Chapter 4 - What They Did to Daniel Bennett
I walked into the boardroom before Ethan could stop me.
Twelve people sat around a glass table. At the far end, Graham Mercer was standing beside a screen displaying my father’s name.
He looked older than his photographs. Silver hair. Navy suit. Calm hands.
His eyes landed on me without surprise.
“Clara Bennett,” he said.
That was the first moment I knew he had expected me to arrive eventually.
Ethan stepped beside me. “End the presentation.”
Graham clicked off the screen. “You missed the vote because your daughter disappeared. I’m not the enemy here.”
“Eric Sloan was at the station.”
A few directors shifted in their chairs.
Graham’s face did not move. “Then ask Sloan why.”
“We’re trying.”
I put Dad’s complaint on the table. “You accused my father of stealing twelve million dollars.”
Graham looked at me. “Your father’s credentials authorized the transfers.”
“He said they were cloned.”
“People say many things when they’re caught.”
I took one step closer.
Ethan’s hand hovered near my elbow but did not touch me.
“Three weeks after you fired him, he died.”
Graham’s mouth tightened. “I was sorry to hear it.”
“Were you following him?”
A director near the window looked sharply toward Graham.
“No.”
The answer came too fast.
Ethan noticed too.
“My father’s name is in Daniel’s final complaint,” he said. “Why?”
Graham sat down slowly. “Ask Richard.”
“I am asking you.”
“Then you’re asking the wrong man.”
His phone vibrated on the table.
For one second, I saw the preview before he turned it over.
STATION FOOTAGE PURGED.
My stomach tightened.
Graham noticed me looking.
“Private message.”
Ethan held out his hand. “Give me the phone.”
Graham almost smiled. “You don’t own me.”
“No. But I own the network it’s connected to.”
Ethan called IT from the room and ordered an immediate preservation of Graham’s device logs.
That finally made Graham stand.
“Be careful,” he said. “You’re making corporate accusations based on the panic of a woman who wasn’t even employed here this morning.”
I looked at him. “That’s the part you’re wrong about.”
He paused.
“I’m not panicking.”
Lily appeared in the doorway with Ethan’s assistant.
She held up her unicorn backpack.
“Clara?”
I went to her.
She opened the front pocket and frowned. “My yellow pocket is open.”
“Was it closed before?”
She nodded. “Aunt Rachel said never let anybody open it.”
Graham’s face changed for the first time.
Tiny. Fast.
But I saw it.
So did Ethan.
I crouched beside Lily. “What was inside?”
“Stickers.”
She pulled out a sheet of purple butterflies.
One sticker was thicker than the rest.
I peeled it back.
A small brass key dropped into my palm.
The number 314 was engraved into its head.
Behind me, Graham stopped moving.
Ethan turned toward him.
“You know what that opens.”
Graham picked up his briefcase.
“No idea.”
Before he reached the door, Lily pointed at him.
“Daddy.”
Ethan looked down.
May you like
“That’s the man Aunt Rachel said not to trust.”
