Chapter 13 - The Old Will
Rebecca had been twenty-three in 1986.
A junior clerk at the firm representing Thomas’s father, Henry Mercer.
“I didn’t draft the will,” she said.
Thomas stood across from her in his study.
“But you saw it.”
“Yes.”
“What changed?”
Rebecca looked uncomfortable.
“Your father originally intended to divide Mercer Ridge equally between you and Raymond.”
“I knew that.”
“The final version gave you seventy percent.”
“Because I was running the business.”
“That was the stated reason.”
Thomas stared.
“What was the real reason?”
Rebecca took a breath.
“Henry believed Raymond was taking money.”
Thomas froze.
“My brother?”
“Yes.”
“How much?”
“We never knew.”
“Why wasn’t he prosecuted?”
“Your father refused.”
Thomas laughed bitterly.
Family secrets.
Always hidden to preserve peace.
Always growing in darkness.
“Did Margaret know?”
Rebecca looked down.
“I believe so.”
“How?”
“She was present during one meeting.”
Thomas sat.
Margaret had spent decades telling Raymond that Thomas cheated him out of Mercer Ridge.
If she knew Henry changed the will because Raymond had been stealing, then she had cultivated Raymond’s resentment intentionally.
“She used him.”
Rebecca nodded.
“And perhaps protected him.”
Thomas frowned.
“What do you mean?”
“Some of the early Morrow Consulting payments began around the same period Raymond’s withdrawals stopped.”
Thomas understood slowly.
Margaret may have learned about Raymond’s theft.
Instead of exposing him, she gained leverage.
Grant joined them.
“So Uncle Ray owed Mom.”
“Possibly.”
“And that’s why he helped her after the cliff.”
“Maybe.”
Raymond was brought in for a formal interview.
At first he denied everything.
Then investigators showed him Margaret’s journals.
One entry mentioned his initials.
R knows what I know.
Another:
R will help when necessary. He has no choice.
Raymond broke.
Twenty-three years earlier, he admitted, Margaret caught him taking money from a family investment account.
Not millions.
About $140,000.
She promised not to tell Thomas.
In exchange, Raymond signed documents for her over the years.
Land approvals.
Corporate resolutions.
Shell-company paperwork.
“I thought they were legal.”
Grant stared at him.
“You signed things without reading them because she knew you stole?”
Raymond lowered his head.
“Yes.”
“And when she called after pushing Hailey?”
“I didn’t know that part.”
“You picked her up.”
“She said Thomas was trying to have her arrested.”
“Why would Dad suddenly do that?”
“I didn’t ask.”
Grant laughed without humor.
“That’s our family problem, isn’t it?”
Raymond looked up.
“What?”
“Nobody asks when Margaret tells them what to believe.”
Raymond had no answer.
His cooperation helped investigators trace additional assets.
More importantly, he revealed where Margaret might go.
“There’s an old hunting cabin near Buena Vista.”
Thomas frowned.
“Whose?”
“Mine.”
“You never told me.”
Raymond looked ashamed.
“She knows about it.”
A tactical team reached the cabin that evening.
Empty.
But warm.
A coffee cup sat on the table.
Food had been opened.
Margaret had been there recently.
In the fireplace, papers were still smoldering.
Investigators recovered partially burned fragments.
One contained the words Mercer Ridge.
Another had Hailey’s name.
A third contained a list of medication doses.
Thomas’s medication.
Caleb’s claim was true.
Margaret had considered making Thomas appear mentally impaired.
Forensic accountants later discovered she had purchased identical pill bottles.
No evidence proved she altered his medication, but the planning was clear.
The case against her expanded.
Attempted murder.
Forgery.
Financial fraud.
Conspiracy.
Potential identity crimes.
The woman Thomas married had built a criminal enterprise inside their family.
And still, he remembered her dancing barefoot with him in their first apartment.
That was the cruelty of betrayal.
The betrayer did not erase the person you loved.
They forced you to live with both versions.
That night, Hailey asked Thomas a question.
“If Grandma goes to jail, will you miss her?”
Thomas did not lie.
“Yes.”
Hailey looked surprised.
“Even after everything?”
“Yes.”
“Is that bad?”
“No.”
Thomas swallowed.
“It just means love doesn’t disappear on command.”
Hailey thought.
“Would you want her back?”
“No.”
That answer came instantly.
Hailey nodded.
Thomas smiled.
“You can miss someone and still know they are dangerous.”
The next morning, Margaret made her first mistake.
She used an ATM.
Not one of her frozen cards.
A cash card registered to a Morrow Consulting employee account investigators had missed.
The security camera captured her face.
Location:
Colorado Springs.
Time:
6:12 a.m.
Police were notified.
At 7:03, the card was used again.
At 7:40, a motel clerk recognized her photograph.
Officers surrounded the property.
But Margaret was already gone.
In her room, they found something she had left unintentionally.
A handwritten address.
Thomas recognized it.
It belonged to a retired employee of Mercer Ridge.
May you like
The woman who had packed parachutes for the company fifteen years earlier.
And suddenly everyone realized Margaret might not have chosen Hailey’s equipment randomly.
