Chapter 8 - Uncle Marcus
Marcus Vale had spent twenty years pretending he wasn’t interested in the Mercer fortune.
That was his favorite joke.
He called himself the poor relation while living in a five-million-dollar house my mother had quietly helped him buy.
When police brought him in, he denied sending the flowers.
He denied knowing Victor’s location.
He denied being near the balcony.
Then Detective Ruiz showed him a photograph taken by a guest.
Marcus stood at the bottom of the staircase, looking up at Evelyn and Claire exactly ninety seconds before the fall.
His smile disappeared.
“That proves nothing,” he said.
Ruiz called me afterward.
“He’s hiding something.”
“Can you hold him?”
“Not yet.”
That answer made me want to break something.
Instead, I took Claire home.
Not to the mansion.
To a private guesthouse on one of our company properties, with security I hired myself.
That evening, Daniel returned from the bank.
He carried a gray metal box.
Our father’s safe deposit box.
Inside were three things.
A handwritten letter.
A flash drive.
And a photograph.
The photograph showed my father, my mother, Victor, and Marcus standing outside a lakeside property I had never seen.
On the back, my father had written one sentence.
This is where they keep what they don’t want the family to know about.
I read the letter next.
Nathan and Daniel,
If you are reading this, I waited too long.
Your mother has been moving money through Marcus for years. Victor arranged the paperwork and transport. I believed I could stop it privately. I was wrong.
Do not confront Evelyn without proof.
She does not react to losing control like other people.
Claire watched me from the couch.
“Your father was warning you.”
“Yes.”
Daniel inserted the flash drive into his laptop.
Most of the files were financial spreadsheets.
Then we found a folder labeled FAMILY.
Inside were photographs of me.
Daniel.
Our old girlfriends.
Claire.
Dozens of photographs taken without our knowledge.
At restaurants. Parking lots. Outside our homes.
One photograph showed Claire leaving her obstetrician’s office four months earlier.
A note beneath it read:
Pregnancy confirmed. Deadline moved forward.
Claire went pale.
Then Daniel clicked the next file.
It was a payment schedule.
May you like
The final line said:
BALCONY EVENT — $250,000 ON COMPLETION.
