“Your model flagged something.”
“My model?”
“Remember the internal historical datasets we gave you for testing?”
“Yes.”
“It found a relationship we didn’t ask it to find.”
She placed the report down.
On the first page were transactions from 1998 through 2004.
Consulting payments.
Shell companies.
Asset transfers.
One recipient appeared repeatedly.
Prescott Advisory Services.
I stared.
“My father had a company with that name.”
“I know.”
My skin went cold.
“What does this mean?”
“Wexford Lane paid Prescott Advisory approximately eleven million dollars over six years.”
“Why?”
“That’s the problem.”
“There are no contracts?”
“Not legitimate ones we’ve found.”
I scrolled through records.
Payments approved through a regional executive.
That executive’s name made me stop.
Elias Lane Jr.
Son of one of Wexford’s founders.
The man later resigned after an accounting scandal.
I whispered:
“Did Grandma know?”
“We don’t know.”
“What does this have to do with the trust?”
Ingrid turned a page.
The shell companies eventually transferred assets into another entity.
An entity jointly associated with Robert Prescott.
My father.
And…
I stopped.
“Who is Elaine Mercer?”
Ingrid looked at me.
“We were hoping you knew.”
I didn’t.
But Nathaniel did.
When I showed him the name, every trace of color left his face.
“Where did you get this?”
“Wexford records.”
He removed his glasses.
“Elaine Mercer was Opal’s younger sister.”
I stared.
“Grandma had a sister?”
“Half-sister.”
“Nobody ever mentioned her.”
“They were estranged for decades.”
“Why?”
Nathaniel looked toward the closed office door.
“Because Elaine claimed your grandfather was the biological father of her child.”
My breath caught.
“Whose child?”
He did not answer immediately.
He didn’t need to.
My mind reached the possibility before his mouth did.
“No.”
“Sylvie.”
“No.”
“Elaine Mercer gave birth to a boy in 1961.”
I stood.
“No.”
“His name was Robert.”
The room went silent.
“My father?”
Nathaniel nodded.
My father was not Grandma Opal’s biological son.
I could not understand the sentence.
It felt grammatically possible and emotionally impossible.
Nathaniel explained.
