Chapter 12: The Last Recording of Elizabeth Mercer
The police released my father after two hours of questioning.
The blood in the car belonged to a maintenance worker who had cut his hand while helping move equipment the previous evening.
But the officer's questions revealed something far more disturbing.
Someone had deliberately placed my father's car near the harbor.
Someone wanted him arrested.
And someone knew we were close to discovering the truth about my mother.
We returned to the hospital to retrieve the flash drive.
Robert was waiting in the corridor.
Richard stood beside him.
Neither man looked particularly pleased to see the other.
“You should have told me you were alive,” Richard said.
Robert gave a humorless laugh.
“You should have asked why I disappeared.””
Richard lowered his eyes.
“I was young.””
“So was I.””
They stood in silence.
Then Robert turned toward my father.
“Daniel, we need to watch the footage.””
My father nodded.
We found an empty conference room on the hospital's ground floor.
Robert connected the flash drive to a laptop.
The screen displayed a series of security recordings from Westbridge's original administration building.
The date was September 14, 2008.
The night my mother died.
The first recording showed her entering the building at 8:17 p.m.
She carried a leather folder and wore the cream-colored coat I remembered from childhood photographs.
At 8:31, another person entered.
Margaret Collins.
At 8:46, Arthur Whitmore arrived.
Then the footage jumped.
The camera had been deliberately switched off for almost forty minutes.
When it resumed, my mother was standing alone in the corridor.
She looked frightened.
She picked up the office telephone.
Then she wrote something on a piece of paper.
Robert paused the recording.
“Zoom in.””
He enlarged the image.
My mother had written a name.
*Daniel.*
My father covered his mouth.
The footage continued.
At 9:22, she left the building.
At 9:37, a black sedan entered the parking lot.
The driver stepped out.
He was wearing a dark coat.
Robert paused the image.
I leaned forward.
“Who is that?””
He shook his head.
“I can't tell.””
Then he advanced the recording.
The man walked toward the administration entrance.
He used a key to enter.
A few minutes later, he returned carrying a folder.
My father leaned closer.
“That folder belonged to Elizabeth.””
Robert nodded.
The man placed it inside the car.
Then he looked directly toward the security camera.
For one brief second, his face was visible.
Richard gasped.
“That's impossible.””
I looked at him.
“Who is it?””
Richard's voice was barely audible.
“Arthur.””
My grandfather.
The man everyone had told us was dead.
Robert shook his head.
“Arthur died five years ago. This recording is from the night Elizabeth died.””
My father looked at the screen.
“Why was he at the school after she left?””
Robert advanced the footage.
At 10:06, the black sedan drove away.
At 10:14, another vehicle entered the parking lot.
This one belonged to my mother.
She was not supposed to be there.
But the recording showed her returning to the building.
She stepped out of the car and looked around.
Then she ran toward the administration entrance.
The footage ended.
I stared at the screen.
“She came back?””
Robert nodded.
“She must have realized she had forgotten something.””
My father leaned forward.
“Or she knew someone had taken the folder.””
Robert opened another file.
It contained audio from the building's internal security system.
He pressed play.
My mother's voice filled the room.
“Arthur, give me the original records.””
A man's voice answered.
“You have no idea what you're doing.””
“I know exactly what you're doing.””
“You're going to destroy this family.””
“You destroyed it when you stole from the scholarship fund.””
A chair scraped.
Then Arthur spoke.
“You should have stayed out of this.””
My mother replied:
“I won't let you take another child from his parents.””
I looked at my father.
Another child.
Thomas.
My mother's voice continued.
“Daniel knows about the hospital transfer. He knows you took our son.””
Arthur laughed.
“Daniel knows nothing.””
“He will.””
“He won't. Because you won't be here to tell him.””
The audio became distorted.
There was a loud crash.
Then silence.
My father stood.
“Stop it.””
Robert paused the recording.
I looked at him.
“Did he kill her?””
Robert shook his head.
“I don't know.””
“Then what happened?””
He opened another file.
It contained the final camera recording from the school's rear entrance.
At 10:43 p.m., a woman walked through the corridor.
She was carrying a small black handbag.
She looked directly toward the camera.
I recognized her immediately.
Margaret Collins.
But there was something else.
She wasn't alone.
A second figure followed her.
A young man wearing a dark jacket.
Richard leaned closer.
“That's me.””
Robert looked at him.
“What?””
Richard stared at the screen.
“I was nineteen. I remember that night.””
My father turned toward him.
“You were there?””
Richard's face went pale.
“I went to the school because Arthur called me.””
Robert grabbed his arm.
“What did you see?””
Richard swallowed.
“I saw Elizabeth arguing with him. I heard shouting. Then Arthur told me to take her car.””
My father stepped forward.
“Why?””
Richard's eyes filled.
“He said she was drunk. He said she was going to hurt herself.””
My father stared at him.
“You believed him?””
“I was young. I didn't know what was happening.””
“Did you see her alive?””
Richard nodded.
“Yes.””
“When?””
Richard closed his eyes.
“After the argument.””
My father grabbed the table.
“Then you saw her before she died?””
Richard began crying.
“I drove her car to the highway. Arthur told me to leave it there. He said he would take care of everything.””
Robert stood.
“You helped him stage the accident?””
Richard shook his head.
“I didn't know.””
My father stepped closer.
“Did you see another vehicle?””
Richard looked down.
“Yes.””
Silence.
“What vehicle?”” I asked.
Richard whispered:
“A black sedan.””
The same one from the recording.
My father grabbed him by the collar.
“Who was driving?””
Richard didn't resist.
“Evelyn.””
I stepped backward.
The woman in the hospital bed had been involved in my mother's death.
Robert closed the laptop.
“Then we have enough.””
Richard shook his head.
“Not yet.””
He reached into his jacket and removed a small recorder.
“There's something else.””
He pressed a button.
A woman's voice emerged.
Evelyn.
The recording was recent.
“Margaret, I can't keep protecting Arthur's reputation. Elizabeth deserved better.””
Margaret answered:
“Then tell the police what happened.””
Evelyn began crying.
“I can't. Richard will lose everything.””
Richard's voice came through the recording.
“Mother, I already lost everything when you made me help you.””
Evelyn replied:
“You don't understand. Arthur promised me the company. He promised me the family would remain powerful.””
Then came a sentence that made my blood run cold.
“Elizabeth wasn't supposed to survive the first collision.””
My father covered his mouth.
The recording continued.
“I told Arthur to frighten her. I didn't know he would arrange a second vehicle.””
Richard whispered:
“Who was driving?””
Evelyn answered:
“Your father.””
The room fell silent.
Arthur had been driving the second vehicle.
The collision that killed my mother had been deliberate.
I looked at my father.
He had gone completely still.
Robert closed his eyes.
For eighteen years, Dad had lived with the belief that he had failed to protect his wife and son.
Now we knew someone had deliberately taken both from him.
Richard looked at the recorder.
“I recorded that conversation because I knew one day I would need to tell the truth.””
My father slowly released his grip on the table.
“Then we take it to the police.””
Robert nodded.
But before he could move, my phone rang.
It was Ethan.
I answered immediately.
“Ethan?””
His breathing was uneven.
“Sophie, I need you to listen.””
“What happened?””
“I went to Aunt Evelyn's house. I found something in her study.””
“What?””
“A document with my name on it. It says I'm not supposed to inherit anything from the Mercer trust.””
I frowned.
“That's exactly what we've been fighting.””
“No. Sophie, you don't understand.””
His voice cracked.
“The document says I was legally declared dead when I was eleven days old.””
I looked at my father.
Ethan continued.
“And there's another page. It's a signed statement from Mom.””
My heart stopped.
“What statement?””
He whispered:
“She knew I was alive. She signed the papers agreeing to let the Whitmore family raise me.””
My father shook his head.
“That's impossible.””
Ethan continued.
“There's a letter attached. It says she agreed because she was trying to protect me from someone.””
“From whom?””
A long silence followed.
Then Ethan said:
“From Dad.””
I stared at the phone.
“What?””
“It's signed by Elizabeth Mercer. And it says she believed Daniel Mercer was dangerous.””
My father took a step backward.
The room fell silent.
Then Ethan whispered:
“Sophie, I think our mother was afraid of our father.””
May you like
And suddenly, even after everything we had uncovered, I realized there was still one person whose story we hadn't heard.
My mother's.
