Chapter 9 - My Brother Was Bleeding
I traced Eric’s call through a family location service we had used for years and drove faster than I ever had in my life.
His phone stopped moving near an abandoned Mercer construction site on the south edge of town.
I found him in a trailer office, lying behind a desk with blood running down his side.
He was conscious.
Barely.
“Adrian?” I asked.
Eric nodded.
I pressed my jacket against the wound and called 911.
“He wanted Rebecca’s files,” Eric said.
“Why didn’t you tell me about him?”
“Dad made me promise.”
“Dad made everybody promise everything.”
Eric gave a painful laugh. “Yeah. That was his favorite hobby.”
I wanted to hate him. I still remembered his signature on the guardianship petition.
“Why did you sign it?”
His face changed.
“Victoria told me you were falling apart. Pills. Drinking. Rage. She had medical records.”
“You believed her?”
“I believed what I wanted to believe.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“It is the only one I have.”
He grabbed my wrist.
“But the petition wasn’t supposed to remove you. It was leverage.”
“For what?”
“To force you to sell your voting shares in Mercer Holdings.”
I stared at him.
“If you were declared temporarily unfit, the board could freeze your authority. Adrian planned to buy enough shares through shell companies to take control.”
“And Noah’s trust?”
“Collateral.” Eric closed his eyes. “Victoria wanted more. She wanted the guardianship.”
The ambulance sirens grew louder.
I leaned closer. “Did you kill Rebecca?”
His eyes opened.
“No.”
“Did Dad?”
“I don’t know.”
“Then tell me who cut the brake line.”
Eric’s breathing became shallow.
“I saw someone leaving her car.”
“Who?”
He whispered one word.
“Emily.”
Grace’s dead sister.
The paramedics burst through the door.
As they lifted Eric onto the stretcher, he caught my sleeve again.
“Daniel… Emily wasn’t alone.”
“Who was with her?”
May you like
His face went white.
“Grace.”
