Chapter 9 - The Father Who Used His Son’s Face
Thomas Reed emerged from hiding and admitted using Daniel’s identity to move the payroll funds.
He claimed the money had been placed safely beyond Mercer control.
Employees did not feel safe.
Rent, groceries and medicine were due immediately.
Rosa confronted him.
“You stole workers’ wages to protect workers’ ownership. That is the same arrogance we fought.”
Thomas answered, “Temporary hardship was necessary to save the company.”
Daniel’s voice turned cold.
“Every powerful man says temporary when someone poorer carries the pain.”
The funds were located in an offshore account controlled by Thomas’s legal foundation.
He had planned to hold them until workers accepted him as permanent trustee.
The man who fought Mercer control had decided workers still needed a superior leader.
Eleanor looked at him with disgust.
“You wanted justice only if your hand remained on the key.”
The employee council removed Thomas from every position and restored payroll through emergency credit unions.
He was charged with identity theft and unlawful transfer.
Workers refused to let his history of sacrifice purchase immunity.
Victor watched from jail as both dynasties—the Mercer family and Thomas’s movement—lost control.
For the first time, employees governed without a rich heir or heroic organizer above them.
Then Atlas began barking at the chapel’s sealed evidence room.
Inside the original coffin, investigators found another body compartment beneath the lining.
It contained a second burial authorization and a current photograph of Eleanor asleep in a hospital bed.
The photograph was taken that morning.
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Eleanor stood beside Daniel.
If the woman in the photograph was Eleanor, who had escaped the coffin?
