Chapter 2
CHAPTER 2 — The Prisoner's Bargain
Allenwood Federal Penitentiary smelled of bleach, boiled food, and despair.
It was a sharp contrast to the crystal chandeliers my father was accustomed to.
I sat in the secure visitation room, separated by a thick pane of bulletproof glass.
The metal chair was uncomfortable.
The fluorescent lights hummed above me, flickering like a dying heartbeat.
The heavy steel door on the other side of the glass clanked open.
Victor Mercer walked in.
He wore a khaki prison uniform.
His silver hair, once perfectly styled, was thinning and unkempt.
He looked older. Weaker.
But when his eyes locked onto mine, the same venomous arrogance remained.
He picked up the phone receiver on his side of the glass.
I picked up mine.
"Evelyn," he said, his voice scratching through the cheap speaker.
"You look stressed. Is the burden of stealing my life finally weighing on you?"
I kept my face perfectly still.
"Your life was built on theft, Victor. I simply returned the merchandise to its rightful owner."
He chuckled. It was a dry, hollow sound.
"Rightful owner. You still believe you are playing the hero."
"I am playing the survivor."
He leaned closer to the glass.
"Did you come all this way just to trade insults, Evelyn? Or did you finally find the hole in your sinking ship?"
He knew.
He absolutely knew.
"Thirty-nine percent," I said, testing the waters.
A cruel, triumphant smile spread across his face.
"Is that all? My proxy must be moving slowly to avoid detection."
"You are funding a hostile takeover from a prison cell," I stated.
"I am reclaiming what is mine," he snarled.
"You cannot hold the shares, Victor. The SEC banned you."
"I don't need to hold them," he whispered, his eyes gleaming with malice.
"I just need someone loyal to hold them for me. Someone who remembers who truly built that empire."
"There is no one left," I countered. "Grant is in prison. Celeste is in prison."
"You always underestimated my reach, Evelyn."
"And you always overestimated your intelligence."
He slammed his hand against the glass.
"In three weeks, you will be voted out. The board will be purged."
"The new CEO will reinstate my loyalists."
"And they will sell Lillian Mercer Medical Systems for scrap to a private equity firm."
My breath hitched, though I masked it instantly.
He didn't want the company back to run it.
He wanted to destroy it.
He wanted to erase my mother's legacy completely, salting the earth so nothing could ever grow there again.
"Who is the proxy, Victor?"
He laughed loudly this time.
"You are the brilliant forensic accountant. Figure it out."
"If you destroy the company, thousands of people lose their jobs."
"They are collateral damage," he said coldly. "Just like you were supposed to be."
I looked at him, feeling a sudden, profound sense of pity.
"You have absolutely nothing left, Victor. Only spite."
"Spite is enough to burn your world down," he sneered.
I hung up the phone.
I stood up and smoothed my coat.
He was still shouting through the glass as I turned my back and walked away.
He thought he had won.
But he had given me exactly what I needed.
He had confirmed the proxy was someone from his past. Someone loyal. Someone familiar with the company's structure.
I left the prison and got into the waiting black SUV.
Naomi was on the secure line.
"Well?" she asked.
"He confirmed it," I said. "It's an inside job. Someone he groomed before he went down."
"That narrows it down to about fifty executives," Naomi sighed.
"No," I said, looking out the window at the bleak landscape.
"It narrows it down to the people he trusted with his dirty money."
"And who knows where that money is?"
I pulled out my secondary phone.
"Only one person handled the offshore accounts alongside him."
"Grant?" Naomi asked, shocked. "Evelyn, Grant is in FCI Danbury. He hates Victor now."
"I know," I said.
"Which is why I am going to pay my brother a visit."
"Are you sure about this?"
May you like
"Grant betrayed me once," I replied. "But self-preservation is a powerful motivator."
"Set the coordinates for Danbury. We have a ghost to hunt."
