Chapter 13 - The Buried Ledger
Ethan stood staring down at the manila envelope lying in the dirt.
"Don't open it, Ethan," Hannah murmured, her hand sliding into his. "It's a trap. She wants you to chase ghosts so she can watch you unravel."
"It's not a ghost," Ethan said quietly, bending down to pick up the packet. "It's a signature."
Inside his private office on the second floor of the west wing, Ethan slit the ribbon open. Out slid a collection of yellowed legal documents bearing stamps from the Manhattan surrogate court dating back to the late 1980s.
Hannah stood beside him as he flipped through the pages. The documents detailed the early capital injections into Mercer Urban Systems—the seed money that had launched Ethan's career. But stamped across the bottom of the primary ledger was a corporate seal Hannah recognized instantly.
Vance Global Capital.
Ethan’s breath hitched. "Julian Vance."
"The corporate raider?" Hannah frowned, leaning closer. "What does he have to do with your mother?"
"Everything," Ethan muttered, his face turning pale. "Julian didn't just crawl out of the woodwork last year. His family has been waiting for an opening to legally dismantle Mercer Holdings for a decade. My mother didn't just try to break us apart because of social status... she mortgaged our company's future to Julian's father to pay off her own secret gambling debts years ago."
The phone on the desk buzzed violently.
May you like
Ethan hit speaker.
"Mr. Mercer," Lev’s gruff voice filled the room. "We picked up the feed from the eastern gate cameras. Julian Vance’s legal team just filed an emergency injunction in federal court. They’re claiming your startup capital was fraudulent, and they've frozen seventy percent of your corporate liquidity."
