Chapter 8 - Anna’s Letter
By sunrise, Claire and Ray were both in custody.
That should have felt like victory.
It did not.
Lily slept in a hospital bed while doctors checked her bruises. Maria sat beside her. Daniel stood by the window, his face reflected in the glass.
“You looked guilty,” Maria said.
He did not turn. “Because I was.”
Maria’s shoulders tightened.
“Not of killing Anna.”
“Then of what?”
Daniel pulled a folded letter from his wallet. The paper was worn soft at the creases.
“Anna wrote this the week she died. I found it afterward.”
Maria read the first lines.
Daniel, I found payments I can’t explain. If you already know, then I don’t know who you are anymore.
Maria looked up.
“I was chief financial officer of my father’s company then,” Daniel said. “I signed approvals without reading everything. My father handled the rest.”
“Those transfers?”
“Some went to companies connected to city contracts. Bribes, maybe kickbacks. Anna was an attorney. She started digging.”
“And Claire?”
“She worked for our outside accounting firm.”
Maria understood. “She knew where the money went.”
Daniel nodded. “Anna thought I was part of it. We fought. I told her she was destroying our family over numbers on a spreadsheet.”
His voice cracked with shame.
“The next day she died.”
“Why didn’t you show police the letter?”
“I did. They said there was no evidence the crash wasn’t an accident.”
Maria folded it. “You stopped asking questions.”
“Yes.”
“Because you were scared of what you’d find?”
Daniel finally faced her. “Because I was a coward.”
Lily moved in the bed.
“Daddy?”
Daniel went to her immediately.
She opened her eyes. “Mom left something for me.”
“What?”
“A box.”
Daniel leaned closer. “Where?”
“At the old house. Behind my stars.”
Maria remembered the Mercers had lived in a smaller home before Anna died. Daniel had never sold it; it remained locked and empty.
“What stars?” Maria asked.
Lily touched her forehead, trying to remember.
“The glow stars on my bedroom wall.”
May you like
Then her eyes widened.
“Mom said if the bad lady ever came back, the box could prove everything.”
