“Maybe?”
“Arthur wasn’t certain.”
“My brother sent me a ledger. Ethan signed for it. I never saw it.”
“That is troubling.”
“Troubling?”
Liam touched my shoulder.
I realized my voice had risen.
Evelyn remained calm.
“There is another possibility.”
“What?”
“That Ethan was being watched too.”
I stared at her.
It took me several seconds to understand.
“No.”
“Maya.”
“No. You’re not turning him into a victim.”
“I’m not.”
Her voice was firm.
“Whatever Mr. Reeves did to you is separate. His choices belong to him. I am not excusing them.”
I held her gaze.
“Then what are you saying?”
“That his company may have been selected before he understood why.”
A terrible thought entered my mind.
“Because of me.”
Evelyn looked away.
That was answer enough.
Liam stepped forward.
“You’re saying someone funded Ethan’s company because he was dating Maya?”
“Possibly.”
“Why?”
Evelyn looked at me again.
“Because Arthur put the trust in your name.”
The room became cold.
I remembered my father’s office.
The trust documents.
His pen tapping twice.
I had joked with him.
Dad, I’m not royalty. I don’t need a trust.
He had smiled.
Humor your old man.
I had thought it was about taxes.
Asset protection.
Family planning.
“What exactly is in my trust?” I asked.
Evelyn’s silence stretched too long.
I sat straighter despite the pain.
“What is in my trust?”
“Apex voting control.”
“I know.”
“Several real estate interests.”
“I know.”
“Your father’s intellectual property.”
“I know.”
“And one dormant holding company.”
My breathing slowed.
“Name?”
Evelyn answered carefully.
“Mercer North Holdings.”
I had seen the name.
Years ago.
Buried in appendices.
No listed value.
No operations.
No revenue.
I had assumed it was an empty legacy entity my father had forgotten to dissolve.
“How many shares?”
“One hundred.”
“Who owns them?”
“You.”
“And what does Mercer North own?”
Evelyn looked directly at me.
“The right to authorize distributions from Lake Mercer.”
No one spoke.
Even Detective Ruiz appeared stunned.
I stared at Evelyn.
“That makes no sense.”
“I know.”
“A bank does not hold billions of dollars waiting for one woman to sign a distribution form.”
“Lake Mercer isn’t one account.”
Of course.
I closed my eyes.
The handwritten ledger.
Account numbers.
Dates.
Initials.
Lake Mercer was a label.
Not an account.
A network.
“How many?”
“At the last count Arthur completed?”
“Yes.”
“Two hundred and thirteen financial entities.”
I opened my eyes.
“Across how many countries?”
“Seventeen.”
Liam sat on the edge of the chair arm.
“Why would Dad give Maya control of something like that?”
“He didn’t.”
I stared at Evelyn.
“You just said—”
“He gave Mercer North to Maya.”
“And Mercer North controls Lake Mercer.”
“It was never supposed to.”
My thoughts stopped.
Evelyn removed a folded document from her leather file.
She did not hand it to me.
Detective Ruiz stepped closer first.
“Is that the amendment?”
“Yes.”
“The one with Arthur Carter’s signature?”
“Yes.”
“Don’t give it to her.”
“I wasn’t going to.”
Ruiz put on gloves.
She opened the document on the rolling tray.
I looked down.
The signature was my father’s.
