Chapter 7 - The Night Before Samuel DiedDaniel did not run from the question.
That almost made Anna angrier.
“You were here.”
“Yes.”
“The night before your father died.”
“Yes.”
“You told me you were home.”
“Yes.”
Eli stood several feet away with Pastor Matthew.
Anna lowered her voice.
“Why?”
Daniel stared at the church steps.
“Because Dad called me.”
“To tell you everything?”
“I didn’t know that when I came.”
“You knew about Mark.”
“Some of it.”
“How much?”
Daniel rubbed both hands across his face.
“I knew he had used Dad’s transfer as leverage with Mercer. I knew the affidavit I signed was part of their file. I knew Rebecca didn’t understand the full structure.”
“You knew she was being used.”
“I suspected.”
“Same thing.”
“No.”
Anna laughed sharply.
“You have become very interested in distinctions.”
Daniel flinched.
“Dad showed me the forged deed that night.”
“And?”
“I told him Mark probably had a legitimate explanation.”
“Did you believe that?”
“At first.”
“Daniel.”
“No.”
His voice broke.
“No. I didn’t.”
The wind moved dead leaves across the courtyard.
Daniel sat on the bench.
The same bench where Eli had asked whether forgotten people reached Heaven.
“Dad was furious,” he said.
“He told me Mark had manipulated the company books and used the money he moved for my debt to create a paper trail making it look like Rebecca’s company had purchased an interest.”
Anna listened.
“He said he was going to Grace the next morning.”
“But he died.”
Daniel nodded.
“He grabbed his chest while we were arguing.”
Anna stopped.
“What?”
“It wasn’t dramatic. He said he felt pressure. I told him we should go to the ER.”
“And?”
“He refused.”
“Why?”
“He’d had indigestion all week. He said he’d call his cardiologist.”
Anna's anger became fear.
“You left him?”
“He told me to.”
“Daniel.”
“I offered to stay.”
“And then?”
Daniel stared at the ground.
“We argued again. He said if I kept protecting Mark, I was choosing money over my sister.”
“What did you say?”
Daniel's face tightened.
“I said maybe Rebecca should lose the company because she’d spent her whole life letting other people clean up after her.”
Anna closed her eyes.
“That was the last thing you said to him?”
“No.”
He swallowed.
“I said he had always trusted Rebecca more than me.”
“And Samuel?”
“He said, ‘I trusted you enough to expect better.’”
Daniel wiped his eyes.
“I left.”
The next morning, Samuel had suffered a fatal heart attack in his kitchen.
No suspicious injuries.
No poison.
Nothing criminal.
Just a seventy-two-year-old man with coronary disease whose family had spent three days privately wondering whether the timing meant something darker.
Daniel whispered, “I keep thinking if I had stayed…”
Anna sat beside him.
“You didn’t cause his heart disease.”
“I added stress.”
“That isn’t the same as killing him.”
“I know.”
“Do you?”
He shook his head.
“No.”
That evening, Rebecca confronted Mark at their home.
She recorded the conversation on her phone because Grace had told her not to meet him privately without documentation.
Mark did not know.
“You moved Samuel’s money through my company,” Rebecca said.
Mark poured himself bourbon.
“Samuel approved the transfer.”
“For Daniel.”
“Yes.”
“You told Dad I approved it.”
“I said you would approve it.”
“That is not the same thing.”
“You would have if you knew Daniel was about to lose his house.”
Rebecca hesitated.
Mark noticed.
“Exactly.”
“You still lied.”
“I simplified.”
“You forged Dad’s deed?”
“No.”
“Who did?”
“I don’t know that anyone did.”
Rebecca placed a photocopy on the counter.
“Dad said you offered to destroy it.”
Mark's expression changed.
Only for a second.
But her phone captured his silence.
“Where did you get that?”
“So it’s true.”
“No.”
“You knew about the deed.”
“I knew Samuel claimed it was fraudulent.”
“And you offered to destroy it.”
“I offered to terminate the transaction.”
“You threatened that I would lose everything.”
“You might.”
Rebecca's voice trembled.
“Why?”
Mark took a drink.
“Because Carter-Hayes is insolvent.”
Rebecca felt the floor shift beneath her.
“What?”
“You heard me.”
“We have twelve active developments.”
“Most are leveraged.”
“We had fourteen million in assets last quarter.”
“And seventeen million in obligations.”
Rebecca stared.
“That isn’t possible.”
“It is.”
“You told the board—”
“The board knows what it needs to know.”
“You falsified reports?”
Mark's expression hardened.
“Careful.”
“You stole from the company.”
“No.”
“You used my company to fund Daniel, paid Mercer, concealed debt, and tied everything to property we don’t own.”
“I saved your company.”
“From what?”
“From you.”
Rebecca went silent.
Mark stepped closer.
“You wanted to build pretty neighborhoods and community centers. You never understood leverage. You never understood how quickly lenders turn on you when one project slips.”
“You handled finance.”
“Yes. Because somebody had to.”
“So you created this.”
“I managed it.”
“With fraud?”
“With decisions.”
Rebecca looked at the man she had married eleven years earlier.
She had once admired his certainty.
Now she saw what certainty became when nobody challenged it.
“What happens if the church deal fails?”
Mark smiled without humor.
“Carter-Hayes defaults.”
“And then?”
“Mercer takes its secured interests.”
“My house?”
“Potentially.”
“My retirement?”
“Potentially.”
“The company?”
“Yes.”
Rebecca whispered, “You gambled everything.”
Mark leaned toward her.
“No, Rebecca. We gambled everything.”
She looked at him.
“There is no we.”
His expression changed.
She picked up her coat.
Mark caught her wrist.
Not violently.
But firmly.
“Do not walk out and pretend you’re innocent.”
Rebecca looked at his hand.
“Let go.”
He did.
She left.
In her car, she sent the recording to Grace.
Then to Daniel.
Then, after several minutes, to Anna.
At the end she included one sentence.
Dad was right. Somebody wanted us blaming each other.
Anna read it beside Daniel.
Eli slept upstairs.
Daniel listened to the recording twice.
Then he said, “I know what Mercer has.”
Anna looked at him.
“What?”
“The original affidavit.”
“Grace knows that.”
“No.”
Daniel shook his head.
“The other one.”
Anna stared.
“What other affidavit?”
Daniel's face went pale.
May you like
![92 The Girl They Called Broke Was a Billionaire’s Daughter—But Her Father’s Arrival Exposed a Secret Powerful People Had Buried for Years]](https://cdn.treeiq.biz/site_590/2026/11/clone-0-0915d882-53d7-4d17-b43a-a010ca1a1068.webp)
“The one with Rebecca’s signature.”
And three miles away, Mark Hayes opened his safe and discovered that the document Daniel feared was already gone.
Related Stories
