[CHAPTER 12]
Rachel Stone had worked with Ryan for eleven years.
She attended our wedding.
She sent Madison birthday gifts.
She cried at Ryan’s funeral.
I remembered her standing beside the casket with mascara running down her cheeks.
Now surveillance footage showed her beside Lucas at a convenience store while police searched for him.
Ryan refused to believe it at first.
“There has to be an explanation.”
I stared at him.
“Ryan.”
“She could be meeting him because he threatened her.”
“Then why hasn’t she called police?”
“I don’t know.”
“You said that about Lucas for years.”
He looked at me sharply.
I regretted the words.
But not enough to take them back.
Ryan sank into a chair.
“Rachel helped me find the missing money.”
That changed everything.
“What?”
“She was the one who flagged unusual payments.”
Detective Ortiz leaned forward.
“When?”
“Three months ago.”
“So she knew you were investigating Lucas.”
“Yes.”
“Did Lucas know she was helping you?”
“I didn’t think so.”
Ortiz’s expression hardened.
“Maybe he did because she told him.”
Ryan looked sick.
Police picked Rachel up at her home that night.
She did not resist.
At first, she denied meeting Lucas.
Then Ortiz showed her the photograph.
Rachel began crying.
Her story came apart quickly.
She had been helping Lucas for years.
Not with the murder plan.
With money.
Lucas had discovered she was secretly covering financial losses in one division to protect her job.
He threatened to expose her.
Then he pulled her deeper.
False invoices.
Hidden transfers.
Altered reports.
Each crime made the next easier to demand.
When Ryan began investigating, Rachel panicked.
So she gave him enough information to make herself look helpful while steering him away from accounts that implicated her.
But Ryan kept digging.
Lucas blamed her.
After the crash, she believed Ryan was dead.
Then he woke up.
She knew the records would eventually expose her.
Lucas promised money and a new identity if she helped him escape.
“What did she give him?” Ryan asked.
Ortiz’s answer hurt.
“Internal security codes. Board schedules. Access to one reserve account.”
Ryan closed his eyes.
“That account holds payroll.”
“Yes.”
“Did he take it?”
“He tried.”
The transfer had been blocked after federal investigators froze the network.
Lucas had failed again.
Rachel agreed to cooperate.
Within hours, Ortiz had a new plan.
A controlled meeting.
Rachel would contact Lucas and tell him she had access to cash from a company property sale.
Enough for him to disappear.
Ryan immediately objected.
“He’ll know.”
“He may.”
“He’s paranoid.”
“He’s desperate.”
I listened silently.
Then Ortiz said something that made my skin crawl.
“Lucas also asked Rachel about Madison.”
I stood.
“What?”
Ryan’s face changed.
“What did he ask?”
“Her school.”
The room went silent.
I felt every beat of my heart.
“Why?”
“Rachel says she didn’t know.”
“Did she tell him?”
“No.”
“You believe her?”
Ortiz nodded.
“Her messages support it.”
I wanted to scream.
Instead, I walked into the bedroom where Madison was coloring.
I sat beside her and watched her draw our family.
Four figures.
Me.
Ryan.
Herself.
Buttons.
I smiled weakly.
“Buttons is family now?”
“He saved Daddy too.”
“How?”
“He was with me.”
Fair enough.
She looked at my face.
“Are you scared?”
Children always know.
“A little.”
“Of Uncle Lucas?”
I hated hearing his name from her mouth.
“Yes.”
Madison put down the crayon.
“He won’t come here.”
“How do you know?”
“Because police know where we are.”
I wished I had her faith in adults.
I kissed her forehead.
“That’s right.”
The sting was scheduled for the next afternoon.
Rachel would meet Lucas at an abandoned company sales office under surveillance.
Police would arrest him if he appeared.
No one expected him to walk through the front door.
He didn’t.
Rachel sat inside for forty minutes.
Nothing happened.
Then her phone rang.
Lucas.
“You brought company.”
Rachel looked toward the hidden camera.
“I came alone.”
“No, you didn’t.”
“Lucas—”
“You betrayed me.”
“You betrayed everyone.”
He laughed.
“Now you sound like Ryan.”
Rachel’s face hardened.
“Ryan didn’t make me afraid of you.”
Lucas went silent.
“You did.”
The call ended.
Police searched the area.
Nothing.
No Lucas.
No vehicle.
No witness.
He had watched from somewhere outside the perimeter.
Or someone else had watched for him.
The failed sting frightened me more than if he had appeared.
He was thinking.
Planning.
Still moving around us.
That night, Ryan couldn’t sleep.
Neither could I.
We sat on the couch while Madison slept between us.
“She shouldn’t be here,” Ryan whispered.
“Where?”
“In this.”
“She isn’t.”
“She knows enough.”
“She knows adults are protecting her.”
“Are we?”
I turned toward him.
“Yes.”
“Lucas asked about her school.”
“And he didn’t get it.”
Ryan rubbed his face.
“I keep thinking if I had reported him years ago—”
“Stop.”
“If I had let him face the first lawsuit—”
“Ryan.”
“If I hadn’t covered his debts—”
I took his face in my hands.
“You helped him avoid consequences.”
“Yes.”
“That was wrong.”
He looked surprised by my bluntness.
I continued.
“But you did not make him poison you.”
His eyes filled.
“You did not make him sabotage your car.”
Tears slid down his cheeks.
“You did not make him threaten our child.”
He looked at Madison.
I lowered my voice.
“Guilt is not the same as responsibility.”
He closed his eyes.
“I don’t know how to forgive myself.”
“Start by staying alive long enough to learn.”
A laugh escaped him.
Quiet.
Broken.
Real.
We leaned against each other.
At 3:17 in the morning, my phone rang.
Detective Ortiz.
They had found another vehicle linked to Lucas.
Abandoned near the old Mercer corporate headquarters.
Inside was a key card.
Ryan’s former executive access card.
The one he believed he had lost six months earlier.
Ortiz asked, “What could he access with this?”
Ryan’s face drained.
“The records archive.”
“Anything else?”
He looked at me.
Then whispered, “Dad’s private office.”
Evelyn had never cleared out her husband’s old office.
It had remained locked since his death.
And according to Ryan, somewhere inside was a handwritten ledger their father kept outside the official books.
May you like
A ledger that could expose every secret deal Vincent had handled for the Mercer family.
Including secrets Lucas might kill again to keep hidden.
