Chapter 3 - The Christmas Letters That Never Arrived
The Vale house smelled like dust and old radiator heat.
Detective Santos opened the basement while Jonathan, Rebecca, and an attorney waited upstairs. Lucy stayed with Mrs. Alvarez at the hospital, where Molly was being evaluated.
Santos returned carrying three plastic storage bins.
Every one was filled with letters.
Jonathan recognized his own handwriting.
Rebecca sat down hard.
“No.”
Some envelopes were unopened.
Others had been carefully steamed open and resealed.
There were birthday cards, Christmas cards, graduation invitations, newspaper clippings, photographs and money orders.
Jonathan picked up a Christmas card dated 2004.
For Rebecca, wherever you are. I will never stop being your father.
Rebecca covered her face.
“I thought you forgot me.”
“I thought you hated me.”
They sat in a dead man’s living room while twenty-eight stolen years stared back at them from three plastic bins.
The attorney, Nina Cho, examined a ledger found beneath the letters.
“Arthur Vale was paid.”
Jonathan looked up.
“By whom?”
“Mercer Family Services.”
“That’s one of our old charitable entities.”
Nina turned pages.
“Someone used it as a pass-through.”
Payments began small.
Then grew.
They continued after Arthur’s death.
Recipient changed to Cole Avery.
Rebecca stared.
“Cole’s last name is Avery?”
“That’s what his driver’s license says.”
“He told me Cole was his surname.”
Santos said, “We’re checking aliases.”
Jonathan’s phone rang.
Frank Doyle.
“We stopped the cabin closing.”
“Good.”
“Not exactly.”
“What?”
“The buyer is a company called North Candle Holdings.”
Jonathan knew the name.
It belonged to his older brother, Edward.
Edward had died nine years earlier.
Or so Jonathan believed.
Nina pulled corporate records.
North Candle remained active.
Its registered agent was Jonathan’s nephew, Peter Mercer.
Jonathan called him.
Peter answered cheerfully.
“Uncle Jon. Merry Christmas.”
“Why are you buying Rebecca’s cabin?”
Silence.
“What cabin?”
“Don’t.”
Another silence.
Then Peter said, “I can explain.”
“Start.”
Peter admitted he had received instructions from an old family trustee to acquire distressed Mercer properties whenever they became available.
“Who?”
“Gordon Pike.”
Jonathan swore softly.
Gordon had been his father’s lawyer.
He was ninety-one and lived in assisted care.
They drove there before dinner.
Gordon sat beneath a paper snowflake taped to his window.
When Jonathan entered, the old lawyer sighed.
“Took you long enough.”
Rebecca stopped.
“You know me?”
“I know exactly who you are.”
Jonathan demanded answers.
Gordon refused until a nurse brought coffee.
Then he said, “Your father was terrified Rebecca would inherit voting shares.”
Jonathan frowned.
“My father loved Rebecca.”
“He loved control more.”
The original Mercer estate plan divided company shares between Jonathan’s descendants. Rebecca’s existence complicated a succession arrangement Jonathan’s father had made with Edward.
“So Arthur Vale was paid to keep her away?”
Gordon nodded.
“At first.”
Rebecca’s voice shook. “At first?”
“Later Arthur wanted more money. He kept the letters as leverage.”
“And Cole?”
“I don’t know Cole.”
Nina showed him a photograph.
Gordon’s cup stopped halfway to his mouth.
“That isn’t Cole Avery.”
“Who is it?”
Gordon looked at Jonathan.
“That is Edward’s son.”
Jonathan stared.
“Peter?”
“No.”
Gordon shook his head.
“His other son.”
Jonathan’s father had apparently helped conceal a second child born during Edward’s affair.
Name: Nicholas Mercer.
Rebecca whispered, “Cole is my cousin?”
Gordon nodded.
Jonathan thought of the ticket purchased for Lucy.
The forged deed.
Molly locked in the room.
The money.
“Why target Rebecca?”
Gordon’s answer was simple.
“Because if Rebecca voluntarily leaves the country with Lucy before the end of the year, a dormant clause activates.”
“What clause?”
“The controlling shares bypass her line.”
“To whom?”
Gordon looked at Jonathan.
“Edward’s surviving male descendant.”
Nicholas.
Cole.
Rebecca stood.
“So he married me for shares?”
Nobody answered.
Her husband had not merely found a vulnerable woman.
He had found a branch of the family tree he needed to remove.
Then Santos received a call from the hospital.
Molly was asking for Jonathan.
She had remembered something.
Cole had not kept her in the blue room because she saw him stealing mail.
She had seen him meet someone.
A woman.
At the Mercer Christmas Heritage Walk.
May you like
The morning Lucy found Jonathan.
And Molly knew the woman’s name.
