Chapter 13 - The Secret Heir
Claire backed away from the laptop.
“No.”
Leo looked from his mother to Grandpa.
“What is that?”
Henry did not answer right away.
The video began playing.
Six months earlier, Henry sat in his study with Claire.
“You cannot leave it to Leo,” Claire said on the recording. “He is eleven.”
“I am not leaving him control now. I am creating a protected trust.”
“Richard will lose his mind.”
“Richard already has.”
The present-day Henry closed his eyes.
Leo stared at the screen.
Recorded Henry continued.
“Leo is the only one in this family who sees people before he sees money. Maybe that will change when he grows up. If it does, the trustees can stop him. But if I die, the controlling shares eventually pass to him.”
The video ended.
Nobody spoke.
Leo felt sick.
“I don’t want it.”
Henry turned. “Good.”
Leo frowned.
“That is the first intelligent thing anyone has said about that money in weeks.”
Claire looked furious. “You should have told me the trust was finalized.”
“I was going to.”
“When? After someone killed you for it?”
Henry did not have an answer.
Sheriff Cross checked the file metadata.
“This video was added to Ruth’s upload last night, after Martin took her.”
Everyone turned toward him.
Ruth said, “Then Martin added it.”
“Why?” Claire asked.
Leo understood.
“To make everyone fight over me.”
Henry looked at him with pride and fear mixed together.
“Exactly.”
Martin was not just running.
He was still playing them.
Cross’s phone rang.
He answered, listened, then looked at Henry.
“Martin Pike just sent an email to every major news outlet in the state.”
“What does it say?”
“That Henry Mercer staged his own disappearance to manipulate the company succession. It includes the Project Lantern video.”
Claire whispered a curse.
Cross continued. “He also claims Leo has been coached to lie about Richard.”
Reporters’ phones began buzzing almost immediately.
Henry looked toward the flashing cameras outside the police line.
Martin had turned the truth into a scandal before they could explain it.
Then Leo’s phone vibrated.
A text from an unknown number.
COME ALONE IF YOU WANT THE ORIGINAL WILL.
Attached was a photo.
May you like
Martin Pike stood beside an open furnace.
In his hand was Grandpa Henry’s signed will.
