Chapter 5 - JULIA MERCER
Julia contacted Rebecca through an attorney.
She wanted immunity.
Rebecca refused to meet alone.
Cole arranged a recorded interview.
Julia entered wearing a white coat and expensive shoes Thomas purchased with pension money.
She looked younger than Helen.
Confident.
Until the questions began.
“Did you know the funds came from employee accounts?”
“No.”
“Why was your company created?”
“Consulting.”
“What services?”
“Business strategy.”
“Where are the reports?”
Silence.
Julia claimed Thomas controlled everything.
Then Cole played messages where she asked whether “the old people’s money” had cleared.
Her face changed.
She knew.
Not all of it.
Enough.
Julia revealed Thomas’s larger plan.
The company sale.
The blame against Helen.
The plan to send Rebecca to a private psychiatric facility if she kept investigating.
A doctor had already prepared an evaluation describing Rebecca as paranoid and dangerous.
The physician, Dr. Samuel Price, never examined her.
Thomas paid him through Mercer Consulting.
Helen listened from behind one-way glass.
The same strategy Thomas used against Rebecca, he once used against her.
Years earlier, during a separation attempt, Thomas told relatives Helen suffered emotional episodes.
He convinced her to return by threatening custody and financial ruin.
Helen had forgotten the words.
Or trained herself not to remember.
Julia provided a storage-unit key.
Inside were pension ledgers, cash, and signed statements assigning financial authority to Helen.
Thomas had prepared evidence before any investigation began.
Rebecca looked at her mother.
“You defended the man who was building your prison.”
May you like
Helen whispered, “I know.”
It was the first time she said it without explanation.
