Rebecca survived the shot.
The bullet passed through the upper shoulder without striking an artery.
Paramedics treated her on the restaurant floor while police searched surrounding streets for Gregory Shaw.
Daniel stood near booth seventeen.
Again.
Rebecca sat on a stretcher ten feet away.
Her face was pale but composed.
“You should go to a hospital.”
“I am.”
“You sound disappointed.”
“I dislike hospitals.”
Daniel glanced toward her.
“That seems reasonable.”
She almost smiled.
Police carried the founder ledger upstairs in an evidence case.
The Continuity drive went separately.
Nathan had been arrested.
He shouted for a lawyer before officers even finished reading his rights.
Rebecca watched him leave.
“He always hated losing.”
Daniel said, “So do you.”
“Yes.”
“What changed?”
Rebecca looked toward the empty dining room.
“I ran out of things worth winning.”
Daniel thought about that.
Then Gregory’s name returned.
“Why would Gregory shoot you?”
Rebecca’s expression hardened.
“I don’t know.”
“Nathan recognized him.”
“Yes.”
“Did you?”
“Only after Nathan said it.”
“You employed Gregory?”
“No.”
“Continuity?”
“Not directly.”
“Hartwell?”
“He had old Hartwell clearance.”
“Meridian?”
“Edward used him.”
Daniel rubbed his forehead.
“Everybody used Gregory except apparently Gregory.”
Rebecca studied him.
“That may be the point.”
Daniel looked over.
“What?”
“People like Gregory survive systems by letting everyone assume they belong to somebody else.”
Richard approached.
“We found the rifle.”
“Where?”
“Alley behind the restaurant.”
“Prints?”
“Likely wiped.”
“Camera?”
“Traffic footage caught a dark sedan.”
Daniel waited.
Richard’s face tightened.
“Registered to Northbridge Advisory.”
Daniel laughed bitterly.
“Back to the beginning.”
“Maybe.”
Marcus Reed entered from the kitchen.
“We found something else.”
He handed Daniel a photograph recovered from the basement staircase.
It had fallen from Gregory’s coat during his escape.
Old.
Faded.
Four men standing beside a cargo vessel.
Daniel recognized his grandfather from family photographs.
Beside him stood a younger man Daniel did not know.
Edward, who had arrived under police escort to give a statement, saw the photograph.
His face changed.
“Where did you get that?”
“Gregory dropped it.”
Edward took it carefully.
“That’s Samuel Shaw.”
“Gregory’s father?”
“Yes.”
Daniel looked at the ship.
“Grandfather’s company.”
Edward nodded.
“Samuel worked for him.”
“What did he do?”
Edward hesitated.
Rebecca answered from the stretcher.
“He kept the real ledgers.”
Everyone turned.
Edward stared at her.
“You knew?”
“Of course.”
Daniel looked between them.
“Samuel Shaw knew about the smuggling.”
Rebecca nodded.
“He helped Father hide it.”
“What happened to him?”
Edward’s face darkened.
“He died.”
Daniel waited.
“How?”
“Prison.”
“For Grandfather’s crimes?”
“Yes.”
Daniel understood.
“Grandfather sacrificed him.”
Edward nodded.
“Samuel took the conviction. Father kept Mercer Shipping.”
Daniel looked at Gregory’s father in the photograph.
A man sent to prison so the Mercer family could survive.
“How old was Gregory?”
“Ten.”
Rebecca whispered, “Eleven.”
Daniel stared at her.
“You knew him.”
“Not then.”
“When?”
“Years later.”
“Did he join Continuity because of his father?”
“I tried to recruit him.”
“Did he accept?”
“No.”
Daniel frowned.
“Why?”
“He hated all Mercers.”
Edward looked toward the door.
“That explains some things.”
Daniel shook his head.
“Not enough.”
Gregory had recommended Vanessa.
Buried complaints.
Moved money.
Copied Anna’s files.
Accessed Project Meridian.
Carried founder materials.
Now shot Rebecca.
His actions looked chaotic only if they were assumed to serve one faction.
Maybe they served one purpose instead.
Destroy Mercer control.
Daniel looked at Rebecca.
“Did Gregory know Anna?”
“Yes.”
“How well?”
Rebecca hesitated.
Daniel noticed.
“How well?”
“She met him privately several times.”
Edward looked surprised.
Daniel’s pulse quickened.
“Why?”
“She was trying to understand Northbridge.”
“Did Gregory help her?”
“At first.”
Daniel stared.
Gregory had not merely been Anna’s enemy.
He had been a source.
Richard said, “That might explain why Anna’s notes sometimes referred to G.S. without accusation.”
Daniel looked at him.
“You saw that?”
“In one recovered index.”
“And didn’t mention it?”
“We had larger—”
Daniel raised a hand.
“Stop. I’m tired of hearing why information could wait.”
Richard nodded.
“You’re right.”
Daniel looked at Rebecca.
“What did Gregory tell Anna?”
“That Northbridge was being used to move Hartwell and Continuity money through Bellmont.”
“True?”
“Yes.”
“What else?”
“He told her about Cross.”
Daniel went still.
“Gregory exposed Cross to Anna.”
“Yes.”
“Then Cross knew.”
“Eventually.”
“Did Gregory know Cross planned to kill her?”
Rebecca shook her head.
“I don’t know.”
Edward stared at the photograph.
“Gregory may have been trying to destroy all of us.”
Daniel looked at him.
“Would you blame him?”
Edward’s face tightened.
“No.”
That answer mattered.
Daniel’s phone rang.
Detective.
Gregory’s sedan had been found beneath an overpass.
Empty.
Inside was a laptop.
Daniel and Richard reached the police command center twenty minutes later.
Investigators had isolated the device.
No password.
No encryption.
Almost as if Gregory wanted it found.
One folder sat on the desktop.
MERCER.
Daniel opened it under supervision.
Video.
Gregory appeared.
Recorded that afternoon.
“If Daniel sees this, then either I’m dead or I decided I’m finished running errands for people who think family money makes history private.”
Daniel watched.
Gregory looked exhausted.
No suit jacket.
Sleeves rolled.
He continued.
“My father died in prison for crimes committed by Arthur Mercer.”
Arthur.
Daniel’s grandfather.
“Edward knows.”
Edward stood behind Daniel.
“Yes.”
Gregory continued.
“Nathan knows.”
“Yes.”
“Rebecca knows.”
She was at the hospital now.
Daniel kept watching.
“Thomas knows.”
Daniel felt another surge of anger.
Of course Thomas knew.
Gregory continued.
“When I was twenty-eight, Edward offered me a job.”
Daniel looked at his father.
Edward’s expression was grim.
“I accepted because I wanted access.”
Gregory smiled without humor.
“I planned to destroy Bellmont.”
Daniel stared.
“Then I learned most employees had nothing to do with Arthur Mercer.”
Daniel leaned closer.
“So I changed the plan.”
Gregory began collecting evidence instead.
Hartwell.
Meridian.
Continuity.
Northbridge.
He served each faction enough to maintain access.
He sabotaged none completely because doing so would reveal him.
“I thought if I gathered enough, I could expose all of them at once.”
Daniel whispered, “Anna.”
Gregory’s recorded face changed.
“Then Anna found me.”
Daniel’s throat tightened.
“She was the first Mercer who asked what my father’s name was before asking what evidence I had.”
Edward looked down.
Gregory continued.
“She knew what Arthur did.”
“She apologized.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
That sounded like Anna.
“I hated her for apologizing.”
Gregory almost smiled.
“Then I started helping her.”
The video shifted.
Documents appeared.
Gregory had provided Anna access to old shipping records.
Hartwell payment routes.
Cross’s hidden lineage.
Rebecca’s surveillance structure.
Nathan’s succession plan.
Daniel stared.
Gregory had been one of Anna’s most important sources.
Then why bury complaints?
Why Vanessa?
Gregory answered without being asked.
“After Anna died, I stopped believing exposure would work.”
His expression hardened.
“I decided to let the systems consume each other.”
He recommended Vanessa because her aggressive revenue policies would attract complaints.
He protected her just enough for those complaints to accumulate.
Daniel stared.
“You used her.”
Richard nodded.
Gregory continued.
“I knew Daniel would eventually visit Bellmont House.”
Daniel felt cold.
The restaurant confrontation had not been engineered in detail.
But Gregory had created the conditions.
Vanessa’s behavior was her own.
Her prejudice was real.
Her retaliation was real.
Yet Gregory had allowed it to continue because he expected the scandal to draw Daniel into the deeper audit.
Daniel’s anger rose.
Employees had suffered because Gregory wanted a trigger.
Customers had been humiliated because he wanted evidence.
Again.
People treated as pieces.
Gregory said:
“That was wrong.”
Daniel looked at the screen.
“I knew employees were being hurt and told myself the larger exposure mattered more.”
He paused.
“Anna would have hated that.”
Daniel whispered, “Yes.”
Gregory continued.
“When Daniel came to Bellmont House with Sophie, I knew I had gone too far.”
The photograph of Daniel and Sophie at booth seventeen had not come only from Eastbridge.
Gregory had been watching too.
“I sent the first anonymous message.”
Daniel’s pulse quickened.
Don’t trust anyone on your board.
Gregory.
“I directed him to March 17.”
Daniel stared.
Gregory had been guiding the investigation.
“I left the Meridian archive trail.”
“He wanted us to find it,” Richard whispered.
Gregory continued.
“I also sent the photograph of myself carrying the box.”
Daniel almost laughed.
Every clue that seemed like accidental discovery had been deliberately exposed.
“Why run?” Daniel asked the recording.
Gregory answered moments later.
“Because Cross realized what I was doing.”
He described fleeing after accessing Anna’s files.
He had taken the Project Meridian box to keep Cross from destroying it.
He had not disappeared to hide guilt.
He had disappeared because Cross was hunting him.
Then Gregory said:
“Rebecca is not innocent.”
Daniel watched.
“Nathan is not innocent.”
“Edward is not innocent.”
“Neither am I.”
A pause.
“But Julian Cross killed Anna.”
Daniel’s jaw tightened.
“And there is one person still protecting him.”
Daniel leaned forward.
Gregory’s face became grim.
“Eleanor Hart.”
Richard inhaled.
Daniel stared.
Eleanor.
Hartwell.
The woman who had appeared compromised, manipulated, frightened.
Gregory continued.
“Eleanor knew Cross was Nathan’s son.”
“She knew about the termination protocol.”
“She saw it before Anna died.”
Daniel felt cold.
“If she had warned Anna, Anna might still be alive.”
Edward whispered, “No.”
Gregory continued.
“She did not warn her because exposing Cross would have destroyed Hartwell’s relationship with Continuity.”
Daniel’s anger sharpened.
Another person choosing the structure over a life.
Then Gregory said something worse.
“After the crash, Eleanor altered the investigation.”
Daniel stared.
“She paid the first mechanic.”
“She removed the original brake assembly.”
“She replaced it before police inspection.”
Richard swore.
That explained why the official crash investigation found no obvious sabotage.
Gregory continued.
“The original brake assembly still exists.”
Daniel leaned forward.
“Where?”
Gregory gave an address.
A storage facility outside the city.
Unit 118.
Access code.
Then:
“If you want the physical evidence that proves Cross killed Anna, it’s there.”
Daniel stood.
The video continued.
“One more thing.”
He stopped.
Gregory looked directly into the camera.
“I shot Rebecca.”
Daniel stared.
“Not to kill her.”
Marcus Reed frowned.
Gregory continued.
“I needed Nathan to believe I was still protecting his interests.”
Daniel understood.
Gregory was still infiltrating.
Still moving between sides.
“Why?”
The recording answered.
“Because Nathan has a second archive.”
Daniel felt cold.
“One Anna never found.”
Gregory leaned toward the camera.
“It contains every Continuity operation involving children.”
Sophie.
Daniel’s stomach tightened.
“Where?”
Gregory’s expression hardened.
“I’m going to get it.”
Then the video ended.
A message appeared automatically.
IF I DO NOT CONTACT YOU BY MIDNIGHT, LOOK UNDER SOPHIE MERCER.
Daniel stopped breathing.
