Chapter 13 - The Ghost of Lake Geneva
The rain pelted the floor-to-ceiling windows of Evelyn’s private study on the sixty-seventh floor.
The Great Lakes Compact signing had been delayed by seventy-two hours.
The governors were anxious, the maritime board was restless, and the press was already smelling blood.
On Evelyn's desk lay the document Julian Vance had thrown into the gallery.
Richard stood beside her, examining the yellowed parchment under a magnifying light.
"It’s an option agreement," Richard muttered, his jaw tightened like granite.
"Signed in 1992 by your father, William Mercer."
"Is the signature authentic?" Evelyn asked, her arms folded over her chest.
"The ink matches the era," Richard replied reluctantly.
"The notary seal belongs to a state official who passed away two decades ago."
"What does the clause claim, Richard?"
"It states that twenty percent of the deep-water harbor berths in Lake Michigan were co-owned by Vance Shipping."
"And that if Mercer Enterprises ever privatized the port, Vance Shipping had the right of first refusal to buy fifty-one percent of the operating shares."
Evelyn turned around, her eyes blazing with fierce intellect.
"My father would never have signed away the family’s sovereignty."
"He hated Julian Vance’s father with every fiber of his being."
"They fought a bitter trade war in the late eighties that nearly sank the entire Midwest grain trade."
"Then why does this paper exist?" Richard asked quietly.
Evelyn walked over to the grandfather clock in the corner of the room.
It was an antique piece, carved from solid walnut, brought over from the ancestral estate in Geneva.
"When Dominic and I got married, my father was already sick," Evelyn recalled, her voice dropping to a low, reflective cadence.
"Dominic’s father, Arthur Davenport, was my father’s personal estate executor."
"Arthur handled all the historical archives."
"When Arthur died three years into my marriage, Dominic took over his father’s personal safe."
"Dominic never cared about old shipping registries; he only cared about liquid cash and status."
"He assumed those boxes in Lake Geneva were worthless old receipts."
Richard’s eyes narrowed sharply.
"You think Arthur Davenport stole the original title deed?"
"I think Arthur was Julian Vance’s inside man all along," Evelyn declared firmly.
"Arthur didn't serve my father out of loyalty."
"He served him to dismantle our family from the inside out."
She picked up her phone and dialed her head of security.
"Get the helicopter ready."
May you like
"We are flying to Lake Geneva tonight."
"I want every vault, floorboard, and lockbox in the old manor torn apart until I have the truth."
