The Investigator Changes Sides
Chapter 09 - The Investigator Changes Sides
William Mercer had expected his work to involve photographs, receipts, and discreet observations. He had not expected his client to manufacture accusations or assault a witness. His lawyer arranged a meeting with investigators and supplied the original surveillance files, billing records, and messages from Vanessa.
In one message she instructed him to suggest that Luca and she had begun their relationship while Luca was still married to Sofia. In another, Adrian asked whether Mercer could identify the location of a small metal box Sofia had moved from her apartment. The records established a deliberate campaign to discredit Sofia and trace the evidence she held.
Mercer admitted he had been too afraid of losing a lucrative client to end the assignment immediately. He also admitted that when Vanessa grabbed Olivia, he stepped forward but didn't stop her. Olivia learned this through her attorney and found herself angrier at his passivity than his secret photographs.
"You saw me get hurt and walked away," she told him during a later supervised meeting.
Mercer stared at his hands. "I did. I'm sorry."
"You'll have to do better than saying that."
His cooperation proved useful, but it didn't make him a hero. Investigators treated him as a witness whose own choices required scrutiny.
Meanwhile, Vanessa prepared a public statement accusing Luca of emotional manipulation and Olivia of inventing an assault to improve her position. Her publicist urged her not to release it while the police reviewed the footage. Vanessa fired the publicist and called a television producer herself.
The interview never aired. Before recording began, the producer's legal team asked for corroboration of her claims, and she refused to provide it. Furious, she returned to Adrian's office to discover that he had left the country without telling her.
Vanessa called him repeatedly. On the seventh attempt, he answered from an airport lounge. "You were supposed to be my way into that family," he said. "Now every lawyer in Chicago is looking at our records."
"You told me what to do!"
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"I told you to get the box. I never told you to hit the maid."
The call ended, and Vanessa finally understood how readily her brother would abandon her.
