Chapter 17 - Olivia's Last Ride
Victoria was arrested.
That should have ended the story.
Instead, it opened an older one.
Mark sat across from his mother in a private room at the police station.
"What did she mean?"
Margaret looked exhausted.
"Olivia died in an accident."
"I know how she died. I asked what Victoria meant."
Margaret looked down.
"Olivia was supposed to take the Mercer car home from a board dinner. She had been drinking. I told the driver to take Peter instead because he had confidential files. I told Olivia to use a hired car."
Mark stared at her.
"You sent my drunk wife into a random car because Peter had files?"
"I didn't know the driver would speed."
"Did you tell the police you changed her transportation?"
Margaret said nothing.
Mark stood.
"Did you?"
"The company was in the middle of a regulatory investigation. I was protecting-"
"The company."
His voice broke.
"You were protecting the company."
Elena stood outside the room holding Clara's stuffed rabbit. She had never seen Mark cry before.
He did not cry loudly.
He sat back down and covered his face.
For years he had believed Olivia's death was a senseless accident.
Now he knew his family had hidden a decision that placed her in that car.
Not murder.
Not innocence either.
Daniel reopened every file connected to Olivia's estate.
They found an email she had sent Mark the afternoon she died.
It had never reached him.
Peter's old administrative account had diverted it into an archive folder.
The subject line read: WE NEED TO MOVE CLARA'S SHARES.
In the message, Olivia wrote that someone on the board had pressured her to preserve the family reversion clause.
She named the person.
Peter Lang.
Mark stared at the email.
Peter had claimed Victoria discovered the clause later.
He had lied.
Ruiz went to Peter's hospital room.
Again.
This time Peter was there.
He looked at the printed email and stopped pretending.
"I can explain."
May you like
Mark stood in the doorway.
"Then explain why both women I married were pulled into the same plan by you."
