Chapter 2 - The Teddy Bear That Could Destroy a Billionaire
I reached the stairs just as something shattered in the library.
"LILY!"
I took the last six steps two at a time.
My father was standing beside the fireplace.
His face was bleeding from a cut above his eyebrow.
Vanessa stood near the couch, clutching Mr. Buttons.
Lily's stuffed bear.
My daughter was crying behind Arthur.
"Give me the bear," I said.
Vanessa looked at me.
"Daniel, I can explain."
I kept walking.
"Put it down."
She tightened her grip.
"Please listen."
"Vanessa."
Something in my voice made her flinch.
"Put. It. Down."
She slowly placed the bear on the coffee table.
I picked it up.
Its left ear was crooked.
The red stitching on its paw was coming loose.
I'd bought it at a roadside gift shop when Lily was two.
She'd carried it everywhere since.
I turned toward my daughter.
"Sweetheart, are you hurt?"
Lily shook her head.
"Mommy tried to take Buttons."
I looked at Vanessa.
She was staring at the bear as though it might explode.
"Why?"
She swallowed.
"There's something inside it."
I felt a chill.
"What?"
"I don't know."
"Then why were you trying to take it?"
Her eyes filled.
"Because Gideon told me to."
My father wiped blood from his forehead.
"She struck me with the brass bookend when I wouldn't let her upstairs."
I stared at my wife.
"You hit a seventy-four-year-old man to get a teddy bear?"
Vanessa shook her head.
"I wasn't trying to hurt him."
"Yet somehow you keep hurting everybody."
She stopped talking.
I carried the bear into the kitchen.
Evelyn followed, keeping a cautious distance from Vanessa.
Lily stood beside me.
I took a pair of scissors from the drawer.
My daughter grabbed my wrist.
"Daddy, please don't hurt Buttons."
I crouched.
"I'll be careful."
"Promise?"
"I promise."
She thought for a moment.
Then nodded.
I examined the seam along the bear's back.
The stitching was newer than the rest.
Blue thread instead of brown.
I cut three stitches.
A small plastic packet slid out.
Inside was a memory card.
And a folded scrap of paper.
I opened the note.
Three words.
SHE NEVER LEFT.
My mother made a sound behind me.
I looked up.
She was staring at the handwriting.
"Mom?"
She reached for the paper.
Her fingers trembled.
"That's Claire's writing."
I frowned.
"Who's Claire?"
Vanessa sat down.
Hard.
Evelyn looked at her.
"Ask your wife."
I turned.
Vanessa covered her face.
"Claire Mercer."
The name meant nothing to me.
"Who was she?"
Vanessa lowered her hands.
"My sister."
I stared.
"You told me you were an only child."
"I know."
"You told me your parents died before you finished college."
"They did."
"Then why didn't you tell me about Claire?"
Tears ran down her cheeks.
"Because she died the same night your mother supposedly did."
The room fell silent.
My father gripped the edge of the counter.
I looked toward him.
"Dad?"
He closed his eyes.
"Claire Mercer worked in our accounting department."
Vanessa laughed bitterly.
"Tell him the rest."
Arthur looked at me.
"She discovered irregularities in the Northbridge accounts."
"What irregularities?"
"Payments that couldn't be explained."
Vanessa stood.
"Say it properly, Arthur."
My father looked at her.
"Vanessa—"
"Say what your company was doing."
Evelyn stepped forward.
"Gideon's company."
Vanessa turned toward her.
"You signed the reports too."
My mother said nothing.
I had enough.
"Everybody shut up."
They stopped.
I held up the memory card.
"We're going to find out what's on this."
I moved toward the computer in the library.
My father followed.
"Daniel, be careful."
I almost laughed.
"That's rich coming from you."
He lowered his eyes.
I inserted the card.
Six video files appeared.
Five were dated within the last month.
The sixth was eleven years old.
I clicked the oldest.
A young woman appeared on screen.
Dark hair.
Brown eyes.
A thin scar beside her eyebrow.
She sat in what looked like a motel room.
A television played quietly in the background.
She leaned toward the camera.
"My name is Claire Mercer."
Vanessa began sobbing.
Claire continued.
"If anyone is watching this, something has happened to me."
She glanced toward the door.
"I work for Whitmore Consolidated."
A pause.
"Three months ago, I discovered a series of property transfers involving Northbridge Holdings."
I looked at Dad.
He was staring at the screen.
Claire held up a folder.
"These transfers were authorized using documents that had been altered after the original signatures were collected."
She swallowed.
"I reported them to Gideon Rusk because I thought he would help."
My stomach tightened.
"He told me to stop asking questions."
Claire's eyes filled.
"Yesterday, I found evidence that Northbridge has been paying private medical facilities to hold people who could testify against them."
Evelyn closed her eyes.
Claire leaned closer.
"One of those people is Evelyn Whitmore."
I froze.
The video was dated four days before my mother's supposed death.
Claire continued.
"Mrs. Whitmore is trying to help me."
A pause.
"And if we disappear, I want people to know that Arthur Whitmore isn't the only person responsible."
My father looked up sharply.
Claire held a document toward the camera.
A blurred signature appeared.
Then she spoke.
"Gideon Rusk has been controlling the records for years."
The video ended.
I opened the second file.
Lily appeared.
Sitting on the floor of her bedroom.
Mr. Buttons in her lap.
She was talking to someone on a computer screen.
The image was blurry, but I recognized the woman immediately.
Evelyn.
My mother.
Lily whispered, "Are you really my grandma?"
Evelyn nodded.
"Yes, sweetheart."
"Why don't you visit?"
My mother's recorded face crumpled.
"Because some people don't want me to."
Lily looked sad.
"That's mean."
Evelyn smiled through her tears.
"It is."
Then another woman entered the video.
Vanessa.
She grabbed the laptop.
"What are you doing?"
Evelyn's recorded voice sharpened.
"Vanessa, don't frighten her."
Vanessa looked furious.
"How did you get this connection?"
Lily started crying.
The video shook.
Then stopped.
I turned toward my wife.
"How long ago was that?"
She looked at the floor.
"Three days."
I stared.
"Three days ago, my daughter spoke to her grandmother for the first time."
Vanessa said nothing.
"And instead of telling me, you chained her to the pool railing."
She began crying harder.
"Gideon said she might've seen the files."
I stepped toward her.
"So you tortured a child until she told you what she knew?"
"No!"
"Lily has marks on her wrist."
"I know!"
"She begged you to stop."
Vanessa covered her face.
I felt something inside me go cold.
Not rage anymore.
Something worse.
The complete loss of love.
I turned toward the computer.
The fifth video showed Vanessa walking through the hallway at night.
She stopped outside Lily's room.
Looked behind her.
Then entered carrying a silver cuff.
I froze the frame.
"Who recorded this?"
My father leaned closer.
"That's from the internal security system."
"Then why is it on Lily's card?"
Evelyn moved to the computer.
She clicked the final file.
A woman appeared in a hospital room.
She had gray hair and wore a pale blue hospital gown.
The camera showed only the back of her head.
Then a man's voice spoke.
"Mrs. Whitmore, are you prepared to make your statement?"
The woman shook her head.
The voice hardened.
"You understand that Daniel's daughter will pay for your refusal?"
My mother grabbed the desk.
"Oh, God."
The woman on screen turned.
It was Evelyn.
But not the Evelyn standing beside me.
This recording was only three weeks old.
Her face was bruised.
A white bandage covered her temple.
The man behind the camera continued.
"Tell us where Claire hid the originals."
My mother whispered, "Stop."
I looked at her.
"What?"
She shook her head.
"Danny, don't watch the rest."
But I did.
The man stepped into view.
Gideon Rusk.
He leaned toward my mother.
"Eleven years, Evelyn."
His voice was almost gentle.
"You've had eleven years to understand that your son will never choose you over his daughter."
Evelyn looked up at him.
"I don't want him to."
Gideon smiled.
"Then tell me where Claire put the evidence."
My mother shook her head.
He sighed.
Then moved toward the door.
"Bring in the little girl."
I stopped breathing.
The recording continued.
A child cried somewhere beyond the camera.
I recognized that cry.
Lily.
My daughter.
The video ended before I saw her.
I stood so suddenly the chair fell backward.
Vanessa shook her head.
"Daniel—"
I turned toward her.
"HE BROUGHT MY DAUGHTER TO THAT PLACE?"
She was crying.
"Please let me explain."
"WHEN?"
"Last Tuesday."
I stared.
Last Tuesday.
I had been in Chicago on business.
Vanessa had sent me photographs of Lily eating pancakes.
She'd told me they were having a wonderful day together.
Meanwhile, my daughter had been taken to a facility where someone was threatening my mother.
I looked at Lily.
She was standing beside the couch.
Her eyes were wide.
"Baby?"
She looked down.
I crouched.
"Did you go somewhere with Mommy last Tuesday?"
She nodded.
"Where?"
"The building with the green doors."
I swallowed.
"What happened there?"
Lily looked toward my mother.
"Grandma cried."
My heart broke.
Then she whispered:
"And the man said if Grandma didn't tell him where the blue envelope was, he'd give me to the lady downstairs."
I stared.
"What lady?"
Lily began shaking.
"The lady who took Grandma away."
My mother went pale.
Then she grabbed my arm.
"Daniel."
I looked at her.
"There's something I haven't told you."
Her voice broke.
"Claire wasn't killed in the car accident."
I froze.
"What?"
Evelyn looked straight into my eyes.
"She was alive when they brought her to the same facility."
I felt cold.
"Where is she now?"
My mother's expression changed.
Grief.
Fear.
And something that looked like guilt.
"That's what Gideon has spent eleven years making sure I can't tell you."
Then my father's phone rang.
Arthur looked at the screen.
And whispered:
"Gideon."
He answered on speaker.
Gideon's voice filled the library.
"Arthur, I trust you've found the first recording."
My father said nothing.
Gideon continued.
"Good."
A pause.
"Now tell Daniel what was in the car."
I stared at my father.
He closed his eyes.
Gideon laughed softly.
"Go on, Arthur."
May you like
Then he said:
"Tell your son whose body he buried."
