Chapter 7 - A Father's Sin
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My father slowly walked up to the stainless steel table. He looked down at the envelope as if it contained a venomous snake.
"Open it, Detective," Isaiah whispered. "He needs to know."
Detective Ruiz cut the top of the envelope with a pocket scalpel and extracted two documents.
The first was a bank wire transfer receipt dated October 14, 2009—the exact week my company secured the final piece of land for the Franklin Corridor development. The transfer was for $40,000, sent from a private account owned by Isaiah Sloane to an individual named Walter Mercer.
The second document was a handwritten confession signed by Walter Mercer.
I felt the ground slipping away beneath my feet. Walter Mercer was the elderly, stubborn property owner who had refused to sell his warehouse to my young company. His refusal had nearly bankrupted me. Then, miraculously, he had changed his mind overnight, selling us the land for a fraction of its market value. That single acquisition launched Sloane Infrastructure into a multi-million-dollar powerhouse.
I had spent sixteen years believing I won that land through brilliant negotiation.
"Dad..." I turned to my father, my chest heaving. "Did you bribe Walter Mercer?"
"No!" Isaiah said forcefully, tears finally breaking past his weathered eyes. "I didn't bribe him to sell to you, Mason! I paid him to stay silent!"
"Silent about what?!" I screamed, my voice echoing off the high metal rafters of the warehouse.
"About Daniel!" Isaiah yelled back. "Sixteen years ago, your partner Daniel Price went to Walter Mercer’s house in the middle of the night. Daniel threatened to burn Mercer’s warehouse to the ground with his family inside if he didn't sign the land transfer over to Sloane Infrastructure!"
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I froze. The warehouse went dead silent except for the steady pitter-patter of rain against the corrugated metal roof.
"Mercer was terrified," Isaiah continued, his voice breaking into sob. "He came to my auto shop the next morning, threatening to go to the district attorney and put you, Daniel, and Vanessa in prison for extortion. You were twenty-four years old, Mason! You had no idea what Daniel had done! You were innocent! So... I sold half my auto shop, raised forty thousand dollars in cash, and paid Mercer to walk away quietly without calling the police."
