?”
Gregory looked toward the door.
Fear entered his face.
Daniel followed his gaze.
Nobody stood there.
“Gregory.”
He looked back.
“Thomas was part of it.”
Daniel went still.
“Thomas Keene?”
“Yes.”
The answer hurt despite Daniel expecting it.
“How deep?”
“Not the top.”
“Who is?”
Gregory’s heart rate climbed.
“Charles knows.”
“Where is Charles?”
Gregory shook his head.
“I haven’t seen him in years.”
“That’s a lie. Anna photographed you together.”
Gregory’s eyes widened.
“When?”
Daniel showed no mercy.
“Before she died.”
Gregory began trembling.
“What did she have?”
“Enough.”
“No, Daniel. What did she have?”
“The original incorporation records. Financial evidence. Recordings.”
Gregory’s fear deepened.
“They’ll come for Sophie.”
Daniel leaned over him.
“They already threatened her.”
“No.”
“You knew.”
“Not now.”
“What does that mean?”
Gregory struggled for air.
“They thought everything Anna collected was gone.”
“Who are they?”
Gregory’s grip loosened.
“Look at the ownership clause.”
“What does it say?”
“If a controlling Mercer dies without—”
His words dissolved into a cough.
Daniel waited.
Gregory tried again.
“Without a qualified successor…”
Daniel understood part of it.
“Sophie.”
Gregory nodded.
“She was five.”
“Exactly.”
“What happens?”
“Voting authority passes temporarily.”
“To whom?”
Gregory whispered, “The legacy trustees.”
Daniel’s blood cooled.
He had heard the phrase only once, years ago.
His father had dismissed it as obsolete.
“Who are they?”
Gregory tried to answer.
The monitor alarmed.
The nurse rushed in.
“Mr. Mercer, step back.”
Daniel did.
Two doctors entered.
Gregory’s eyes found him again.
“Daniel.”
Daniel moved closer despite the nurse’s protest.
“What?”
Gregory forced out three words.
“Find Eleanor Mercer.”
Daniel stared at him.
“What?”
Then Gregory seized.
Medical staff pushed Daniel from the room.
The doors closed.
Richard and Marcus rushed toward him.
“What happened?” Richard asked.
Daniel barely heard him.
“Eleanor Mercer.”
Richard frowned.
“Who?”
Daniel looked at him.
“My aunt.”
The name had not been spoken in his family for more than twenty years.
Eleanor was his father’s older sister.
She had helped create Bellmont.
Then something happened.
A lawsuit.
A family break.
Daniel had been young.
His father refused to discuss it.
“Where is she?” Richard asked.
“I don’t know.”
Marcus said, “What did Gregory tell you?”
Daniel turned toward him.
“The accident was meant for me.”
Neither man moved.
Richard spoke first.
“Are you certain?”
“He said Anna took my car.”
Richard’s face changed as he remembered.
Daniel continued.
“Thomas was involved. Gregory says Charles Voss knows about the original deal.”
“And Eleanor?”
“He told me to find her.”
A doctor emerged several minutes later.
Gregory was alive but unconscious.
No further questioning.
Police investigators arrived.
Daniel gave them enough information to justify securing Gregory’s luggage, hospital access, and recovered electronics.
He did not give them Anna’s full evidence yet.
Not until Richard created copies.
As they left the hospital, Richard received a message.
“The incorporation archive.”
Daniel turned.
“What?”
“We found an off-site legal repository containing scanned originals.”
“Open them.”
They sat inside Richard’s car in the hospital garage.
Richard logged into the repository through a secure connection.
The first incorporation agreement was dated thirty-two years earlier.
Bellmont Hospitality had begun with Daniel’s father, Samuel Mercer, Eleanor Mercer, and two outside investors.
One name was Charles Voss.
The other was hidden behind a holding company.
Richard scrolled.
“There.”
Section fourteen.
LEGACY CONTINUITY PROVISION.
Daniel read.
If the controlling Mercer shareholder died without an adult qualified successor capable of assuming voting authority, temporary governance rights passed to three legacy trustees until the successor reached eligibility or the board approved an alternative.
Daniel stared at the names.
Samuel Mercer.
Eleanor Mercer.
Charles Voss.
Richard said quietly, “Your father died. Eleanor disappeared from the company. Which leaves—”
“Voss.”
“But if you had died three years ago, Sophie was a minor.”
“Voss would have gained temporary control.”
“Along with whoever legally replaced the unavailable trustees.”
Daniel’s thoughts accelerated.
“If Anna survived me?”
“She wasn’t a Mercer shareholder.”
Daniel looked at the document.
“And if she challenged the arrangement?”
Richard understood.
“She becomes an obstacle.”
Daniel’s phone rang.
Claire.
He answered.
“Security found something,” she said.
“What?”
“In my apartment.”
Daniel stood beside the car.
“What?”
“A camera.”
“Where?”
“Inside a smoke detector.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
“They were watching you.”
“Yes.”
“For how long?”
“We don’t know.”
Claire’s voice trembled.
“Daniel, they found another one.”
“Where?”
“At my office.”
His stomach tightened.
“Listen to me. Go with security to my house.”
“No.”
“Claire.”
“Sophie is there.”
“That is why I want you there. More security, fewer locations.”
Claire agreed reluctantly.
After the call, Daniel looked at Marcus.
“Lock down Sophie’s school information.”
“Already happening.”
“No staff lists accessible remotely. No pickup information. No schedules.”
Marcus nodded.
Richard’s laptop chimed.
A second document appeared.
Eleanor Mercer had filed a legal objection to the legacy provision twenty-four years earlier.
Daniel leaned closer.
“What happened?”
Richard opened the docket summary.
“Dismissed after settlement.”
“Settlement terms?”
“Sealed.”
“Who represented Bellmont?”
Richard checked.
“Charles Voss.”
“Eleanor?”
A pause.
“An attorney named Miriam Shaw.”
Daniel frowned.
“Shaw?”
Richard stared at the name.
Daniel saw it too.
“Gregory?”
Richard searched.
Miriam Shaw.
Sister of Gregory Shaw.
Deceased nineteen years ago.
Daniel looked at him.
“Gregory’s family was involved before he worked for Bellmont.”
Richard nodded.
Another attachment appeared.
A handwritten note scanned into the docket.
Only one sentence.
Eleanor Mercer alleges the continuity provision was created through coercion and fraud.
Daniel read it twice.
His father had told him Eleanor left because she wanted money.
What if that had never been true?
“Find her.”
Richard searched public records.
Eleanor Mercer had changed her surname after remarrying.
Several addresses appeared.
Then the trail stopped twelve years earlier.
Marcus used another database.
A current property record emerged.
Rural Vermont.
Daniel stared at the address.
“She’s alive.”
Richard closed the laptop.
“We need to contact her carefully.”
Daniel’s phone vibrated before he could answer.
Unknown number.
He opened the message.
Do not call Eleanor.
A second message followed.
If Voss learns you found her, she will not survive the night.
Daniel looked at Richard.
The warning proved two things.
Someone knew what they were searching in real time.
And whoever was helping Daniel had access close enough to watch not only Gregory—
but them.
Click here to continue reading: PART 8: Daniel Reaches Eleanor Without Alerting Bellmont, and She Reveals Why His Father Spent Decades Pretending His Own Sister Betrayed Him
A Quiet Dinner With His Daughter Turns Into the Exact Kind of Test Daniel Mercer Came to Investigate
Part 7 of 47
