I Came Home in Secret to Catch the Woman I Trusted. The Cameras Revealed the Monster Had Been Sleeping Beside Me.105

A sealed envelope.

And a photograph.

I picked up the photograph first.

Daniel stood beside a much younger Claire.

She looked maybe twenty-two.

Between them was a woman I didn’t recognize.

On the back, Sophie had written:

DANIEL CROSS. CLAIRE WHITMORE. ELAINE WHITMORE. SAN DIEGO, 2012. WHY DID HE LIE?

My attorney leaned over.

“Elaine Whitmore?”

“Claire’s mother.”

I opened the notebook.

Sophie’s handwriting covered nearly every page.

Dates.

Payments.

Questions.

Security failures.

Names.

Then I found an entry from six weeks before she died.

Daniel told Alex he has no children. That is not true. Claire Whitmore is his daughter. Why hide her?

Another.

Claire works for Halcyon Strategy. Halcyon received $2.1 million through Cross Shield.

Another.

Daniel has been forging my approvals.

My knees weakened.

I kept reading.

If Alex discovers this too soon, Daniel may disappear. I need proof.

Then:

I think he knows I’m investigating him.

And finally, three days before Sophie died:

Garage camera failed again tonight. Daniel says coincidence. I don’t believe him.

I closed the notebook.

My attorney whispered, “Jesus.”

There was one entry written in red ink.

If anything happens to me, Maria knows about the rabbit.

I had to sit down.

Sophie had known.

Maybe not exactly what would happen.

But enough to prepare.

I opened the sealed envelope.

Inside was a letter.

Alex,

If you’re reading this, something has happened that I was unable to explain to you in person.

I’m sorry.

I wanted to tell you everything, but I knew you trusted Daniel completely, and I was terrified that if you confronted him before I had undeniable proof, he would destroy whatever I found.

Daniel has been stealing from the foundation.

I believe he has been doing it for years.

Claire Whitmore is his daughter.

You’ve never met her, but I believe Daniel is using her to move money through consulting companies.

There is something else.

I think Daniel knows I know.

If something happens to me, please don’t let him control the investigation.

And Alex—

There is one fact I am still trying to prove.

Daniel may not have started stealing from us for money.

I think he came into our lives for another reason.

The flash drive explains what I know.

I love you.

I love our girls.

Whatever happens, believe that.

Sophie.

I read it three times.

Then I inserted the flash drive into my attorney’s laptop.

There were folders.

Bank records.

Invoices.

Copies of emails.

A video file.

My wife appeared on the screen.

Alive.

Breathing.

Wearing the blue sweater I remembered from one of our final weeks together.

My chest collapsed.

“Alex,” she said.

I covered my mouth.

“If you’re watching this, I’m either being dramatic…”

She smiled faintly.

“…or I was right.”

I started crying.

Not quietly.

Not elegantly.

Three years of grief came out of me in one broken sound.

My attorney looked away.

Sophie continued.

“I found something about Daniel that I don’t understand.”

She lifted a document.

“It isn’t about money.”

The camera focused.

A birth certificate.

Daniel Cross.

Born Daniel Alexander Hale.

My attorney froze.

I leaned closer.

Hale.

The name meant something.

Then I saw the father’s line.

ROBERT MERCER.

My father.

I stopped breathing.

“No.”

Sophie’s recorded voice trembled.

“Alex, I believe Daniel Cross is your half-brother.”

The vault disappeared around me.

My father had been dead twelve years.

He had built Mercer Industries from a regional property company into an international conglomerate.