Chapter 14 - The Woman Who Survived
Rachel Donovan was alive.
She was forty-one now.
She owned a bookstore in Portland under the name Rebecca Hale.
And when police arrived, she was gone.
The apartment above the bookstore was empty.
No clothes.
No laptop.
No toothbrush.
She had left within hours of Adrian’s arrest.
But detectives found one thing.
A photograph of me.
Pinned above her desk.
On the back were five words.
SHE DOESN’T KNOW YET.
I stared at the evidence photograph.
“Know what?”
Detective Reed shook his head.
“We don’t know.”
Then my lawyer called.
Her voice sounded wrong.
“Claire, I found something in the financial records.”
“What?”
“Those shell companies weren’t just Charles’.”
I already knew the answer before she said it.
“One is connected to your company.”
My stomach dropped.
“That’s impossible.”
“Someone created a subsidiary using your corporate information.”
“Who?”
“The filing was authorized digitally under your name.”
I closed my eyes.
Adrian had access to our home office.
My signatures.
My laptop.
My personal files.
“How much money?”
“Over four million dollars moved through it in eighteen months.”
I stopped breathing.
“If federal investigators think I knew…”
“They may freeze assets while they investigate.”
“My company?”
“Possibly.”
That was the final Mercer trick.
If they fell, they planned to pull me down with them.
Then Reed entered the room.
“We found Rachel.”
“Where?”
“Here.”
I stood.
“What?”
“She walked into the station.”
Ten minutes later, I saw her.
Rachel Donovan looked nothing like the old photographs.
Her hair was shorter.
There was a faint scar running from her jaw toward her ear.
But her eyes were sharp.
Alive.
She studied me through the glass.
“I want to talk to Claire,” she said.
Reed refused at first.
I insisted.
Rachel and I sat across from each other.
She looked at my healing temple.
“He did that?”
“Yes.”
“Plate?”
I stared.
“How did you know?”
A sad smile.
“He threw a lamp at me.”
Silence.
“Did you send the photograph of the quarry?”
“Yes.”
“Why not go to police yourself?”
“I did eleven years ago.”
“And?”
“Charles buried it.”
“So you waited.”
“I survived.”
Her eyes hardened.
“There’s a difference.”
I nodded.
“Why were you watching me?”
“Because I knew what they were doing.”
“The condo?”
“The money. The conservatorship. The fake company.”
I stared at her.
“You knew about the shell company?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“Because I built the system they’re using.”
My blood chilled.
Rachel leaned forward.
“Before law school, I worked in financial compliance. Adrian learned enough from me to understand how accounts disappear on paper.”
“Can you prove I had nothing to do with it?”
“Yes.”
Relief hit me so fast it almost hurt.
“Then why didn’t you contact me?”
“Because I didn’t know if you were like them.”
“I was married to Adrian.”
“So was Natalie almost.”
Rachel’s voice softened.
“They’re good at pretending.”
I understood that.
“Why come forward now?”
“Because Charles is in custody.”
“And?”
She looked toward the door.
“Because there’s one Mercer left who still has access to everything.”
I frowned.
“Who?”
May you like
Rachel whispered:
“Maya’s husband, Daniel.”
