Chapter 11 - THE LAST SUPERMARKET
The old Mercer Market stood in the center of a neighborhood Daniel barely recognized.
It had been renovated.
Rebranded.
But underneath the new sign was the same brick building.
Daniel remembered standing there with his father.
He remembered stocking shelves.
He remembered Lily.
Eleven dollars and forty cents.
Seven dollars and eighty-six cents short.
A lifetime ago.
They entered through the back.
Evelyn had obtained the property records.
Grant had secretly purchased the building three years earlier.
“Why?” Lily asked.
Daniel looked around.
“To find what my father hid.”
They entered the basement.
There were dozens of locked storage rooms.
Evelyn found one with an old brass plate.
M-86.
Daniel stared.
“Seven eighty-six.”
Lily whispered:
“The debt.”
They opened it.
Inside was a metal box.
Daniel lifted the lid.
Documents.
Bank records.
Photographs.
And a second ledger.
The first page contained a list of names.
Politicians.
Judges.
Police officers.
Business owners.
And one name repeated over and over.
Thomas Halloway.
But beneath it was another.
Grant Halloway.
Daniel's blood ran cold.
“He knew.”
Evelyn nodded.
“He was involved from the beginning.”
Lily turned another page.
Then stopped.
“Daniel.”
He looked.
There was a payment made nineteen years earlier.
The amount:
$2,000,000.
Recipient:
Rachel Carter.
Lily's face went white.
“My aunt?”
Daniel shook his head.
“Why would someone pay her?”
Lily continued reading.
Then her hands began to shake.
“She didn't abandon us.”
“What?”
“She was paid to disappear.”
Daniel stared.
“By whom?”
Lily pointed.
The name was written beneath the transaction.
Grant Halloway.
Daniel felt sick.
“He wanted us separated.”
Evelyn flipped through the pages.
“There are more payments.”
Lily stared.
“Every year.”
“To whom?”
“Rachel.”
Daniel whispered:
“Then Rachel is alive.”
They found her in a small town in Maine.
She had changed her name.
But when Lily entered the room, Rachel broke down.
“I'm sorry.”
Lily stared at her.
“You left us.”
“I was trying to save you.”
“You disappeared.”
“I was threatened.”
“By Grant?”
Rachel nodded.
“He said if I stayed, you and the boys would die.”
Lily began crying.
“Why didn't you come back?”
“Because every time I tried, someone stopped me.”
“Who?”
Rachel looked at Daniel.
“Your father.”
Daniel froze.
“My father?”
“He knew what was happening.”
“Why would he stop you?”
Rachel shook her head.
“He wasn't stopping me.”
May you like
She whispered:
“He was hiding you.”
