Chapter 15 - Aunt Jenna
Jenna disappeared before federal agents arrived.
Jonathan survived the gunshot. Barely.
Paramedics took him to a guarded hospital, where federal investigators placed him under arrest the moment surgeons stabilized him.
Daniel sat in a marina office staring at Anna’s photographs.
“Why would Jenna shoot him?” Maria asked.
“Maybe because she knew what he did to Anna.”
“Then why run from us?”
Daniel had no answer.
At 4:11 a.m., his mother called.
Lily and Mateo were safe.
But Jenna had tried to enter the hospital claiming she was there to pick Lily up.
Security refused because Daniel had removed her from the authorized list earlier that evening.
“Why would she pick Lily up?” Maria asked.
Daniel stood so fast his chair tipped over.
He called Jenna.
She answered on the first ring.
“Daniel.”
“Where are you?”
“Somewhere safer than you.”
“You shot my father.”
“I should have done it three years ago.”
“Why did you try to take Lily?”
Jenna’s voice hardened. “Because everyone around you keeps trying to kill her.”
“Not me.”
“You ignored Anna when she begged you to listen. You married Claire. You brought the woman who helped destroy my sister into Lily’s home.”
Daniel flinched.
Maria could hear every word through the speaker.
Jenna continued. “I’m taking Lily away from all of this.”
“You don’t get to decide that.”
“No? Anna did.”
Daniel frowned. “What does that mean?”
“She changed her will two weeks before she died. If anything happened to her and you were connected to the Mercer accounts, custody was supposed to go to me.”
“I was never charged with anything.”
“Because Cole buried it.”
Daniel’s face tightened.
Maria said, “Jenna, if you care about Lily, stop running. The FBI has the ledger.”
Silence.
Then Jenna said, “No, they don’t.”
Maria looked at the waterproof case on the table.
It was open.
The ledger inside was gone.
In its place lay a note neither of them had seen before.
May you like
Two words, written in black marker:
THANK YOU.
