Millionaire Sees Twin Girls standing beside His Son’s Grave, Their Secret Leaves Him Speechless
Chapter 10
They escaped through a maintenance tunnel beneath the facility.
By sunrise, they were hiding in a farmhouse nearly three hours outside the city.
Daniel couldn’t stop thinking about the revelation.
The twins were his nieces.
Ethan had known.
Margaret had known.
His father had known.
Only Daniel had been left outside the truth.
But another question bothered him.
“If my father created Northstar, why would he leave the evidence behind?”
Claire answered.
“Because he regretted it.”
“Then why didn’t he confess?”
“Fear.”
Daniel laughed bitterly.
“Fear destroyed everyone.”
Claire looked at him.
“Your father tried to shut Northstar down before he died.”
“Did he succeed?”
“No.”
“Who stopped him?”
“Graham.”
Adrian added, “And several board members.”
Daniel realized the scope of it.
This wasn’t one corrupt executive.
It was a network built over decades.
But now there was evidence.
Enough evidence to expose them.
“We go public,” Daniel said.
Claire shook her head.
“Not yet.”
“Why?”
“Because the records are incomplete.”
Daniel frowned.
“What are we missing?”
“The original ledger.”
“Where is it?”
Claire looked at Nora.
Nora looked down.
“Ethan knew.”
Daniel knelt beside her.
“What did he tell you?”
“He said the ledger was somewhere nobody would think to look.”
“Where?”
Nora closed her eyes, remembering.
“He said, ‘Your grandfather loved clocks.'”
Daniel froze.
His father had collected antique clocks.
Hundreds.
Most were still stored in the Mercer mansion.
One clock in particular stood in the study.
A massive grandfather clock that had belonged to Daniel’s grandfather.
Daniel remembered something strange about it.
It had stopped at 3:17.
For years, no one had repaired it.
Daniel looked at the brass key.
317.
He suddenly understood.
“The key isn’t for a storage unit.”
“It opens the clock,” Adrian said.
They returned to the mansion that evening.
The property was surrounded by security.
Daniel entered through a side entrance.
The clock stood exactly where it had always stood.
The hands were frozen at 3:17.
Daniel inserted the brass key into a tiny hidden slot beneath the wooden frame.
A click sounded.
The back panel opened.
Inside was a metal box.
Daniel removed it.
His hands shook.
The original Northstar ledger was inside.
But there was something else.
A letter from his father.
Daniel unfolded it.
Daniel,
If you are reading this, then the people I trusted have probably turned against the family. I cannot undo what I helped build. But I can leave you the means to destroy it.
Daniel continued reading.
I was a coward. Your mother was not. Ethan wasn’t either.
His vision blurred.
Protect the children. Tell the truth. Do what I could not.
Daniel lowered the letter.
Then the lights in the mansion came on.
Every security alarm began screaming.
Adrian looked toward the hallway.
“Someone triggered the system.”
Daniel held the ledger against his chest.
A voice came through the intercom.
“Mr. Mercer.”
Graham Vale.
“Give me the ledger.”
Daniel looked at the twins.
Then at Adrian.
Then at the evidence that had cost his family everything.
He finally understood what his son had wanted.
Not revenge.
Truth.
Daniel walked toward the intercom.
“No.”
