Chapter 5 - The Vanguard Ledger
I stared at the faded ink on the yellowed page. Project Vanguard — S. Vance.
"Explain this," I demanded, looking up from the ledger to meet Trevor’s panicked eyes.
"I don't know what you're talking about!" Trevor lied, his voice pitching an octave too high. "It's just old business archives from when Dad first took the company public!"
"Don't lie to me, Trevor. Samuel Vance wasn't just a general twenty-six years ago," I said, the pieces suddenly clicking together in my mind with terrifying speed. "He was a mid-level procurement officer overseeing the Army's very first tactical drone contracts. The same contracts that launched Mercer Tech into the defense sector."
Trevor slumped against the bookshelf, all the fight draining out of him. He ran a hand through his styled hair, leaving it a mess. "Dad didn't just win those bids, Kate. He bought them."
"What are you talking about?"
"Twenty-six years ago, right when you refused to go to Wharton and enlisted instead, Dad was desperate," Trevor whispered, glancing nervously toward the hallway as if Arthur might materialize out of the shadows. "Mercer Tech was weeks away from bankruptcy. Dad needed that Army drone contract to survive. But General Vance—then a colonel—refused to pass the safety audits. He found structural flaws in the prototype, the exact same kind of flaws you pointed out tonight."
My breath caught in my throat. "So how did Arthur get the contract?"
"He didn't bribe him with cash," Trevor said, his voice dropping to a trembling murmur. "He used leverage. Dad hired private investigators to dig into Vance's personal life. They found out Vance's son was mixed up in a catastrophic hit-and-run overseas while serving as a civilian contractor—something that would have dishonorably ended Vance's career and put his son away for twenty years."
I felt a cold chill wash over my spine. "Arthur blackmailed a sitting military officer."
"He didn't just blackmail him," Trevor said, pointing a shaking finger at the ledger. "Look at the next page."
I turned the heavy paper. Beneath the columns of financial disbursements were copies of offshore bank transfers, property deeds in the Cayman Islands, and a signed, notarized affidavit bearing a signature I recognized instantly.
It wasn't signed by Samuel Vance.
It was signed by my mother—Elena Mercer—just three weeks before her sudden, tragic death from a "sudden heart failure" in this very house.
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"Mother didn't die of natural causes," I whispered, the room spinning slightly around me as the true horror of the family legacy settled over my shoulders.
"No," Trevor said, tears welling in his eyes. "She found out what Dad used to secure the foundation of Mercer Tech. She was going to take the evidence to the Pentagon herself. And Dad didn't just disown you because you joined the army, Kate. He threw you out of the house because you were starting to ask questions about the night mother died—and he needed you gone before you found out the truth."
