Chapter 4 - MY FATHER’S OTHER SONI did not go alone.
I simply made sure Damian believed I had.
At 9:52 the next morning, I parked outside an abandoned commercial property in Glendale that had once housed a luxury furniture showroom.
My attorney, Samantha Cole, sat three blocks away.
A private investigator named Marcus Wynn waited across the street inside a delivery van.
And Detective Hannah Ortiz of the Pasadena Police Department had been informed of the meeting, although she had made it extremely clear that unless Damian confessed to a crime or threatened me, she could do little.
“Do not play detective,” Samantha had warned me.
“I’m not.”
“You hired a detective.”
“Exactly.”
She had stopped arguing.
I entered the building at ten.
Damian was waiting beside a floor-to-ceiling window overlooking the street.
His jaw was bruised from Eric’s punch.
“You brought people.”
“I came through the door alone.”
“That wasn’t what I meant.”
“I don’t care.”
He smiled.
“You were always smarter than Natalie.”
“Don’t use her as an insult.”
He appeared surprised.
“After what she did?”
“My sister betrayed me. That doesn’t make what you did to her acceptable.”
His smile disappeared.
Good.
I moved closer.
“Did you know she was your half-sister?”
He didn’t answer immediately.
That was enough.
“You knew.”
“I suspected.”
“You slept with her anyway?”
“I didn’t know when it began.”
“When did you know?”
His gaze moved toward the window.
“After she became pregnant.”
I wanted to hit him.
I didn’t.
“What did you do?”
“I ordered DNA testing.”
“And?”
“He’s mine.”
He.
A boy.
Natalie was carrying a son.
“You told her?”
“Not everything.”
“Meaning?”
“I told her Eric wasn’t the father.”
“Did she know you were?”
“Yes.”
“Did she know you were related?”
“No.”
I took one slow breath.
“Then why did she announce the baby as Eric’s?”
“Because I told her to.”
There it was.
No denial.
No apology.
“Why?”
Damian walked toward a folding table.
Several binders sat there.
He opened one.
Inside were corporate records.
Halston Ridge.
“You think this is about revenge.”
“Isn’t it?”
“Partly.”
“My father kept your existence secret.”
“My father treated my mother like something he could erase.”
“I didn’t do that.”
“No. You got the house. The private school. Christmas mornings. Family photographs.”
“I was a child.”
“So was I.”
The anger beneath his voice was real.
That didn’t excuse anything.
But understanding motives matters when somebody is dangerous.
“You targeted Eric because Dad hated his family?”
“I targeted Eric because Eric’s company is built on money your father stole.”
That caught me.
“What?”
He pushed a binder toward me.
“Richard Hart didn’t lose his company because Victor Mercer destroyed him. Richard stole eleven million dollars from investors. Victor discovered it and forced him out before the authorities became involved.”
“That isn’t what Dad told us.”
“Of course not.”
“Proof?”
He tapped the binder.
I didn’t touch it.
“Why would Victor Mercer protect my father?”
“Because Richard knew about Victor’s own tax fraud.”
Mutually assured destruction.
Families like ours apparently treated secrets as retirement plans.
“What does this have to do with Halston Ridge?”
“Your father invested the stolen money through intermediaries. Years later, portions of it became Eric’s seed capital.”
“Eric says his father financed him.”
“He did.”
“So Eric might not have known.”
Damian’s jaw tightened.
“He benefited.”
“That isn’t the same thing.”
“To me it is.”
I studied him.
“You used Natalie to steal Eric’s voting shares.”
“She volunteered.”
“She believed you loved her.”
“I did.”
“You don’t do this to people you love.”
That finally hit him.
Only briefly.
Then the wall returned.
“I needed the shares.”
“For what?”
“To take control of Halston Ridge.”
“Why?”
“Because there’s a redevelopment vote next month worth four hundred million dollars.”
I knew about it.
A waterfront redevelopment project in Long Beach.
Halston Ridge was one of three finalists.
“You want the project?”
“No.”
“Then what?”
“I want it stopped.”
“Why?”
“Because one of the parcels contains something your husband’s company cannot afford for anyone to find.”
He slid a photograph toward me.
Industrial land.
An excavation area.
Workers in protective equipment.
“What am I looking at?”
“Contaminated soil.”
My stomach tightened.
“How contaminated?”
“Cancer-causing industrial solvents. Heavy metals. Groundwater contamination.”
“And Eric knows?”
Damian shrugged.
“He signed the acquisition.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
“Ask him.”
“Where did you get this?”
“Environmental consultants.”
“Then regulators would know.”
“Not if the report was replaced.”
This was becoming bigger than an affair.
Bigger than stolen shares.
“If you have evidence of environmental fraud, why not go to authorities?”
“Because authorities move slowly. Corporate boards move quickly.”
“So you stole voting control.”
“I reclaimed leverage.”
“You manipulated my sister into committing fraud.”
“I never forged Eric’s signature.”
“No. You got his mistress pregnant and convinced her to put legal documents in front of him while he was stupid enough to trust her.”
Damian’s eyes narrowed.
“Careful.”
“No.”
I leaned forward.
“You invaded my family, manipulated my sister, exposed my son to public humiliation and tried to use a fifteen-year-old fake DNA report to destabilize me.”
“I sent you the report because you needed to know your father had been lying.”
“You didn’t know it was fake.”
Silence.
There.
For the first time, Damian looked genuinely caught off guard.
“The original test confirmed Eric,” I said. “Dad paid someone to alter it because he wanted us separated.”
Damian’s face changed.
I watched him absorb it.
He had believed the lie too.
“That doesn’t make sense.”
“It does if Dad hated Eric’s father.”
Damian sat down.
Something in him shifted.
For all his planning, he had just learned that one of the cornerstones of his resentment was another manipulation by the same father he hated.
“You said Richard admitted this?”
“Yes.”
Damian stared at the floor.
I kept going.
“When did you learn he was your father?”
“Twenty-one.”
“How?”
“My mother died.”
His voice softened.
“She left me a letter.”
“Did you confront him?”
“Yes.”
“What happened?”
“He paid me.”
I almost closed my eyes.
Of course he did.
“How much?”
“Two hundred thousand dollars.”
“To disappear?”
“He called it help.”
“And you took it.”
“I was twenty-one and had $43 in my checking account.”
Fair.
“What happened after?”
“He introduced me to people. Quietly. I built a career. Then years later he introduced me to Eric without telling Eric who I was.”
“Why?”
“He wanted someone near the Mercer family.”
I felt sick.
My father had started this.
Not Damian’s crimes.
Those belonged to Damian.
But the board had been arranged long before any of us realized we were playing.
“You were spying on Eric for Dad.”
“At first.”
“And later?”
“I realized Halston Ridge was vulnerable.”
“So you started stealing.”
His eyes hardened.
“I moved money.”
“Without authorization.”
“Yes.”
“That’s stealing.”
“Call it what you want.”
“I will.”
He stood.
“This meeting is over.”
“No.”
“You have what you need.”
“Not even close.”
I pointed to the environmental report.
“If Eric covered this up, I want proof.”
“Why?”
“Because unlike you, I don’t decide guilt based on who somebody’s father was.”
He laughed once.
“You still love him.”
“That’s none of your business.”
“You’re going to forgive him.”
“I’m going to decide what happens to my marriage after I know what is true.”
He studied me.
“Take the binder.”
“I want digital originals.”
“Why?”
“Metadata.”
He smiled.
“Smart.”
“I’ve been underestimated by this family long enough.”
He opened a laptop.
While he copied files to a drive, my phone vibrated.
Eric.
I ignored it.
Again.
Ignored.
The third time, he sent a message.
CALL ME NOW. IT’S NATALIE.
I called.
“What happened?”
Eric’s breathing was uneven.
“She collapsed.”
My stomach dropped.
“Where?”
“Your parents’ house. Your mother called me because she couldn’t reach you.”
“Is she conscious?”
“Barely. Ambulance is there.”
I looked at Damian.
He had heard enough to understand.
His face drained.
“What happened?”
I held up a hand.
Eric continued.
“She’s bleeding.”
I was already running toward the door.
Damian followed.
“No.”
“That’s my child.”
“She doesn’t know you’re her brother.”
“I know.”
“You stay away until she’s medically stable.”
He grabbed my arm.
Marcus appeared through the front entrance almost instantly.
Damian released me.
I looked him directly in the eyes.
“If you care about Natalie at all, you will not turn her emergency into another opportunity to control the situation.”
He stepped back.
I left.
At Huntington Hospital, Mom met me outside the emergency department.
Her mascara had streaked down her face.
“They took her upstairs.”
“What happened?”
“She came downstairs, said her stomach hurt, then collapsed.”
“Where’s Dad?”
Mom looked away.
“He left early this morning.”
“Where?”
“He wouldn’t say.”
Eric arrived moments later.
I wanted to hate seeing him.
Instead, part of me felt relief.
Ten years does not disappear simply because trust does.
“Caleb?”
“With Samantha.”
Good.
A doctor eventually approached.
“Family of Natalie Hart?”
“Yes.”
“Her baby’s heart rate dropped significantly. We’ve stabilized both of them for now.”
“For now?”
“She has a partial placental abruption. We’re monitoring her closely.”
My mother started crying.
“Will the baby survive?”
“We’re doing everything possible.”
I asked, “Can she have visitors?”
“One person.”
Mom looked at me.
“You go.”
Natalie looked tiny in the hospital bed.
Her glamorous orange dress from the night before had been replaced by a pale gown.
Monitors surrounded her.
When she saw me, she whispered, “Is he okay?”
“Yes.”
Her eyes closed.
I sat beside her.
“Natalie.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Rest.”
“No. I need to tell you.”
“Tell me what?”
She looked terrified.
“I found out who Damian really is.”
My breath caught.
“When?”
“This morning.”
“How?”
“Dad came to see me.”
I stared at her.
“He told you?”
“Yes.”
Tears slid toward her hair.
“I threw him out.”
I took her hand.
“I’m sorry.”
She laughed bitterly.
“I slept with my brother, Lauren.”
“You didn’t know.”
“I should have known something was wrong with him.”
“That’s not how this works.”
“I thought he loved me.”
I squeezed her hand.
She cried silently for a while.
Then she whispered, “There’s something else.”
I waited.
“The shares.”
“What about them?”
“I didn’t transfer them to Damian.”
“But you said—”
“I lied.”
My hand went still.
“Who owns them?”
She looked at me.
“You do.”
I thought the medication had confused her.
“What?”
“The document Eric signed transferred his voting proxy to a family trust.”
“What family trust?”
“One Damian didn’t know I changed.”
I stared.
“You changed the paperwork?”
“The night before Eric signed it.”
“Why?”
“Because by then I didn’t trust Damian.”
“Who controls the trust?”
Natalie gave a weak smile.
“You.”
Everything inside me stopped.
“Why would you do that?”
“Because I knew eventually you’d find out.”
Her voice broke.
“And when you did, I wanted there to be one thing I hadn’t stolen from you.”
I couldn’t speak.
For ten months she had betrayed me.
Yet somewhere inside that betrayal, she had sabotaged Damian’s plan.
“Does Damian know?”
“No.”
“Does Dad?”
“No.”
“Who prepared the trust?”
“A lawyer Damian recommended. But I switched the final signature page with one prepared by another attorney.”
“Natalie, that may not even be enforceable.”
“It is.”
“How do you know?”
“Because I paid a very expensive lawyer to make sure.”
Despite everything, I almost smiled.
Then her monitor changed.
A nurse rushed in.
Another followed.
The doctor appeared seconds later.
“Natalie, we need to move quickly.”
“What’s happening?”
The fetal heart rate had dropped.
The room exploded into motion.
They wheeled Natalie toward surgery.
Mom was crying in the hallway.
Eric gripped the wall.
I stood there watching the doors close.
My phone vibrated.
A message from Samantha.
She had checked the corporate filings.
Natalie had told the truth.
The proxy controlling Eric’s entire thirty-two-percent stake in Halston Ridge had been transferred into the Mercer Family Preservation Trust.
And according to the documents filed six months earlier, there was only one trustee.
Me.
But Samantha’s second message was worse.
Someone had initiated an emergency board vote for noon tomorrow.
Purpose:
REMOVE ERIC MERCER AS CEO.
INSTALL DAMIAN CROSS AS INTERIM CHAIRMAN.
May you like
The vote would be decided by one person.
Me.
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