Chapter 7 - HER MOTHER’S SECRET
Maya walked into Charles’s guarded room without knocking.
Mercer followed.
“Tell me about my mother.”
Charles’s face changed.
“What?”
“You heard me.”
She threw the trust document onto his bed.
“My name is in your estate.”
Charles looked at the paper.
Then at Mercer.
“I told my attorneys that amendment was confidential.”
Mercer smiled without warmth.
“You’re having a rough night with confidentiality.”
Maya slammed her palm against the table.
“My mother. Now.”
Charles stared at her for several seconds.
Then sighed.
“Your mother’s name was Elena Reyes.”
“I know my mother’s name.”
“She worked for Sterling Medical.”
Maya blinked.
“She was a housekeeper.”
“After she left us.”
“What did she do?”
“Accounting.”
Maya stared.
Her mother had never mentioned Sterling.
Not once.
Charles continued.
“She discovered the same records Adrian found years later.”
“The bribes?”
“And worse.”
Mercer leaned forward.
“What worse?”
Charles looked sick.
“Sterling Medical sold defective devices overseas.”
Maya’s mouth went dry.
“People got hurt?”
“Yes.”
“People died?”
“Yes.”
Charles looked away.
Maya’s voice dropped.
“And you covered it up.”
“I did.”
Every word seemed to cost him.
“Elena made copies. She threatened to go to federal investigators.”
“What did you do to her?”
“Nothing.”
“Don’t lie to me!”
“I paid her.”
Maya laughed in disbelief.
“You bribed her?”
“I offered her enough money to leave and raise her children.”
“My mother cleaned offices at night until her hands swelled.”
Charles looked confused.
“That isn’t possible.”
“She died with twelve hundred dollars in savings.”
“I gave her nearly two million.”
Maya went silent.
Luis, standing in the doorway with his arm in a sling, said quietly, “She never got it.”
Everyone turned.
“How do you know?” Maya asked.
Luis stepped inside.
“Because I found the account records after Mom died.”
“Where did the money go?”
“To a shell company.”
Mercer asked, “Controlled by whom?”
Luis looked at Charles.
“Adrian.”
Charles stumbled back.
“No.”
“The transfer happened eleven years ago.”
“No. Adrian didn’t know Elena.”
“He knew enough.”
Charles shook his head.
Maya saw the horror hit him.
Adrian hadn’t merely discovered the scandal.
He had intercepted the payoff.
Maybe used it.
Maybe built something with it.
Mercer said, “Maya, that still doesn’t explain why Charles put you in the trust.”
Charles sat heavily.
“Because I found out Elena had never received the money.”
“When?”
“Four months ago.”
“You could’ve called me.”
“I didn’t know how.”
“You knew how to put my name in a legal document worth millions but didn’t know how to pick up a phone?”
Charles had no answer.
Maya’s phone buzzed.
A new video.
Adrian.
This time he stood in a dark room.
Behind him, tied to a chair, was Eleanor.
Alive.
Her face was bruised.
She struggled against the ropes.
“Maya,” Adrian said.
Her blood went cold.
“Yes. This message is for you.”
Eleanor screamed behind the tape over her mouth.
Adrian smiled.
“You’ve spent your whole life thinking your mother was poor.”
He leaned closer to the camera.
“She wasn’t.”
Maya stared.
“She was robbed.”
Adrian held up a metal key.
“And I can prove who took everything from her.”
The video ended with an address.
Mercer swore.
May you like
“No one goes there.”
Maya was already grabbing her coat.
