Chapter 14 - The Last Signature
Mateo kicked the pistol away before Thomas could reach it.
Ortiz hit Thomas from the side and drove him face-first onto the carpet.
Daniel lay against the conference table with one hand clamped over his shoulder.
Blood ran between his fingers.
"Daniel!"
Mateo dropped beside him.
"I'm fine," Daniel snapped through clenched teeth.
"You're bleeding through your suit."
"I'm still talking."
Behind them, cuffs clicked around Thomas's wrists.
Ortiz pulled Mateo's phone from his jacket.
The recording timer was still running.
Thirty-three minutes.
Thomas stared at it from the floor.
"You think that saves you?"
Mateo looked at him.
"No."
He glanced at Daniel.
"It buries you."
Three days later, Daniel walked into Mercer Development with his right arm in a sling.
His lawyers begged him not to speak publicly.
He ignored them.
The boardroom had been converted into a press area.
Cameras lined the back wall.
Mateo stood beside Elena near the side entrance.
Daniel stepped to the microphone.
"Twenty-one years ago, Luis Reyes tried to warn me about theft inside my company."
Reporters leaned forward.
"I dismissed him. I trusted my brother instead."
His attorney closed his eyes.
Daniel continued.
"I also signed blank financial authorization forms. Those signatures were later used to hide stolen funds. I did not know Thomas would use them that way. But I signed them. That part is mine."
Mateo watched Elena's hand tighten around her purse.
Daniel's voice stayed level.
"Luis Reyes died after I refused to listen. I cannot change that. I can only stop lying about it."
Ortiz stood in the back holding an evidence folder.
Thomas had been charged with attempted murder, conspiracy, fraud, forgery, witness intimidation, and the murder of Luis Reyes.
Evelyn faced separate charges for drugging Daniel, though prosecutors now knew she had not possessed the lethal compound.
The company stock had fallen thirty percent.
Daniel's reputation was in pieces.
He finished answering questions and stepped away from the podium.
Ortiz approached Mateo.
"We recovered the missing page from your father's letter."
She handed him a plastic evidence sleeve.
Mateo read the final paragraph.
IF DANIEL EVER LEARNS THE TRUTH, TELL HIM I STILL BELIEVE HE'LL DO THE RIGHT THING.
Mateo stared at the words.
Daniel stood five feet away.
Neither man spoke.
Elena covered her mouth.
Then a detective pushed through the reporters.
"Mr. Reyes. Don't leave."
Mateo turned.
The detective carried another evidence envelope.
"We found something else in Thomas's private safe."
Daniel frowned.
"What?"
The detective opened the envelope and removed an old birth certificate.
Mateo took it.
His name appeared at the top.
MATEO ARTURO REYES.
Mother: Elena Sofia Reyes.
Father:
Mateo stopped breathing.
The room blurred at the edges.
He looked at his mother.
Elena's face had gone completely still.
Then he looked at Daniel.
Under FATHER, the document did not say Luis Reyes.
May you like
It said:
DANIEL MERCER.
