Chapter 2 - The Signature Daniel Couldn’t Deny
Daniel stared at the burial authorization.
The signature looked exactly like his.
Victor spoke loudly enough for every mourner to hear.
“You signed the papers, Daniel. Do not blame me because guilt is uglier than grief.”
Daniel remembered signing hospital documents after being told Eleanor had died from cardiac failure.
He had been sedated, exhausted and surrounded by Mercer attorneys.
Eleanor looked at him with pain.
“You did not ask to see my body.”
Daniel lowered his head.
“I trusted the doctors.”
Victor laughed.
“You trusted people with degrees and money because your mother’s fear embarrassed you.”
Eleanor’s expression hardened.
“That is how families like yours erase women like me. When rich men speak calmly, they call it authority. When poor women scream the truth, they call it instability.”
A paramedic examined Eleanor and found traces of a powerful sedative prescribed by Dr. Samuel Hale, the Mercer family physician.
Hale insisted the medication was routine.
Eleanor revealed that she had discovered millions missing from the employee retirement fund.
Housekeepers, cooks and drivers had accepted reduced wages during the company’s collapse, believing they were buying ownership.
Victor transferred their money into private trusts and called the theft restructuring.
Then Atlas began scratching at the coffin lining.
Daniel tore it open.
A hidden recorder fell onto the chapel floor.
Victor’s voice played clearly:
“Once Eleanor is buried, Daniel will inherit the blame and I will inherit everything.”
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But a second voice answered him.
It belonged to Daniel’s fiancée, Claire.
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